Swim bladder

[Brinn2397]

My red tailed shark has swim bladder, can aquarium salt help this? Does anyone have suggestions for treatment?

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I wish I knew what to tell you. I've posted and re-posted for assistance with swim bladder disease. Mine is a Gourami that technically is supposed to need frequent swims to the top of the tank and get a breath of air. Mine generally sits on the bottom. Several times a day I pick her up and move her to the top of the 5 gallon hospital tank (with only 3 1/2 gallons of water in it) I have her in and she will take a breath of air. Sometimes she stays at the top of the tank all day, routinely getting breaths of air like all Gourami's should. I tried feeding her cooked skinned peas and she want's nothing to do with it. I even gave some to fish in my other tank and not one will eat the peas. The peas are used to get rid of the constipation that may be causing the bladder disease. Once they poop heavily then they are able to use their swim bladder again. So you can try feeding pealed cooked peas and see if that helps. Your fish may actually like them!

Another thing is to move her to the smallest tank you can get either one you build or one you buy. You may not be able to use a filter - but you'll at least need air stones to keep the water oxygenated. This will reduce the water pressure significantly and help them move around the tank better.

I've just finished a round of "General Cure" by API and after two days the fish actually ate a couple of bites of bloodworms and flakes. She is still terribly thin because she didn't eat for 3 weeks. She's still having swim bladder issues so now I'm getting ready to try treating the water with antibiotics. After General Cure didn't really solve the problem I put the carbon filter back in the tank (always remove the carbon filter when treating a fish - the carbon will absorb the treatment and the fish won't get any of it). I put it back in to get rid of the General Cure. Today I plan to remove the carbon filter again and add a treatment of anti-bacterial - this one treats both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. I'm hoping this solves the disease completely - this fish has become very tame (or very weak) and lets me pick her up and move her to the top of the tank. Since you don't have a Gourami you don't have to worry about them getting real air. But if you can pick up the fish and restablize them (if they keep lying on their sides or upside down) while you try different treatments then I would not euthanize yet. I've been keeping mine alive for over 3 weeks and while she's very thin I am slowly seeing improvements. If I could get her to eat a little more I think it would give me more time to try to cure the swim bladder disease - right now I'm just concerned that she's slowly starving to death. But she's hanging in there and so will I.

if you succeed in curing the bladder disease please post back and let me know what you did to solve it. Best of luck.

 

[Back in the fold]

Don't quote me on this as I don't know for absolute sure but I think there's no cure. I would like to know why it pops up out of nowhere. A perfectly healthy and active fish will succumb to this almost overnight. I have heard that rapid temperature changes damage the swim bladder but that's probably here say.

 

[Brinn2397]

I think she might be okay, although she did show symptoms of swim bladder. I’m going to keep an eye on her though. I put api aquarium salt in the tank this morning and I read online that plain epsom salt can cure it

 

[Back in the fold]

Aquarium salt was the general cure for many fish maladies for years and many old timers always put one teaspoon per ten gallons of water as a general practice. I hope that works for you.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Yes I've just heard it had to be Epsom salt - I have so many kinds of salts on hand but not Epsom. Sea Salt, Aquarium Salt, Kosher salt etc. I may try aquarium salt to see if that helps or I'll have to get somebody to take me to a drug store for Epsom salts.

 

[Essjay]

Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) is often sold full of perfume for adding to our bath water. Make sure you get plain epsom salt with no additives.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

That's why I'd go to a drug store. Epsom salt soaks are used for different human illnesses as well. My husband was a severe diabetic and had issues with his feet since he had no feeling left in them, they had him do daily soaks in Epsom salts and his feet injuries (lots of little cuts and some larger ones) were cured within a few days - unfortunately he wouldn't wear socks or slippers to protect his feet so this happened routinely during the last few years of his life. Stubborn guy. Luckily I have control over the fish so they can't be so stubborn.

I earlier said mine started eating small amounts so I was hopeful her constipation was gone. Well yesterday she vomited up probably everything she's eaten in the last week and refuses to eat again (I don't blame her) so unless I can get rid of her constipation she's not going to be able to eat. If she would JUST eat peas that would clean her out - If I had a small enough syringe I possibly could mash the peas up with tank water and force them in her mouth I'm going to check the size of my old dog's insulin syringes (without the needle of course) and see if they are small enough to give this a try- my fear is that she'll just vomit up the peas before they have a chance to do their job. Sometimes I feel like I should just euthanize her but she's not giving up so I don't want to give up on her. This has been going on for a month now and she's still alive. I'm rarely that fond of a particular fish but when you care for one for weeks you do get very attached.