SICK BETA DENNIS

Question
I purchased Dennis from Pet Smart about 4 months ago, and he has been extremely healthy and active until I left him for 4 days over Thansgiving.  When I came back to work, Dennis had lost most of his color (he was red) and lost all his equilibreum.  Although he was still peppy, he could not control his swimming and had difficulty getting to the top of the tank.  I isolated him in a small "hospital tank" and treated him with Maroxy.  I suspect he was constipated, at the next day his color had improved dramatically and his swimming ability is almost back to normal.  Although Dennis appears to have recovered physically, he now just sits at the bottom of his 1-gallon tank, and has not eaten in a week.

I use tap water in his tank; his water is changed weekly and treated with bowl prep and stress coat, so I know the water quality is good.  Dennis just sits on the bottom of the tan; he is not even coming up for oxygen very often and does not move unless I tap the side of his tank.  He used to be an excited and ravenous eater, and now shows no interest at all in food.  I am very attached to Dennis; what should I do?  Is there another medicine I should be using in his water?  Although there is no filter in his tank, I do have a small heater and have raised his temperature to about 82 degrees.  PLEASE HELP!!

Answer
Hi Debbie;

Poor Dennis.....

He has had a swim bladder failure. The swim bladder is an internal organ just below the spine in fish. It will inflate with bood gasses so the fish can go up in the water and deflate to go down. Failure can happen if they get too cool or from infection inside them. There really isn't much you can do but wait and see if it heals. Lower the water level so he doesn't have so far to go to get air. This will preserve his energy so he can heal. You might try an antibiotic like Kanacyn or Maracyn 2. These both get inside the fish were infection could be. It will not repair the swim bladder but will stop infection if that is what caused it.

Keep the temperature up high and he will have a better chance of his swim bladder repairing itself.

Hope he feels better soon.......

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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