Red Parrot Floated at Top of Tank

Question
Hi Rachel, We have had this Red Parrot for approx. 7 years. He is beautiful and very large. For about a month now, he has been floating upside down. At first he wedged himself under the Rock/cave that he has lived in for years. My thought is he wedged himself there so that he did not have to work so hard to keep himself from floating to the top of the tank. As far as I can tell, he also has not eaten in about a month. I have done a water change and the levels are good. I have tried to hand feed him and when I do this, he of course gets nervous and tries to swim away. He seems strong, but just not strong enough to right himself and swim normally. We are at the point where we are afraid he is suffering but do not want to euthanize him if there is a hope he will recover. We have heard that this could be air in the bladder in which he could recover if we released the air by putting a needle in the bladder. We both are not comfortable doing this, but if it will help him, of course we would try this before we euthanize him. Any information or advice that you can give us to save our fish would be greatly appreciated. If you think there is no hope then you could tell us about euthanizing using clove oil and vodka. It is our understanding that this might be the best way to euthanize him humanely.
Thank you in advance for your help.  

Answer
HiYa!

Ok lets start with a possible diagnosis. If he is struggling to stay upright then it sounds like it could be swim bladder.

Your right, if it IS swim bladder you can do something called "Periodic aspiration of the swim bladder" which is where you stick a needle into the bladder and suck out some air, but unless you know what your doing, I know I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it.

You could try purging him for 3 - 4 days but you say he hasn't eaten for a month so that is unlikely to work. You could also try feeding him some frozen peas. Defrost them, shell them and feed them him,  its thought the peas somehow encourage destruction of the impaction.

As for euthanising your fish....you can use vodka its - Alcohol: 1:5 (20%) solution of any other strong grain neutral alcohol, such as vodka, and water. I don't recommended this method but it really is every fishkeepers on personal choice.

Hope this helps!

Cheers! Rach