sick pearlscale

Question
The last week or so my pearlscale has been sluggish. I dont see any visible signs of ich or anything else. I have changed the water added salt and the water treater with aloe... He is about 2.5-3.5 inches in a 50 gallon corner tank with a small and large ryukin.  I dont know what is wrong with him. He just lays there on the gravel most of teh time until its feeding time where he actively goes after the food. He has gotten stuck on the filter three times in the last week... Please help me get him back to health. Thank you

Answer
Hi Gil,
Poor little guy... The first thing I'd do is a 50% water change. I know you said you just did a water change but if you did just a small one it may not have been effective enough to have an impact that a larger water change would. It'd be ideal if you could check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate level too just as a precaution. His behavior directly points at water quality issues or a developing illness.

Also determine if he might actually have a swim bladder problem. The swim bladder is a organ that controls equilibrium in fish and problems occur to that organ are usually diet related due to constipation, not enough variety, or not enough fiber, or just overfeeding. Symptoms are the fish really struggles to swim to the top (or sometimes to the bottom) and if they stop swimming, its as if they are attached to a string on the bottom (or a floatation device at the top) and they helpless sink or float back to the top (or bottom.)

Treatment is usually easy. Includes fasting the fish for a day, then offering a peeled, mashed up green pea. This can help move things along in their system. If constipation is suspected, prolonged treatment with peas, holding off regular diet, and possible epsom salt treatment would be in order.

For now, its difficult to determine what precisely is causing the behavior and all I can do is try my best to give some suggestions from experience.

I hope this helps and best of luck!
Karen~