# swim bladder disease?



## janderson (Aug 1, 2005)

After fishless cycling a 20G for 3 1/2 weeks with daily doses of ammonia (the last 6 days ammonia and nitrite remained stable at 0) we did a huge water change to get nitrates down to 0-5 ppm and went to get some fish:

7 neon tetras
2 male guppies
3 spotted cories
1 apple snail

They were introduced Friday night. No quarantine since they - and the tank - are all new. Everyone is getting along swimmingly, ammonia and nitrates are still 0 as of 8 a.m. this morning, so I assume our bacteria are doing their job. :grin: 

Now here's the problem: yesterday afternoon we added some sinking pellets for the cories since there seemed to be hardly any food making it down to them. As of 10 p.m. yesterday, the pellets were still there and I figured that I'd remove them this morning if they should still be there. Well, they were all gone. But one of the cories seems to have lost all sense of balance: he's flopping over when resting, when swimming he looks like a drunk: he's spinning/weaving/running into objects. The other two ories are acting perfectly normal. Did he overeat and now has a constipation induced swim bladder problem? Or is this someting else? Right now the plan is to get him a small quarantine tank on my way home from work, just in case. Anything else I should do? Medications?

Again, water parameters this morning were:
ammonia: 0 
nitrite: 0 
nitrate: 0-5
pH: 7.0
temp: 78

This is my daughters first "own" tank and she's quite worried. Thanks for any input!


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## janderson (Aug 1, 2005)

*update*

Well, my kid just called: she's home from school and apparently the poor cory passed awaysice we last saw him 7 hours ago. 

What should we do now? Preventative medication?

Thanks.


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Sorry to hear that. 

If no others are showing any symptoms that the other one had I would not worry about it.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

It wasn't SBD. It was a sick fish that had one or more illnesses. SBD rarely kills and I've never heard of it killing overnight. My guess is you were unluck and got a sick fish to begin with. Did you pick them out yourself or did the lfs guy just scoop them into a bag?


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

Simpte,you mean this disease rarely kills fish? Or just about killing over night? Then why many aquarists choose euthanasia when irrecoveriable?


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Most healthy fish will recover, the younger the better. It doesn't kill directly but prevents the fish from being able to access food. This can lead to death.


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## maxpayne_lhp (Jan 19, 2005)

I think it may come from water quality to organ failures... just my knowledge!


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Its not really a disease but a physical condition. The swim bladder that allows a fish to matain it bouyancy gets damaged, either buy overeating of physical trauma. (I'm sure there are other factors as well). The bladder doesn't inflate or deflate properly causing the fish loss of control.


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## thecatdidit (Aug 15, 2005)

..........


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## janderson (Aug 1, 2005)

Just thought I'd follow up...

I guess we did get a sick fish. The ones we picked looked perfectly happy, scooting around the tank, but when te lady tried to take them out things got a bit chaotic, so basically we got three random spotted cories. He did seem fine the first few days, though.

Technically the store offers a 14 day warranty, but since we did a fishless cycle and consequently bought a full load of fish, they refused to give us a guarantee. They insisted in order to get the warranty we couldn't ad more than 2 or 3 fish - basically do a fishy cycle. Oh well... we just replaced him with a new cory from a different store and everything seems to be fine. Except for the two guppies fighting. I guess there's always something...


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

A follow up to your follow up 

I'm glad that there is no disease in your tank but I am sorry about the cory. How many guppies and what sex are they? You should keep 2-3 females to every male.


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