Please Help...my flowerhorn fish looks like shes about to die...dont want to lose her!

Question
Hi I have a flowerhorn fish who is about 5-6 in. big living in a 120 gal. aquarium we've had her for about a year she has been doing fine until yesterday when i woke up and saw her frantically jump up as fast, as hard, and as high as she can and hit the lid of the aquarium and the wall as if she had a seizure and then she sunk to the bottom and layed down flat on her side at the bottom of the aquarium she has been laying down on her side for two days now
she tried to swim once but she can't and when she does a little bit she sinks down shes still breathing and moving her gills even thou today she was breathing really hard she also periodically jumps frantically as if shes having a seizure and hits the lid and the wall like I described before (she does this at least 7-10 times a day if not more) and just sinks back down and lays flat on the floor sideways and today she started on and off loosing her color and turning  white and her eye turned from black to completely bright red and then she comes back to normal color and does it again after awhile....I do not what to do I just changed the water too I'm so worried I brought the fish as a birthday gift to my wife and she has become a part of our family and we're all devastated especially because she is so beautiful I'm willing to do anything and really hope its not too late please tell me what I can do !

Answer
Hi Michelle;

Poor thing. She may have a swim bladder problem. The swim bladder is an internal organ below the spine that controls buoyancy. If it fails, your fish can have trouble going up and down in the water as well as having trouble staying upright. There are many possible causes for it but very few effective treatments I'm afraid. The swim bladder has to heal in oder to start working again.

The first thing to do is test the tank water to be sure everything there is okay. Test the levels of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Ammonia and nitrite should both be "zero". Nitrate should be no more than 40 ppm. PH is okay in a range of 7.0 to 7.8. You want a stable pH somewhere in that range. If any of the water chemistry isn't right, keep making partial water changes to bring them to a more safe level. It could shock her to change more than 25% in one day so avoid large water changes. You can do them daily, just no more than 25% in one day. Check the water temperature too. Flower Horns like their water about 80f.

With red in the eye she could have an internal bacterial infection or she may have injured herself when she jumped. Internal bacterial infection could also be a cause of swim bladder failure. She may need antibiotics. In larger fish like yours, adding medicine to the tank is not helpful unless the infection is on the outside of the fish. We have to give antibiotic food (available in fish stores) or antibiotic injections (administered by a veterinarian). If she isn't eating it will have to be done by injection. You might ask your local fish stores if they have vets that could help you with that.

I really wish I could help more. I hope she feels better soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins