tiger barb

[SLuRpIe!]

one of my three tiger barbs are on the floor and.. sorta turning sideways occasionally.. then swim for about 2 seconds 1 inch on top of the floor and then casually drift down again and leans sideways again?! its in a 25g tank with 2 other tiger barbs.. and just rocks and plastic plants, a heater and a filter..

 

[The-Raven]

one of my three tiger barbs are on the floor and.. sorta turning sideways occasionally.. then swim for about 2 seconds 1 inch on top of the floor and then casually drift down again and leans sideways again?! its in a 25g tank with 2 other tiger barbs.. and just rocks and plastic plants, a heater and a filter..

how new is the tank?

is he scraping against the rocks or just swimming on his side? are the other barbs doing this too?

 

[SLuRpIe!]

it doesnt look like scraping .. and the tank is around 5 -6 months old ... its just swim .. drift ... fall ... lean .. swim .. drift .. fall etc. no both the other barbs are fine ..

 

[SLuRpIe!]

nitrite looks fine at 0 .. ph is 7.8 ..
i dont have an ammonia tester yet ..

 

[The-Raven]

nitrite looks fine at 0 .. ph is 7.8 ..
i dont have an ammonia tester yet ..

If it's a 5-6 month old tank it's safe to assume ammonia is 0.

It could be a parasite or bacteria - if you can quarantine it do so. If you're like me and you don't have a quarantine tank, you pretty much have to let nature tank it's course or medicate it in your tank.

Beyond that, if it's not scraping, it could just be that barb's time....

 

[gaya]

you should really get an ammonia kit. just because the tank is matured doesn't mean you wont have a spike. i have a tank that's more than a year old and for some unknown reason i'm showing a slight reading. sometimes certain meds can mess with your bio filter like melafix. it sounds like he may have a swim bladder problem. i don't think there are any fishy meds for swim bladder but i've heard that colloidal silver might help. you can find that at a health food store.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Sounds like a swim bladder infection to me. These are normally cauised by bacterial infection. Its prbably too late for that little guy, but it might pay to treat the tank with an anti-bacterial.

Remove detritus and dead and decaying leaf and organicss from the water constantly.

Goodluck, Benny

 

[SLuRpIe!]

well the little guy is still hanging in there .. but i dont have any meds except for a.salt and stress coat, is there any cure for swimbladder ? and i dont have any live plants or anything except for the 3 barbs .. & is it contagious?

 

[SLuRpIe!]

oh .. well if the guy can last through the night ... i cant get anything right now except hope for the best and wish i had a car and a license thanks though

 

[The-Raven]

well the little guy is still hanging in there .. but i dont have any meds except for a.salt and stress coat, is there any cure for swimbladder ? and i dont have any live plants or anything except for the 3 barbs .. & is it contagious?

No cure and no treatment, and yes it's contageous to a degree. Just like say mono is contageous for humans - it's not like if you come in contact you WILL get it, but you're at a higher risk for it.

The best thing you can do is hope he gets over it. I've heard that feeding them peas helps.