Poor lil black moor unable to maintain balance - please help her!

Question
Please help my poor female Black Moor. She has been unwell for 4 days now. All the signs of swimbladder are there but 2 treatments have not helped and if anything she is worse. I thought she was dying as she is lying in the corner of the 15L tank out of the currrent of the filter (non carbon)but she is still feeding (once a day both flakes & pellets) only occassionally spinning around and darting around the tank about every 20 min then back to the bottom on her back, listless and wafting in the current. Her poor little eyes are focusing and she tries her best to swim upright but she is just exhausted. Prior to the last 4 days I tried ani-bacterial formulae as I could tell she was not herself.
I have tried a complete water change with treated water and tonic salt.
That did not help so I added the swimbladder treatment (2nd dose today) but still no improvement.
She is my only fish and is normally very healthy and happy.
I just keep waiting for her to die and be out of misery but apart from the balance and lethargy she seems ok! Pooing and eating when she can negotiate her problem!
The only thing unusual (I have had her for about 9 months and she is approx 7cm long and has been the only fish in the tank) is that suddenly she started eating a reed type plant (which had been in for a month) and pooing green. Can the plant have caused her imbalance? (She ate basically the whole plant in 2 weeks!)
Please help, I can't bare to see her like this.
Thnk you in advance,
Yours pleadingly,
Vix

Answer
Hi Victoria,
 First please understand that "swimbladder" is not a disease, it is a part of a fish. They have a swimbladder to maintain their balance.  I suspect that you mean that your fish has in infected swimbladder. Unfortunately swim bladder infections are very difficult to treat. You should keep trying the medication.  It may take quite a while (weeks) for it to have any effect.

 In general, it is not a good idea to do a "complete" water change. This can seriously disrupt the biology of the aquarium.  You are much better to change 25% of the water one day and then do that same thing again for the next three or four days.  

 I doubt if the plant has anything to do with her problems.  

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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