My Rosy Barb is swimming weirdly

[poothebear]

Hey,

I Have a Juwel 70l/80-gallon tank with 6 rosy barbs. They live together for 2 months, the current aquarium was bought 10 days ago. Water was added with anti-chlorine, and 20% are replaced weekly.

Today one of them kinda lost orientation and swims weirdly, see the video. Anything I can do about it?

Thanks!
T

 

[mbsqw1d]

Doesn't sound like the tank has been cycled. Do you have a test kit for ammonia and nitrite at all?

 

[Sgooosh]

swim bladder problems

 

[mbsqw1d]

swim bladder problems

It's not a swim bladder issue. When it is swim bladder related, the fish can neither swim down from the top or swim up from the bottom and its clear that the fish is upended (because the swim bladder is towards the back end of the fish's abdomen).
This looks to be neurological/brain caused by internal parasites.

 

[poothebear]

It's not a swim bladder issue. When it is swim bladder related, the fish can neither swim down from the top or swim up from the bottom and its clear that the fish is upended (because the swim bladder is towards the back end of the fish's abdomen).
This looks to be neurological/brain caused by internal parasites.

Thanks. Any thoughts on how to help her?

 

[Sgooosh]

It's not a swim bladder issue. When it is swim bladder related, the fish can neither swim down from the top or swim up from the bottom and its clear that the fish is upended (because the swim bladder is towards the back end of the fish's abdomen).
This looks to be neurological/brain caused by internal parasites.

oh no, that is even worsE! sorry i just read the title lol

 

[mbsqw1d]

Thanks. Any thoughts on how to help her?

Has the tank been cycled? You could throw meds at it, but if your tank isnt cycled it would be a waste of time.

To quote @Colin_T -

When fish start to spiral or swim around in circles, it is caused by a bacterial or protozoan infection in the brain. These are normally caused by dirty environmental conditions (dirty gravel, filter and lack of water changes).

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a week.

--------------------------
Add salt to the tank now and with every water change for the next couple of weeks.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

 

[Colin_T]

bacterial or protozoan infection in the brain. no cure at that stage, euthanise fish.

 

[Anton_26]

Hey,

I Have a Juwel 70l/80-gallon tank with 6 rosy barbs. They live together for 2 months, the current aquarium was bought 10 days ago. Water was added with anti-chlorine, and 20% are replaced weekly.

Today one of them kinda lost orientation and swims weirdly, see the video. Anything I can do about it?

Thanks!
T

I'm bumping this up because I've had some of the same problems and thought this might help others.

The fish could've violently banged it's head?

Rosy barbs are quite boisterous fish. These fish swim at great speeds too, often chasing one another. It's not uncommon for them to knock themselves out by leaping out the water and hitting their heads on aquarium covers with some force, can be either sex as often males will chase males and females, females will leap in desperation trying to escape attention of males. This stuns them, some recover fairly rapidly others don't.

I keep my fish outdoors in ponds, the ponds are covered to stop frogs getting in. I use a fine mesh resting on wooden struts. I have found occasional one or two Rosy barbs doing exactly what your fish is doing. I usually simply cull them as I have many, however not infrequently I have also seen the cause of this, as explained above. One or two may leap straight upwards hit their heads on the mesh or struts with great force then fall back down to the bottom of the tank. Sometimes they recover but many times they end up exactly like yours and unfortunately stay that way. So for me culling is the quickest solution because a fish unable to eat will often get sick and diseased which can cause problems for all of them. First thing to do is isolate the fish, put it in a bucket or something with an air-stone. See what happens.....

You can try lowering the water level or raising the cover. Rosy barbs are incredibly hardy fish and most would (although I don't suggest this) easily survive an uncyled tank as long as they're not over fed during this time. They also survive many other fluctuating water parameters very well that would kill other tropical fish.

If it's disease these shoaling fish have a way of letting you know which is rather handy. Normally they keep together in a shoal only breaking up a bit to feed, they always return to shoaling whatever they're up to. Also they're extremely active and not shy at all. Not even when newly introduced to a tank or pond do they become shy and retiring. They form a shoal and off they go, non-stop. When you notice them behaving in an erratic way, not shoaling and not coming for food immediately, acting shy and hiding out all the time then you know something is up. They could also have found another source of food like fry their own eggs or daphnia so keep observing before you dump in chemicals that will wreck your tank.