Acute onse of swim bladder problem-WHAT TO DO?

Question
QUESTION: I have a 3 year old comet goldfish which is about 10" long.  He is in a 55 gallon tank with all reasonable chemical parameters other than I have a problem with high nitrates.  He has two smaller goldfish tank mates.

He is sick, the other two are fine.

First he developed some leisions on his lips and sat at the bottom clamped fins.  I started him on Medi-gold food and kept up with the water parameters.  He got better for a few days then started devoloping black "dirt" ares on his scales.  I kept feeding him medi-gold and watching the water.

Last night he was fine other than the blackish spots on his fins and tiny sore on his lips.

Today, in a matter of an hour, he went from fine, to floating upside down on the top of the tank, listless.

He clearly has a swim bladder problem, but it was very acute, not one that slowly happened.

I have read to salt the water and keep the tank at 75+ degrees.

I have read that the disorder could be genetic (seems unlikely due to the quick onset), due to infection (seems likely since he is sick), or due to constipation (seems likely since it's new food he is not used to).

However, some experts suggest to fast the fish for 4-5 days.

Some experts suggest feeding brine shrimp.

Some suggest feeding nothing but peas.

Some say one pea a day.

IN THE CASE OF THIS SUDDEN ONSET OF BLADDER DISORDER, WHAT SHOULD I DO?  FAST?  FEED LOTS OF PEAS?  FEED ONE PEA?  FEED BRINE SHRIMP?

Thank you in advance.

David

ANSWER: Hi David,
The problem -could- be infection or Constipation due to new food or simply not enough variety or fiber in his diet. But what makes this difficult is the "could" So we don't know exactly what to treat for.

General rules though however are, if the fish is constipated you won't see much waste or it may trail from their body. Infections often surface themselves externally as well in the form of red streaks on the fins and/or body, swellings, ect.

I think perhaps you should hold off the regular food for 1 day. Then offer peas -and- shrimp--a combination of both feeding just enough for him to get 3-4 mouthfuls and repeat twice a day and see how that helps. Frozen Daphnia is another good food. Epsom salt can also either be dosed in the tank or a grain can be mixed with a pea to be fed as extra help for constipation. A dosage for treating the tank would be about 2 Teaspoons per 10 gallons. (Pre-dissolve first and add portions at a time)

And definitely start doing some 50% water changes to bring the nitrates down. Nothing can slow healing more and encourage infections then stressful high nitrates or other water quality issues.


Treating/diagnosing fish problems like these is very tricky and we can't ever be 100% sure of anything.

It's very possible whatever infection/virus he may have causing the lesions might be affecting him bad internally.

You can read a little more about swim bladder disorder here-

http://flippersandfins.net/SwimbladderDisease.htm

I do hope this helps and best of luck!
Karen~




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

QUESTION: Within 4-5 hours of showing the floating problems, he just died.

Answer
Oh I'm sorry... :( :( :(

I now know that it was something that couldn't have been helped by me or you. Could have been something we could never even know about without perhaps a fish veterinarian available to have done testing to determine what kind of pathogen was causing the lesions which likely was a condition that eventually progressed into affecting him internally.

But I must say you really did try your best!

Just hope in the future this problem does not reoccur.

I'm  sad to know that the poor fella couldn't have been helped.
Karen~