plattie spinning on head

Question
i have a red plattie in my 30 gallon tank and i noticed tonight that he is spinning on it's head on the bottom of my tank. I thought this behavior was very peculiar and was wondering if you had ever heard of this before?

Answer
Hi Jimmy,
There must be something wrong internally with the poor platie. One thought is swim bladder disorder. There are many things that can affect a fish's swim bladder whether it be digestion-related, water quality, a defected swim-bladder or a injury to the swim bladder. There's not much you can do and some fish recover on their own. Sometimes if its diet related, like not enough fiber in their diet, it can be treated with fasting (not feeding) the fish for at least a day or so and then giving the fish a green pea that has been thawed and peeled. The pea can help clear blockages in the fishes digestive tract.

But then other causes of swim bladder disorder like bacterial infections can be much harder to treat, and would require feeding the fish antibacterial food (hard to do) or treating the water with a strong antibiotic like Maracyn-Two. Even then, sometimes it may not be effective.

Then again the platie may have some other kind of internal problem that you just cannot control. Unfortunately sometimes this happens. If he cannot control his swimming all the time then that could be what's wrong.

I'm really sorry about the little platy,
Best wishes,
Karen~