Belly sliders

[nashnut]

) I've heard the term over and over again, but I am not completely sure just what it means in terms of newborn fry....

Just what is considered a belly slider? How does it happen?

 

[Joby]

I had a bellyslider which showed up fairly early on after hatching. They have problems getting to the surface and just tumble to the bottom and struggle to get back up again. They just end up sliding along the bottom as the term suggests. Its a swimbladder problem with I think they are born with. Feeding too much brine shrimp is said to make matters worse but I only ever had the problem with one in my spawn.

I had to euthanise mine at around 5 weeks as he was struggling big time to come up for air and would lie on its side most of the day and gave up trying to eat food

I believe though that some can live with this condition, I bought a male plakat that suffered with it although he still fed, flared and bubblenested. He just lay propped up against his plant all day and any small activity left him exhausted. He's now happily living with Devils Advocat

 

[wuvmybetta]

I agree that it's not necessarily the "too much brine" theory. There's no explanation for one ill fish out of 50,for example. It's just a slight deformity I believe.

I watched one of my juvies come down with swim bladder problems before my very eyes the other day. Everyone was swimming great and I happened to have my eye on one feisty guy in particular, I fed them live worms and this guy went for the largest, I wasn't sure he'd be able to get it down but he managed to and instantly he began floating and struggling It went away after a few days,so it's not always permanent.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay, this might be a really retarded question because I just don't know much about the teeny little guys, but is it possibe that, wuv, in the case where you said one of your teeny little guys ate a huge worm that it got into his belly, therefore expanding his belly so much it pressed up against his swim bladder for a while giving him problems? Then as it got digested it went away?

I remember reading somewhere that some fish are born with deformities, and some fish just have weird shapes, and because of one of those 2 things, something in their bodies ends up pressing against their swim bladder so they're just destined to have problems their whole life...