Sunken Fish

[Old Croc]

I'm looking after a neighbors pet fish while they are away.

The poor miserable thing, a siamese fighting fish I think, lives in a glass bowl a bit like a large wine goblet. It spends almost all of it's time lying on the bottom doing a good imitation of a dead fish.

It will occasionally put in an effort to swim to the surface to eat or whatever, but it takes a lot of energy and it sinks back to the bottom.

I presume there is something wrong with it's swim bladder, but I have no idea how to fix it. The bowl is not aerated and I suspect the water is normally not changed frequently.

Thoughts anyone? Thankyou.

[sbk]

I've never seen one in aerated water, but they are supposed to swim around.

Swim bladder problems can be caused by bacterial infections, or overfeeding.

Swim Bladder Disease

By Rachel Hunt (Mushi)

Swim Bladder Disorder Information and Symptoms

Swim Bladder Disorder is an extremely common betta ailment, and it typically looks worse than it actually is. I know, you're probably sitting there watching your poor betta flop around, struggling valiantly to make it to the top for air, and basically looking nothing like his usual graceful self, and thinking to yourself, "This is it, I'm going to lose him." Let me make you feel a little better before I get into all the details - Swim bladder problems are not contagious, they don't seem to be painful, they are generally easy to treat, and they are usually not even close to fatal. Feel better? Good, let's get on to the fun stuff.

Symptoms can include:

Either floats uncontrollably to the top of the tank, or sinks to the bottom.

Seems to struggle greatly while swimming, and often will swim at an unusual angle.

May or may not have a "kinked" spine, often in the shape of an "S" when viewed from above.

May lie around, barely moving except when a mad dash is made to the surface for air.

May or may not have a swollen belly, often caused by constipation

Swim Bladder Disorder Treatment

Swim Bladder Disorder can be caused by several things, and it's best to try to figure out the cause of the problem because the cause will determine what treatment you will want to use. As always, I recommend isolating the ill betta for treatment if you have him/her in a community tank. While Swim Bladder Disorder isn't contagious, isolating the betta will make monitoring and treating the condition much easier on you (and will give the sick betta much needed "quiet time" to recover). If your betta is having a hard time getting to the surface for air, it is often a good idea to lower the water level to make things easier on him. Just remember if you do this that you have much less water volume than before and water changes must be increased to keep him in good health. Below is a list of things that can cause Swim Bladder Disorder, in order from most common to rarest.

Constipation - Constipation is the number one cause of Swim Bladder Disorder in otherwise healthy bettas. If your betta is showing symptoms of Swim Bladder Disorder, I always suggest treating the betta as if he has constipation first, because they usually do (click on the underlined "constipation" for treatment information).

Overfeeding - If your betta is displaying symptoms of Swim Bladder Disorder immediately after feedings, and the symptoms tend to go away after a few hours, you are probably overfeeding. It is helpful to remember that bettas only have stomachs approximately the size of one eye, so try to feed smaller meals several times a day instead of one giant meal once a day. That is the treatment for Swim Bladder Disorder caused by overfeeding in a nutshell, not too hard, eh?

Injury - Sometimes bettas who have recently been through a traumatic experience (being dropped on the floor, being in a physical fight with another betta, etc) may display Swim Bladder Disorder symptoms. In these cases, many times there is permanent damage to the swim bladder. Unfortunately this means that there is no real cure for the disorder if it is caused by injury, but you can manage the illness. Often bettas permanent swim bladder problems can live normal, healthy lives if accomodations are made - such as keeping the water level lower than normal to allow for easier access to air, or providing large-leaved plants near the water surface to make a "lounging" spot where launching off for air is more doable for the betta. Swim bladder problems are not painful and are generally not fatal in the case of injury, so these guys have a wonderful prognosis in general.

Birth Defects - This is one of those rare and yet common causes. If you are a betta breeder, it is extremely common to get some fry with congenital swim bladder problems. If you are someone that "collects" bettas from petstores, it would be extremely rare to find a betta whose swim bladder problems are caused by birth defects as usually wholesalers that supply the bettas will destroy fish with birth defects before they ever make it to the store. As in the case of injury, birth defects are really not curable but they can be managed so that the bettas can live normal, happy lives...if less graceful lives than non-damaged bettas.

Bacterial Infections - While I have never personally seen a case of Swim Bladder Disorder caused by a bacterial infection, some fishkeepers that I respect very much have, and so I will list this as a possible cause of swim bladder problems if nothing else seems to fit. I have always heard that swim bladder problems caused by bacterial infections are incredibly difficult to treat, which makes me wonder if they are not caused by something else altogether...just my random musings. If you are convinced your betta's swim bladder problems are caused by bacterial infection (or are sure that none of the other things i've listed above could be causing it), you may want to start treatment with a good broad-spectrum antibiotic such as Kanacyn (Kanamycin sulfate), Spectrogram (Kanamycin sulfate and Nitrofurazone), Tetracycline, or Furan 2 (Nitrofurazone). Again, I have not ever witnessed a bacterial swim bladder infection, so these medications may or may not work and I would exhaust all other possibilities before treating with these medications.

Swim Bladder Disorder Prevention

Almost anyone who keeps bettas will have to deal with a swim bladder problem or two in their betta-keeping career. It is one of the top three betta ailments along with finrot and constipation. That being said, there are a few things you can do to reduce your betta's chances of contracting Swim Bladder Disorder in the future.

Swim Bladder Disorder is almost always caused by overfeeding or constipation. Remember that a betta's stomach is only about as big as his eye, and feed small meals several times a day instead of one large meal. Remember to feed bettas with nutritionally sound foods and don't go overboard on fatty foods such as bloodworms to avoid constipation.

Water quality is extremely important to keeping healthy bettas, tank maintenance is key.

Source: www.petfish.net/articles/Bettas/swimbladder_betta.php

[Old Croc]

Thanks for that SBK. Interesting read.

But I'm still a little unclear about what treatment there is for the ailment. That section seems to discuss how to make the fish more comfortable rather than how to effect a cure.

I think my best move is to return the fish to the neighbor asap, although he seems to have disappeared on me! He was due back late Friday, but still no sign of him.

Edited January 6, 2008 by Old Croc

[sbk]

It seems like, except for the medication for bacterial infections, there isn't alot you can do. If you are overfeeding, cut back on the food, that should help -- if its a birth defect then the fish would have been like that from the get go-- keep the water clean, and cut back on the food, I guess is all you can do.

[burman]

If there was something wrong with it's swim bladder it'd not just stay at the bottom of the tank it would be off balance, or even swimming upside down by now. Usually though this is caused by the wrong diet (too much dried food that bloats the stomach and pushes against the swim bladder when it gets wet and swells inside the fish) and adding some frozen or live fish food would help prevent this.

Alternatively the water in the tank could be too polluted which is easy to do if it's in a small tank, in which case let a bit of water stand for a few hours then change the water in the goblet for that. If you are in Thailand or indeed can get hold of some dried 'Indian Almond Leaf' in Australia then add a small segment of that to the water it will revitalise the fish and also help with any bacterial problems. All the siamese fighting fish in Thailand are kept with some of this medicinal leaf in the water.

http://www.fishforums.net/lofiversion/index.php/t41676.html

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=indian...sa=N&tab=wi

It may just be an old fish, they don't live much past 2-3 years anyway.

[bina]

siamese fighting fish dont swim around much unless they ahve a male in front of them to incite them to fight; they are used to unaerated swampy like acidic soft water rice paddy water, and they do tend to just sit on the bottom and do nothing for long periods of time. put a mirror in front of him to see if he responds; he should show up by raising his fins and spreading his tail... if that doesnt work, then he is definately ill...

also a plastic or real plant for 'hiding' does wonders; all the rest was written above in the betta blurb...

fin rot shows by ragged edges to the fins and tail, or a generally bedraggled look to him...

bina

[burman]

Bina, good idea to put the mirror to the tank to see if he responds, that'll show how healthy it is. It's true they are not the most active fish in the world.

[sbk]

Just don't leave it there too long!

[bina]

funnily enough, anon was home and so he did his usual changing of the water ritual for our three big goldfish; he puts them in a bowl or in our spaggetti pot, and then cleans out the whole huge bowl (its about the size in liters of a large aquarium), cleans out the sponge filters, etc... then he picks the fish up and puts them back in the bowl. the fish just sit in his hands, and my daughter pointed out ' look mom they're trained, they dont flap around'. its true, these same fish throw rocks at the side of the bowl when we sit to eat and they want food.

on friday anon fried up some salmon for us; when the oldest, noticing the empty but clean fish bowl, asked me where the fish from the bowl were, i pointed in the general direction of the stove (they were in the spaggetti pot)... that, and the smell of fried fish, did wonders for my 'let animals live' child!!!!

anyway, husband also decided to 'rescue' my youngest's blue betta, also lurking in the bottom of his goblet. the poor thing sank to the bottom and faded (from stress they loose some colour). we gave him some time, but realized that he didnt like the new space (agoraphobic fish) and re homed him back to his goblet... where he got his blood worms... now he is a happy betta again.

a happy fish story...

bina

Edited January 6, 2008 by bina