Neon Tetra Upside Down!

[catxx]

i was just talking to my brother and he told me about his fishy problems and i'm no tetra expert.
i haven't seen the the fish as he lives 3 hours from me.

he says he has 1 neon tetra swimming all over the place, upside down, on his side, but still has colour and still eating. swimbladder i said.

but how do you treat a neon tetra for swim bladder?? the only spare tank he has a 2 gallon acrylic + heater but no filter.

he also has another tetra which somehow got into the filter casing (not exactly sure on the make, but i think its a Rekord 15 gallon) and is now moping around on his own, still has colour though and eating.

what shall i tell him to do?

 

[Qays]

you could try feeding it some peas. But the chases of survival are slim.

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like swim bladder and it has progressed, sad to say he's not going to make it, sorry.
What does he feed the fish.

 

[catxx]

just pellets i keep telling him to give them pea!!

 

[Phantom Thief]

I've personally never saved a fish once it lost its ability to swim totally. I doubt anyone has either.

Sorry, but the outlook is really poor. I might recommend euthenising it before it spreads the disease to others, for example if it dies and the others pick at it before you discard the carcass.

P.T.

 

[catxx]

swimbladder isn't a contagious disease though?

 

[WILDER]

It can be if they peck at the dead body, i would tell him to put it in a container at the top of the tank.
Please tell him to get the fish on a better diet, it's just as important as good water quality.
Dried foods cause constipation and swim bladder, thats why they need frozen foods and veg in there diet.

 

[sylvia]

Problems with swimbladders range widely - it can be anything from a birthd efect (unlikely in this case) to the result of an injury (which obviously isn't contagious) to problems with the food (which, again, sin't contagious but should be considered and the diet changed - tell your friend to vary the diet more - more live foods such as daphnia and brine shrimp are especialy useful for rpeventing this kind of thing - tetras are unlikely to eat peas)- or it may be down to damage caused by an internal bacterial ifnection (and this can range from being very, very highly contagious - to the point where equipment can transmit it - to only contagious if other fish nibble on the body).

Regardless of the cause, tell your friend to euthanise the fish with a few drops of clove oil in a bowl of tank water - or at least to put it in a hospital tank and keep it in there as a precaution against transmission of any disease it might posess - and also tell him to change the diet of his other fish so that they are getting a wider range of foods - including live and frozen, flakes and pellets and, especialy for any other fish, an amount of de-shelled, mushed-up peas, blanched lettuce, zuchinni ond/or cucumber (with the outside peeled off - unless it's organic in which case this isn't important - and probably wieghted down or clipped to the side of the tank to rpevent it floating around pointlessly ) or a spirulina-based flake if fresh greens aren't available.

 

[catxx]

heh, i keep telling him to change the diet, but being a little brother, never bloody listens!

i even stood there and made him buy frozen brine shrimp one time, but i don't know what happened to those, i think my mum got grossed out and chucked them out

i'll recommend daphinia as well.

i have shouted at him for overfeeding several times. silly boys!

 

[rfisher]

Hi There.

Sorry to push in, but what vegetables should Tetras be eating?

Rich

 

[sforzauk]

Hi, not exactly to do with your situation, but I've just found one of my fish dead. She has recently been resting on the ground and my mum said she was resting on her side so I think she had swimbladder. The problem is, her fins have been eaten away at by my other fish- what should I do?

 

[WILDER]

Anything green really, pea, green cabbage, sproats, cucumba, broc, lettuce etc.