Frontosa with sunken belly and float? Please help

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knobhill

knobhill

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
May 2, 2007
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IN A PLACE
Hi,

I recently bought 4 frontosas--3m and 1f--from a guy off craigslist. He had raised them since they were small. The males are each around 12" and the female is about 8". After bringing them home, the female began to show signs of float or air trapped inside of her. She is now swimming strictly at the top of the tank with her dorsal fin exposed. The problem is that her stomach is now sunken (looked normal when I got her). There is no huge pocket of air bulging out of her. I treated the tank with salt and have been doing a 30% water change every other day. The water parameters are pH of 7.8, ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 30-40ppm. She is eating (had a piece of shrimp a few hours ago) and is sectioned off from the group. The tank is a 100g and is a quarantine tank. They will be going into a 350g in a week or so.

What should I do to fix this problem?frontosa belly.jpgfrontosa belly 2.jpg

frontosa belly 2.jpg

frontosa belly.jpg
 
ntboy09 said:
use a needle and poke through it belly to let the air out
Click to expand...

Yes, I was going to suggest this BUT that is not something that anyone with this case scenario should do. If anything, that should be used as a last resort. If you are inexperienced and don't know the anatomy of a frontosa (not saying the OP is inexperienced or anything) and go poking around with a needle anywhere in the belly and not knowing where their swim bladders are located you could just be causing further problems.
 
yeah i would say it looks good enough i would be careful since that needle was kind of pushed in far.

Good luck.
 
Well, these are my first Frontosa ever. I have been keeping fish for over 20 years so water quality, filtration, etc isn't a problem. I did see the video and ordered a needle to try the procedure. The big question is: how can there be air trapped in a sunken belly?
 
The air is not actually trapped in the belly. You should start by putting in a hospital tank (alone). Add epson salt 1 cup/100 gallons. Don't feed and keep in the dark for a week (cover the tank). Float is a stress induced condition. Usually WC pim's get it the most. My WC moba's suffered when they first came in. Looks like you have a burundi type.
 
Hey knobhill,
I have been keeping fronts for over 20 years and have had to deal with float on numerous occasions with my fronts and the best way is to isolate the fish and treat it with epsom salt. Put about 1 1/4 tablespoon of epsom salt per 10 gallons. Now this is the important part...keep that fish by itself in the isolation tank (approx 20 gallons or so). Place a half clay pot in the tank so that the front can rest in there and not have to keep fighting the 'float' all the time. They get very tired doing this and sometimes, the tops of their fins get dried out from being at the top of the tank all the time or they end up just getting overly exhausted. They will often stay inside the half flower pot and just rest against the top of it. Because it's completely submersed, they can actually relax in there. I would then do a water change every few days with the same temp of water. Add epsom salt again to the water you replaced. In a few days, the float should get much better, so much so that the front can be returned to the main tank once it's well again.
Hope that helps. I have used this method for quite some time with almost a 100% success rate. I have tried the needle treatment a couple of times and lost both fish. I won't do it again and I wish I had applied my method to those fish as it works very, very well. Good luck!

Tepei
 
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