tumbling fish

[Ford]

the other day our male sailfin started doing these tumbles and turns like he couldn't control himself. he tried to hold himself up but he couldn't. so we took him ot of the tank and put him in a small separte tank. i believed he was just fighting with our new male balloon molly. he had died by the next morning. now our new female molly is doing the same tumbling. i've already separted her, but i fear that shes a goner. i've been looking up some diseases on petcos website and it osunds like the tumbling fish or fungal ich. it also says there is no cure. it can only spread if they eat a dead infected fish or infected live food, but we don't feed them live food and i removed the infected fish before he even died. this makes me nervous because our female sailfin is starting to act strangely (sitting at te bootom sideways), and we have 5 other fish, plus alot of fry in a breeder. what can i do to insure the safety of the other fish??!!!

kristyne

ps metallica didn't make it. juith has now been separted.

 

[Alien Anna]

I could be wrong but it sounds to me like a swim bladder injury. In which case, he may spontaneously recover.

Ich is also known as whitespot disease - if he had that you'd be in no doubt. It's rather like fish chicken pox - you know when they have it!

Fungus is also pretty obvious. They get grey or white fluffy stuff growing on them.

What you have there is either an internal infection or swim bladder disease, or the results of injury. I'm assuming you've checked your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite) and there's nothing untoward there?

The first thing I do with any mysterious illness is check my water parameters and do a 20% water change. Then I observe the fish until symptoms of something become obvious. I don't treat a fish with anything until the symptoms at least give me a clue as to what is going wrong.

 

[Kossy]

Yes you can check my sig for the symptoms ... disease.

 

[Ford]

yes i tested the water and it was fine. i also checked the heater and that was fine too. the other fish with the symptoms died also. the others seem fine for now, but james did change the water this morning. is it common for 3 fish to get swimming bladder? and if so can it spread to the others?

kristyne