Help With Swim Bladder Problem!

[Tsi_User]

one of our two dwarf gouramis in our 30 gallon has come down with a very bad case of swim bladder, water stats are great across the board with weekly 20% water changes and a very varied diet (flakes, floating pellets, sinking pellets, brine shrimp, bloodworms). At this point he is in our 5 gallon hospital tank but really isn't able to leave the bottom of the tank and doesn't move unless he's fighting to the surface to get a breath of air . I am trying to feed him snow peas to fix the problem and yesterday i managed to get some into his mouth through a small baster, but today he seems worse and I couldn't get him to eat anything.

Does anyone have any more ideas of what i can do for this guy?

 

[Nicholaa]

Must be an outbreak of deflated swim bladder ... I'm having the same problem with my Mollies. I hope someone can help us out. Good luck to your little guy. I'm very frustrated with not being able to help mine.

 

[Tsi_User]

It's definately not an outbreak, it's just one fish and it's it's swim bladder it shouldn't be contageous. It's been in the 30 gallon with tons of other fish and none of them are showing signs.

 

[WILDER]

You need some veg in there diet.
An epson salt bath if the fish is bloated.
Once swim bladder advanced hard to cure.

 

[Nicholaa]

Sorry - when I said outbreak, I didn't mean to imply your tank -- I was sort of "joking" in that I currently have a case of it too (i.e. I have a post a few posts down from yours about my Molly suffering from it. I guess I should have explained myself better.

On another forum, a user found this information:

Quote:
Swim Bladder Infection- The swim bladder spincter muscle can become infected. This will result in either the swim bladder being permanently inflated or permanently deflated. If the fish has a inflated infected swim bladder, it will not be able keep itself within the water column. It will have a tendency to float to the surface any time that it stops swimming. Conversely, if the swim bladder is deflated, the fish will be unable to keep itself off the bottom of the tank without considerable effort. This condition if caught very early in it's development, it can be successfully treated with Naladixic Acid or Triple Sulfa drugs that can be purchased at your local pet store.

http/www.fishdoc2.com/page11.html

-- May want to check that out. It's proof to people who say there is "no such thing as deflated swim bladders" - which I have been getting on other forums. It has been quite a frustrating process. I think I am going to head to the store tonight and setup a hospital tank for him and see if I can get him better. I have lost so many, I'd like to be able to "heal/cure" one of them... or at least try.

 

[Tsi_User]

You need some veg in there diet.
An epson salt bath if the fish is bloated.
Once swim bladder advanced hard to cure.

What other veggies should i try to feed them? We have garlic, carrots, snow peas and celery right now. Which ones should I try using, maybe the garlic?

I'll try more triple sulfa also, i only had enough to dose 'em for a couple days

 

[WILDER]

Peas, I cook the carrot and grate it into small peices.
But the peas would be best for now.

 

[Tsi_User]

Okay update:
I moved him up to the fry net in the hospital tank (it seemed he was having trouble getting up for air), fed him a tiny amount of peas (which he really wasn't interested in) and some brine shrimp. He seems to be a little more energetic now, but we'll see. i'll keep this updated!

 

[WILDER]

Good luck and fingers crossed.

 

[Nicholaa]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you!! I will be monitoring the thread and hope you keep it updated.

My Molly didn't make it. Maybe he didn't have deflated swim bladder, maybe he was old/sick although he didn't show any signs of it other than being unable to surface/swim.

I hope you have better luck with yours!