Swim Bladder Issues With Archer Fish

[ehubbard88]

I have a small-scaled archerfish that normally lives in a 65-gallon brackish aquarium that stays at a salinity of around 1.009. She lives with a school of 5 mono argentus and a green spotted puffer. She recently started to show signs of swim bladder issues and it happened very fast. I woke up one morning with her stomach up, and unable to balance herself. Immediately I tested the water parameters, and everything was good. I then set up a hospital tank for her and transferred her over. During the first 5 days of her treatment, I force-fed her peas, since I heard that can get rid of compaction which sometimes causes these issues. After that treatment, nothing changed. So I moved on to treating her for a bacterial infection. I have been treating her with this for about 6 days while force-feeding her blood worms every night. She has still remained the same. I have also just started treating her for a parasitic infection, but she has only had one dose. Nothing is working, and I am wondering if there is anything else I can do to save my archerfish. Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really don't want to lose her.

Parameters:
nitrate- 0
nitrite- 0
KH- 300
pH- 8.4

 

[Uberhoust]

Unfortunately, I have no suggestions for you, but you might ask again in this thread, you might get someone else's attention.

 

[Archerfish]

I'm late to the game here as a new member but curious what is the current status of your archerfish. I do hope you were able to resolve the issue. I do have a question about your water parameter test with zero nitrates. What do you use to test your water? How large is your hospital tank? Is it cycled or did you use a seasoned filter, seasoned substrate and lots of plants to 'jump start' the process?

 

[biofish]

Mmmmm I’m not sure what to say. I’ve never really had a fish with swim bladder issues pull through. The most common causes are injured swim bladder from numbing into something or accidentally swallowed an air bubble. Not all types of fish can burp and release that air, so it’s can be fatal and why you should feed under the water rather than sprinkling on the surface if possible.

Is the little guy showing any other signs of sickness or infection?

What do you use to test your water? How large is your hospital tank? Is it cycled or did you use a seasoned filter, seasoned substrate and lots of plants to 'jump start' the process?

I use a 10 gallon that is cycled and has its own filter, heater, and bubbler for mine. It doubles as a QT tank for new fish or an extra birthing tank if I don’t have any sick fish that need nursing.

I’m currently having to restart it though, because it managed to get wasting disease. So right now it’s having a white vinegar soak and I threw out all the substrate, filter media, and plants.

For water testing I typically use the API master kit which is a bit pricey, or tetra easy strips. The master kit is more precise though.