Fish swimming on side

[Lamie]

This fish is swimming on its side. What can I do?

 

[itiwhetu]

So these are Black Phantoms and that is a male most probably being showing off to the ladies and has taken a knock, give it a couple of hours and see if it recovers. Keep us posted

 

[Fishmanic]

To me it looks like he has turned white. I dont think he will live much longer. Sorry.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

It doesn't look very promising in terms of recovery to me either, I'm sorry. Any chance you could get a short video of it? The video upload function on the site doesn't work (@Fishmanic is there ever a chance of that getting fixed?) but if you upload the video to youtube, you an link the video here!

Other than giving the fish a few days to see if it improves, and if it gets worse, euthanising it, it's also important to see if there's any possible underlying causes for whatever happened to the fish. For that, we'd need more info on the tank please. If you copy/paste and fill out the template below, that gives people a lot more info to see if there are any problems brewing in the tank or stocking that we could advise on.

Tank size:
tank age:
pH:
ammonia:
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp:


Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior):

Volume and Frequency of water changes:

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:

Tank inhabitants:

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible):

 

[Colin_T]

euthanise the fish that is on its side.

 

[Kyshiara]

This is presuming he is still alive!
Do you have a quarantine tank or box? Put him in there.
It would be good to know how long you have had the tank, water parameters, and the size of the tank and what fish it shares the tank with.
I hope he is ok, but he probably won't survive.

 

[Lamie]

euthanise the fish that is on its side.

How do I do that?

 

[Fishmanic]

Put it in a clear baggie. Lay it on hard surface or cement. Then take a hammer and give it a hard whack directly on the head.

 

[Kyshiara]

If you have  clove oil, then put 10 drops in one litre of fish water. Then catch the fish on a net and put it in the clove oil water. This will put the fish to sleep.

At least that is the best way, otherwise you have to do more horrible things.

 

[Kyshiara]

You could also try giving it a salt bath! It is not for euthinisation, but it might help to make the fish better

 

[Fishmanic]

You could also try giving it a salt bath! It is not for euthinisation, but it might help to make the fish better

A salt bath is not going to bring back that fish. Time to put it out of misery.