# Oranda with swim bladder problem



## Milocat (Aug 15, 2014)

I have oranda gold fish with swim bladder problems. I got 11 baby orandas last summer for my 3200 gallon koi pond from 11 very small babies 6 of them survived and now they're pretty big: probably 4'' and some even bigger they're a probably a year and a half or 2 years old now. 4 of them survived thru the winter just fine in the pond along with the koi but 2 of them didn't do too well at the end of January and i had to bring them inside. They did very well for couple of months since i took them inside. I don't have an aquarium, so i kept them in 8-9 gallon plastic container with the heater and air pump. No filter but changing 75% of water every day: (always monitored the water temperature so only changed water with the same temperature as in the holding container) and full water change weekly. The problem is that one of them still doing very well at this point but the other developed swim bladder problem and had been swimming upside down: belly up for about a month now. I've tried some steps: withhold the food for 3 days and then started to feed them defrosted peas with no skin for over a week already. Still no change in the ability to hold himself in normal swim position. I feel bad for poor fish: he's very active and absolutely doesn't look like he's dying or even sick: i actually have been hand feeding him peas because i don't think he can get food on his own as he has trouble swimming to the bottom. He's very exited every time i come to feed them and gladly takes peas out my hands. Just not sure if that swim bladder problem could be cured. Is anything else i can do for this guy? The other fish is doing great and i actually released them both back to the pond as the temperature of the water is warmer: always above 60 (around 70 (20C) in the day time and little less about 63-65 (17-18C) at night. I made small inclosure with plastic net as i don't want this poor guy to be wondering upside down in big pond with no ability to swim normally. Also i have ability to hand feed him in this inclosure. Should i stop feeding them peas and just give that medicated food instead? I attached the picture of both of the fish i kept inside in the pond now. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

A medicated food with metro(nidazole) may help if there is an infection as well as a blockage. If you can't find a pre-made food, buy the metro powder and add it to thawed frozen spirulina based food, and then re-freeze. I've heard of fish that lived for years upside down, but I can't imagine that they have a great quality of life. Its a hazard all the double-tailed and "balloon" fish face.


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## Milocat (Aug 15, 2014)

fixed up frozen/defrosted peas with metro and other antibacterial food coating and feeding him for a few days. Also gave him 4 Baytril injections by now (last 5th one is scheduled for Wednesday): not even slight change. Unfortunately I don't hold much hope, because he doesn't look like he has any type of bacterial infection, but just the swim bladder problem, as he can't really swim or go to the bottom at all. He just floats belly up like a balloon. from what i read that in most cases swim bladder problem especially long term/chronic can't be fixed. I don't know what i should do with this poor guy as i imagine the quality of his life can's be very good. He still has good appetite so i hand feed him medicated peas i fixed up.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

most likely the wen needs to be trimmed...this is a very common problem with varieties of goldfish that develop the large wens...


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

A bit too top-heavy, eh? Ouch! Trimming the wen doesn't sound pleasant.


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## Milocat (Aug 15, 2014)

lohachata said:


> most likely the wen needs to be trimmed...this is a very common problem with varieties of goldfish that develop the large wens...


Yes after more research i thought that wen could have cause his floatation problem, so did the trim on Friday, but unfortunately i think it was too late for poor fish. I actually noticed for past couple of weeks that he was not active anymore and started to become quite disoriented. He still would eat but i'd have to hold his body and bring the food to his mouth and he would take it. It looked like he was already loosing any kind of ability to even try to swim, just floated on the top. he was permanently upside down for over 6 weeks. I'll never find out if it was really overgrown wen causing his swimming trouble, or perhaps he did have a bladder problem. His wen was big not that huge as 4 out my remaining 5 healthy orandas have wens much bigger that his and have no problems swimming at all. From past experience i knew that when the fish gets too weak, it most likely will not survive the sedation. that's why i always try to catch and treat any problems in my koi before they get really sick. i wish i knew about possible wen being overgrown sooner, maybe it would've made a difference if i did it on the beginning before he got so weak from inability to move. But in his case it was the last resort to try. in any case i trimmed it as much was possible i could do within period of time 10-15 min as it's usually save time to keep fish out the water without any damage. Unfortunately no miracles happened and he didn't start swimming normally after this. And since he already was pretty weak, plus the sedation made him even weaker, so he was barely alive for 2 more days after trim and i found him dead yesterday.  Very sad but i've tried everything to bring him back to normal, just didn't work. i guess it's probably better this way. unless fish could live normal happy life it's no point. I'm sure that if i left him along and just let him float he would've still died as he was getting weaker by the day from not being able to move but probably much later, maybe he would've lived another few weeks, but i don't think it would've been great few weeks for him anyway


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Sorry to hear. You did everything you could.


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