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Sinking Green Terror

23 11:43:45

Question
Green Terror Sitting
Green Terror Sitting  
QUESTION: Hi Ron,

We have a 3 year old male Green Terror ("Henry") that has started sinking to the bottom of the tank. He looks fine (fins all good, eyes clear, eating well etc), but he can't swim up. He's sitting well (not tipping over or floating upside down or anything) and looks to be breathing ok.  He's been on the bottom for a good 2 weeks (we thought it might be a blockage but 2 weeks seems to be a long time to be sitting on the bottom).

When he swims up it seems to take quite a lot of energy and will only swim up in short burts, as soon as he stops swimming he falls very quickly back to the bottom.

We've tested the water and it's fine, and all the other fish (including another Green Terror) are all ok. They have a diet of pellets and a couple of times a week they have a treat of frozen bloodworm (this diet hasn't changed in over 3 years).

Would really appreciate any thoughts on possible ailments and treatment please?  Thanks heaps!

ANSWER: Hi Rebecca,
 Unfortunately he has a damaged swim bladder and that is why he cannot maintain buoyancy.  
There are two basic possible causes: physical damage, e.g., from a fight, or internal
damage from infection.  There is nothing you can do about the former.  The latter MIGHT
be treatable with various medicines (look for products claiming to treat swim bladder
infections), but in my experience, it is seldom successful. The good news
is that in an aquarium, such a fish can live a very long time -- they just can't swim much.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Ron,

Just in follow up to this question, we now have another fish that has started to sink to the bottom of the tank, and a brissle nose cat fish that can not swim up right (laying on the bottom on it's back - but breathing ok).  I've just re-checked the PH, Ammonia and KH and the water seems fine.  Could we have some sort of bacteria in the tank that could be causing this? Look forward to hearing from you. Rebecca

Answer
Hi Rebecca,
 Hmmm... that is possible, but not likely.   Still, it would be a good plan to do a series of partial water changes. I would change 25% of the water today, then again for the next several days to see if that helps (it can't hurt).

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>