Fish will not die from swim bladder disease. All you need is the correct cause of the disease and get the best cure for it. Once the fish gets treated with the perfect medication he’ll be back with normal swimming behavior free of disease.
Table of Contents
What is a swim bladder?
A swim bladder is an organ in fish that helps the fish to float easily in any part of the water column. This organ is normally air or gas filled but when it gets affected by a disease fish lose control over it and they either swim upside down or sideways.
The beauty with which fish swim freely and easily in the entire tank is because of this swim bladder which helps them be buoyant and swim flawlessly anywhere in the tank.
Fish have the ability to control the amount of air filled in their swim bladder organ. By controlling the amount of air in the swim bladder fish can make movements in all directions in a fish tank water column. The more air they fill they can go upwards and at the same time the more air they release they can move downwards. As the amount of air gets adjusted their weight gets affected too making them possible to move in all directions.
How to detect swim bladder disease?
There are several ways to detect this disease in fish. The first and the obvious observation is your fish swimming upside down or sideways. The second observation could be fish swimming vertical with mouth downwards.
More scientific way to find if a fish is suffering from this disease is x-Ray using a Fish Veterinarian’s advice.
Image credits – By Humanfeather / Michelle Jo – Own work, CC BY 3.0
Symptoms of swim bladder disease
- Fish feel difficulty in swimming
- They struggle to maintain level in fish tank water column
- They swim upside down or sideways
- Spine gets affected and becomes S shaped
- They feel constipated
What are primary causes of this?
Poor water quality – Water quality is the ultimate deciding factor when it comes to anything to health of fish. Water is like air to humans and if it is not maintained or is not healthy then fish are obviously going to suffer.
Poor water quality causes great amount of stress in fish and any type of stress if not treated, leads to serious diseases. Swim bladder disease can be one of these and will cause fish to swim upside down or at an angle.
To maintain healthy water quality you must keep checking water chemistry using a water testing kit and take appropriate actions depending upon the readings of the test kit.
Internal Parasites – When you buy fish from a pet store most of the times it is necessary that you put these in a quarantine tank and observe their behavior. It is most likely that fish bought from a pet store are under stress and sick. Because in a pet store there are several reasons to make fish stressful and any kind of stress in fish ultimately leads to some kind of disease.
There is a way to identify if your fish is sick with internal parasites or not. You can simply observe their solid waste (poop) and if it is white in color then most probably they are suffering from internal parasites.
The ideal procedure to follow is to buy fish from the pet store then quarantine him and clean his stomach from parasites and any other bacteria so that those don’t get passed to other fish.
Treatment
What you can do is don’t feed the fish for 2 days and let them starve and on the third day feed them boiled peas by removing their outer cover. You can crush the soft boiled peas and make them into smaller chunks and feed them. This is an excellent remedy for cleaning their stomach. You can even try this remedy to a fish that is already suffering from swim bladder disease. After feeding fish with boiled peas you can start normal food from the fourth day.
Overfeeding – Over feeding is bad for humans as well as for fish. Due to overfeeding fish suffer from constipation because it affects their digestion. When this happens the internal organs exert a pressure on the swim bladder organ changing it’s volume. When it’s volume changes the amount of air or gas being held or released within the bladder also changes making it difficult for the fish to make easy adjustments.
When there is difficulty in adjustments fish lose the ability to swim swiftly and swim sideways or even upside down. However with a few simple steps this can be cured. Here is a simple process you must follow.
Treatment
1) Separate the fish that is suffering from swim bladder disease in a separate tank or in the same tank by using a plastic basket or a partition in a way that water can still pass through. This could be a partition with small holes on it. See this figure below for more clarification.
2) In the basket put 1tspn/5gallons of Epson Salt (Magnesuim Sulphate) and let the fish soak in this water for a few hours. Please note carefully that aquarium salt is different than Epsom salt.
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3) After this feed him with boiled peas by removing it’s cover and crushing it into pieces. After about 3 days you’ll see the fish swimming normally. The reason for feeding boiled peas to fish is they contain fibers and gets the best results when fish is suffering from constipation.
Is swim bladder disease fatal?
No, not at all. If you follow the treatment methods mentioned above by first finding it’s correct cause it can be cured in a few days.
When you see fish swimming upside down or sideways you can immediately start with the treatment at home in the same tank or by moving him outside in a different tank and get results fast.
If you see that the solid waste produced by fish (poop) is white in color then it’s a sign that he is infected with internal parasites and will likely get affected by swim bladder disease. In such cases the ideal treatment will be feed him with boiled peas and cure it fast.
Melafix for swim bladder disease
If your gold fish is suffering from swim bladder disease then this product Melafix from API has worked best for many fish tank owners. The correct way to use this is to follow the directions that are included when you purchase this and act fast.
Before you start using Melafix for curing this disease make sure to first find out it’s cause and try following the first methods, before you go and buy any kind of medications.
It’s always better to use treatments that follow a natural routine than to use external medications that may or may not work with some fish. In most cases the natural methods mentioned above (Green peas and Epsom salt) will work best for curing this disease.
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Is swim bladder disease contagious?
If you see a fish suffering from this disease then obviously other fish won’t get this disease directly from him. But if you see the root cause of this disease is coming from poor water conditions in the tank, then there is a strong chance that other fish are likely to get affected by either “swim bladder” or any other disease that is caused by poor water quality.
Every fish will have different immune system of his own just like every other living animal and it’s not that every fish will suffer from “swim bladder” if water quality is poor. But the ideal way to go about this is to find the root cause of why this has happened and act accordingly.
How long can a fish live with swim bladder disease?
How long a fish can live with swim bladder disease is different for every fish and is highly dependent on the root cause of the disease. The biggest problem when a fish gets affected with this disease they find it difficult to remain in straight position and this causes them great trouble when it comes to eating food.
If the disease prolongs for a long time then they start swimming upside down and this affects swimming speed and finding food particles. This leads to other complications in a community tank with other fish around. With health complications of any kind fish will develop great amount of stress which leads to other health issues. So they go into a cycle of stress and disease and eventually die.
The moment you see erratic swimming patterns in fish such as swimming upside down, sideways or any other abnormal patterns you should consider this as a warning that they are going under stress and act accordingly by finding the root cause so that this does not get developed into more complications.
What happens to a fish when its swim bladder inflates?
When the swim bladder inflates completely this affects the weight of the fish they are pushed towards the surface of the water upwards. This organ bets filled with a gas and this helps the fish to make vertical movements in the water column. When the swim bladder deflates it again affects weight and they sink to the bottom of the tank.
What would happen to a fish without a swim bladder?
The truth is, not all fish have a swim bladder. Fish that are found at the bottom of the ocean floor have no intention of rising too much to the surface of the water and hence a swim bladder is not required. They simply move up or down if required by propelling using fins and not by air intake or inflating and deflating the swim bladder.
Fish swimming upside down after water change
If your fish is swimming upside down after water change then it’s a clear sign of extra stress. When there is large amount of water change in the fish tank (40% to 50%) the amount of oxygen levels in the tank greatly reduces.
Even when there is all type of equipment installed in the tank it takes some time to reach to the previous oxygen levels and during this interval fish tend to gasp for air at the top of the tank surface. This can get more air in the fish causing the “swim bladder” in fish to inflate too much causing a disorder of this important organ.
When the “Swim bladder” gets affected, fish lose the ability over controlling their buoyancy and swim upside down or sideways. To treat this you can separate the fish in a different tank and feed him boiled and crushed green peas or soak him in Epsom last for a few hours and get good results.