swimbladder problem with angel fish

Question
hi Karen,
hoping you can help. I have five angel fish who have all seemed quite happy for over a year. Recently I admit that I neglected the tank for a little while and one of them seem to have a swimbladder problem but not the others. The poor thing is isolated in the tank in a netted box and just lies down all day, although coming up for food awkwardly. I have cleaned the tank, added aquarium salt and even went on to try swimbladder treatment 13 from interpet but it is still lying down. I will try the frozen pea method you suggested to another caller but was just wondering why the other fish are not reacting in the same way. Also worried about causing harm to the other fish by using this treatment. I am also worried about the amount of salt that should be added.
Thank you

Answer
Hi Jan,
I'm sorry to hear about the angelfish. He may in fact have swim bladder but he may also have some other condition internally. For the latter there is not much you can do, and it could have been water quality related or something that happened to him that you couldn't control. For Swim bladder you can try the frozen pea method. Problems with diet is usually the biggest cause to swim bladder problems. Try holding off his regular food for several days and maybe give him some thawed and deshelled green peas. Sometimes Swim bladder disorder can correct itself with just peas and withholding the fish's regular food for a few days. Medications usually can't help much at all, unless the swim bladder disorder is caused by a bacterial infection. But we can't assume he has a bacterial infection yet. The salt is Ok, but it's not really neccesary. It's probably better to leave salt of out your tank for now.

As always, insure good clean water by making plenty of frequent water changes. There's not much else that can help your fish better than clean water!

You're doing good so far with your poor Angelfish, just try withholding his normal food for about 2-3 days and try some peas.

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Karen~