What To Do For Fish With Swim Bladder

[Discovery86]

I'm pretty sure one of my fish has swim bladder. He's been swimming upside down and on his side for a few days. What should I do for him?

I've got 3 fish in QT, just bought them a few weeks ago. They don't seem to want to eat. I feed them TetraMin Tropical Crisps, and on occasion frozen brine shrimp. I don't think I've ever seen fish ignore frozen brine shrimp. Is this normal for new fish not to eat?
There is a small ammonia spike (about .25 ppm) I'm trying to get down, could this contribute to their not wanting to eat?

BTW, all my fish are lemon tetras

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

If your tank is new and cycling and just has 3 lemon tetra's, i would put the swim bladder down to either;
a. The stress of the cycle, ammonia and nitrites can bring on such issues in fish.
b. Overfeeding- how much are you feeding your fish and how often? What have you fed them so far?
c. Posibly an internal bacterial problem.

When doing a cycle with fish, you should do a water change every day you see ammonia or nitrites really, as pretty much anything above 0 can have detrimental effect on the fishs health.
I would advise doing a 30% water change with dechlorinator right now, followed by or done after a cleaning of the substrate in the tank to prevent any food leftovers the fish havn't eaten rotting (which will either make ammonia and nitrites problems harder to control, or bring about desease in the tank like columnaris- fish food can take suprisingly little time to rot particually if it is high in protein).

 

[Discovery86]

The fish with swim bladder is in my big 30 gal. tank that has been up and running for nearly a year now. It is possible he was overfed, but I cut way back a few weeks ago. I give them a small pinch 5 days a week.

I've been doing daily water changes in the QT tank every day, and the ammonia is almost down to 0. The NitrIte is at 0. As I mentioned before, I've tried feeding them the TetraMin tropical crisps, which they ignored and also tried some frozen brine shrimp which they also ignored.
I'm not sure I made this clear before, but the 3 in QT are there because they are new, and I wanted to make sure they didn't have any parasites or anything.

If the fish with swim bladder has some sort of bacterial infection what should I treat it with?

When the ammonia is gone in the QT tank, can I put the fish in my big tank, even though they're still not eating? Or should I wait a few more weeks?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

"Swimbladder Treatment" by Interpet is a good treatment for swimbladder disorders as it is specifically designed for such issues in fish .
As to the feeding issue, feeding a varied diet is best- some fish may take a little while until they recognise a new food to eat, when feeding fish just give them enough food to be quickly eaten in a minute or two. Small regular meals are better for smaller fish than once or twice daily large helpings as they have smaller guts that are designed more to thrive on a small but regular supply of food; with my guppies and platies for example i feed them three small helpings of food a day- this also helps give more chances for each fish to get their fair share of food throughout the day .
Lemon tetra's are omnivore's, so a bit of everything is good in their diet rather than just feeding them high protein or veg based foods. Bloodworms, daphinia, krill, freezedried river shrimp and tubifex (although i would not personally advise tubifex much now days as it has been known to come from places with raw sewage, live tubifex can also bring internal parasites to the aquarium) and brine shrimp will all be taken (these are all considered high protein foods) .
TetraPro Vegetable flakes are also a great way to get more veg into fishes diets, veg based foods will help prevent constipation as well which can be lethal in fish. Crushing food up into smaller peice will help incourage your tetras to try them .

 

[Discovery86]

Thanks for the advice! I will look for the meds and see if I can work out a schedule to feed the fish more often.

Thanks again!!!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Glad to help !