can fish have seizures?

Katelyn09

Feeder Fish
May 29, 2008
1
0
0
Delaware, USA
my angelfish has seizures so frequently that when my mates pop over for a visit and see my fish going willy nilly all over the tank, i just explain to them that my fish seems to be an epileptic. usually when this happens, since i have yet to find a medication for these odd happenings, i just turn the filter off (he seems to be a bit frightened by the noise and vibrations when he's having the episodes), raise the level of the water, and sprinkle a bit of tropical fish food flakes. usually in about 10-15 minutes he comes back to his senses and starts swimming around again. this has never happened, however, to my little tropical fish. i bought them from walmart about 6 monthes ago after my mum changed the water in my tank and forgot to let the water sit out and level out to room temperature. i got back from florida and my tank was empty. do you think the quality of walmart fish, it's breeding and the sort of fish they are have anything to do with the seizures? or perhaps because these two fish share a 5-gallon tank?
 

Plecos_Ftw

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2007
476
1
48
Palmdale, Cali
Yea I agree, I have a Jack Dempsey who Ive had since he was about 3 inches, and hes a big boy now. When I first got him the poor excuse for a human being I was living with thought it would be cool to get back at me by putting soap in my tank. When I found it just about all of my fish were dead except him. He was hardly breathing and completely black floating on the surface. I didnt know much about fish at the time and wanted to put him out by putting him in a dark bowl of cold tap water. ( I know sounds terrible) So about 20 min after saying goodbye to my favorite fish, he snapped out of it! He looked like nothing ever happend. I eventually got him farrrrrrrrrr away from my house where those guys were and put him in my boyfriends tank. Hes been there ever since and hes massive. A little bit after the "soaping" he started seizures really bad. He would seizure and go upside down. I thought he was dying but that was years ago and hes been fine. He does seizure every now and then but hes still doin his thing! Another thing I noticed, hes a massive male Jack Dempsey whos notorious for being mean but after that hes calmed down. He still seems like somethings just not 100% right but hes still kickin!
 

Robbwilder

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 5, 2008
324
0
16
South Florida
i had a dward gourami that did the same exact thing. I added red glofish for my wife and I think they were dithering too much for him and it gave him a heart attack.
 

gangster

Arapaima
MFK Member
Apr 17, 2008
13,412
703
201
mountains
I had a dempsey that would seizure up as well and a dojo loach that would also have siezures. Now my 14'' fl gar is doing it. I have no idea why. I do w/c every 3 days and my water params are good. Im clueless as to why this is happening. It sucks and I wish I could figure it out.
 

Petrella88

Gambusia
MFK Member
Sep 29, 2008
201
0
16
Chicago
Oddball;207313; said:
Actually, anything with a nervous system can have seizures.

How sure are you that fish have a CNS? I'm no pro or anything but it's been made clear to me over the years fish feel no pain due to lack of Nervous System. Surely they thrash around when youtry to take a lure out of their mouth and all but that (from. What I have always been told) is merely a primative response to a stimulus
 

glueaccident

Feeder Fish
Nov 24, 2009
1
0
0
Northampton PA
guppy;207455; said:
Yes, from several causes, toxins, disease, injury and electric shock all are possibles.
I was googling this very topic and came across your reply to this post. You mentioned electric shock and thats my very reason for stopping here. My fiance copped out a while back and bought the cheapest heater he could. While I wasnt too happy about it there wasnt much I could do so I used it.

We had one heater break in our 45 gallon tank which had charged the water. We didnt know until we were setting up a new bubbler (adding a regulator) and it shocked us. Well that fortunately didnt kill any of our fish and we replaced it with no help from the pet store.

Now a month or two later this little guys heater got my attention. I have a green spotted puffer, about 1.5 inches in a ten gallon tank. I have intentions of upgrading when the time comes that it is unavoidably not an option, so please dont comment on that since it is not what i am asking about.

Anyway, I put some bloodworms in his tank and watch him go after them. He would get to be about half an inch from then and i would hear what sounded like static. so i took out the heater, turned it all the way down and put it back in. (no light to see with it in place) when i put it back it sizzled the water and cracked. so now its trash. but to my actual question.

he has been doing what looks like siezing and i just want to know if theres anyway i can help him or if theres a chance he will make it. i feel so bad for him and i hate heaters. I told my fiance that the next one we get better be awesome and able to be completely submersible (cord and all...LOL)

Thanks, just needed to ask someone and since you said electrical shock I figured you were the right one to ask. Please dont yel at me for anything, any time I go to a forum I get b*tched at. Im not dumb or ignorant and while fish care is fairly new to me i love animals and would never do anything intentionally to hurt any,
 

glenngreen

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Aug 2, 2008
32
0
36
Tucson, AZ
I think since fish have a brain, and they move via muscles, they must have a CNS to control the muscles. It's a good question. But I believe they feel pain. The old "they don't feel a thing" line is always used when someone is doing something to someone else. We were told circumcision is painless cause the nerves arent working yet. Bull@#$%! Those babies aren't screaming cause its cold outside!
 

wheresalbany

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 7, 2006
238
1
0
Keene, NH
I used to have a German Ram that would seize about once a week. He never really hurt himself and I just made sure the lid was on tight when he had an episode.
 

screaminleeman

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Nov 27, 2009
1,445
10
38
Westminster, MD
glenngreen;3648530; said:
We were told circumcision is painless cause the nerves arent working yet. Bull@#$%! Those babies aren't screaming cause its cold outside!
I would scream bloody murder if someone was armed with a knife and reaching for my penis too. This before the first miniscule contact.:WHOA:
 

johnd651

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2009
97
6
38
CNY
had my angelfish seizing last night...found him dead this morning

and most things have some sort of nervous/sensory system....i mean they can see and swim, etc
 
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