Rosy Barb With Swim Bladder Problem

[chishnfips]

Hi Folks,

Well, I noticed my male rosy barb was swimming all wonky, by that I mean on his back, side, then upright, then all over the place he also seemed very weak.

So at the moment I have put him into a holding net in shallower water, added some melafix and stress zyme and done a water change.

I think he has damaged his swim bladder through trying to breed with the female rosy barb I have, as I know they can do this while breeding. The water parameters are all fine, nitrates maybe a wee bit high but as always its hard to them keep down but they are safe enough.

Will he get better? This has all been over about 2-3 days. He seems well enough otherwise, he is full of life, his colours are vivid too. So I am unwilling to euthanise him, although I will if I have to. I have read they can get better from this.

Can anyone offer some help on this matter

cheers chish


PS I let him out of the holding net yesterday to see if had got any better but the force from the filter just sent him flying and he ended up on his side at the bottom.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

swimbladder's a bugger to treat, it often depends on what the cause of it is as there can be many things. my dad's got a goldie that was born with SB and lives a perfectly happy life although he swims a bit wonky, other times i've heard of people seeing signs of it and the fish being dead in half an hr

some people have reported sucess with some SB medications that are on the market however there's no guarantee's.

i wouldn't put him down just yet anyway, if he seems happy and is feeding then try to treat it.

when you say nitrates are a little high, what's the exact reading?

do daily 20% water changes to keep the water in tip top condition. i don't think melafix does anything for SB, looks for a medications specifically for it, perhaps a salt bath could also be effective?

i'm not 100% on any of this having not had much expeience of SB, but if I was in your situation it's what I would be doing.

 

[chishnfips]

hi miss wiggle,

nitrates are around 40. I put in melafix as its an all round tonic so I thought it might help in some way even if its to de-stress him. I haven't tried feeding him either, but will try that tonight.

Its a shame because the female spends most of her time now up at the holding net looking sad.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok well 40's alright, but i'd still do daily changes to get it down a bit while he's poorly.

don't feed a lot, just a little to see if he takes it

i use melafix a lot myself, it is a very good med, but i think you need something stronge and more specific in this case.

awww poor Mrs Barb, must be love sick

 

[chishnfips]

OKidoki I will look for other meds, what about a salt bath, how would I do it?

Should I just make up a weak solution and bathe him in it for like 20 mins? I read on another post that this could work. I can never remember the rules with salt (like not to use on scaleless fish?)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OKidoki I will look for other meds, what about a salt bath, how would I do it?

Should I just make up a weak solution and bathe him in it for like 20 mins? I read on another post that this could work. I can never remember the rules with salt (like not to use on scaleless fish?)

i don't know enough to be able to tell you for definate, i'll give you all i know on salt baths though and hope some helps.

firstly it's not a nice thing to do to fish, it is quite a harsh treatment but can be very effective so just for you to be aware what your getting into and if the fish looks distressed during treatment this if pretty normal

you need to use proper marine salt, not cooking or aquarium salt, but the actual marine stuff. you'll need to mix it up to the right salinity so you'll need a hydrometer or refractometer to measure it. i don't know what salinity you should go to though.

yes definately don't use salt on scaless fish.

don't know how long the bath should be for either

sorry that's not a right load of help but that's all i know

search nmonks posts for salt bath though, i've seen him write up a quite comprehensive post of how to do them before.

 

[chishnfips]

okidoki, cheers wiggle.

Yeah I have aquarium salts at home as they are good for steralising, so am ok on that front.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

just to clarify is it proper marine salt.... or something like aquarium tonic salt ?

 

[chishnfips]

aquarium tonic salt is what it is.

Couldn't find that post by nmonk so I pm'd him

 

[Miss Wiggle]

aquarium tonic salt is what it is.

Couldn't find that post by nmonk so I pm'd him

you need marine salt, not aquarium tonic salt... as far as i know anyway!!

 

[bjmagik]

I had a molly that had swim bladder problems for about a week. I thought she was gone for sure but i got some good feedback from this site that worked. I isolated her for about a week and didn't give her any food for 1 day. Then i fed her frozen blood worms which are a good laxative for them and she was fixed. Give it a try.

 

[chishnfips]

Yeah I fed him last night and he gobbled up some flakes, he is looking slightly better, I hope he pulls through.

I am going to wait til I salt bath him cause it might not work and ernd up making him worse. So I will try some blood worms for him tonight and some fresh peas tomorrow.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yeah I fed him last night and he gobbled up some flakes, he is looking slightly better, I hope he pulls through.

I am going to wait til I salt bath him cause it might not work and ernd up making him worse. So I will try some blood worms for him tonight and some fresh peas tomorrow.

yeah it's a big thing to do, did you speak to neale monks about it?

peas are supposed to be very good for constipation

 

[chishnfips]

Yeah I fed him last night and he gobbled up some flakes, he is looking slightly better, I hope he pulls through.

I am going to wait til I salt bath him cause it might not work and ernd up making him worse. So I will try some blood worms for him tonight and some fresh peas tomorrow.

yeah it's a big thing to do, did you speak to neale monks about it?

peas are supposed to be very good for constipation

Yeah cheers miss wiggle, I did speak to neale yesterday, he reckoned the same that the salt bath might not work. But if I was to do it I should use de-ionised salt, cooking salt was one of them as long as it was sodium chloride. He also mentioned the peas.

cheers for all your help BTW, much appreciated.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Yeah I fed him last night and he gobbled up some flakes, he is looking slightly better, I hope he pulls through.

I am going to wait til I salt bath him cause it might not work and ernd up making him worse. So I will try some blood worms for him tonight and some fresh peas tomorrow.

yeah it's a big thing to do, did you speak to neale monks about it?

peas are supposed to be very good for constipation

Yeah cheers miss wiggle, I did speak to neale yesterday, he reckoned the same that the salt bath might not work. But if I was to do it I should use de-ionised salt, cooking salt was one of them as long as it was sodium chloride. He also mentioned the peas.

cheers for all your help BTW, much appreciated.

cool, no probs, go with whatever neale say's, he definately knows his stuff!!