Guppy not responding to swim bladder medicine

[FishkeeperDiscoWostit]

Hi there, hope someone can help. One of our guppies has swim bladder - showing the classic signs. We have followed the good advice we could find -

- we stopped feeding him
- put him in quarantine tank away from others (this is an established tank)
- gave swim bladder treatment (have given day 1 and day 4 doses so far)
- added salt to tank
- slightly increased temp in tank
- on 3rd day gave some boiled pea (he definitely ate some)
- added some stress coat yesterday as at times his body was out of the water.

For the first 3 days he was swimming mostly in the top section of the tank. On his side, on his back sometimes. He is often bent. Every so often there is a burst of activity but generally moving little. Yesterday I did give him 2 epsom salt baths (for 15 minutes). He was capable of a suprising amount of movement trying to evade me capturing him yesterday for the epsom bath.

Today he is at the bottom of the tank for the first time. He looks dead, but every so often I can see he has moved, and see he is breathing. I suspect if he was going to rally and respond to treatment it would have happened by now? Is there anything else that I could try as a last resort? And if not, is it fair to let him die slowly like this or should I take humane action?

All his usual tank mates are fine (all guppies). Thank you for any help you can offer.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I'm not very good with fish treatments. I have been extremely lucky that I have never had to be.

As far as I know with swim bladder infections it can take a long time with being treated before things get better, sometimes several weeks. Also being unable to move off the bottom of the tank would be because its swim bladder is not functioning correctly. It looks worse but is actually not worse then when it was just stuck floating on its side.

If it was me I would continue to treat it until the very end. I would stop feeding it completely for a little while as well. As far as I remember not feeding can help a lot with curing swim bladder infections and a fish will normally be ok for 5 or 6 days with no food.

A swim bladder infection is similar to when we get an infection. It can mess you up pretty good and it can take a couple of weeks of antibiotics to get back to normal again.

I would keep up with the added stress coat as it is likely to be rubbing against things a lot more than normal so this will help recover its mucus covering.

 

[FishkeeperDiscoWostit]

I'm not very good with fish treatments. I have been extremely lucky that I have never had to be.

As far as I know with swim bladder infections it can take a long time with being treated before things get better, sometimes several weeks. Also being unable to move off the bottom of the tank would be because its swim bladder is not functioning correctly. It looks worse but is actually not worse then when it was just stuck floating on its side.

If it was me I would continue to treat it until the very end. I would stop feeding it completely for a little while as well. As far as I remember not feeding can help a lot with curing swim bladder infections and a fish will normally be ok for 5 or 6 days with no food.

A swim bladder infection is similar to when we get an infection. It can mess you up pretty good and it can take a couple of weeks of antibiotics to get back to normal again.

I would keep up with the added stress coat as it is likely to be rubbing against things a lot more than normal so this will help recover its mucus covering.

That is heartening, ty. I will carry on with treatment. It does look quite desperate so it is good to hear there is still some hope for him.