Gar bladder help.

[SovietFireExtinguisher]

E_Americanus and Brooklamprey do you Ninja Gar guys know what I can do?

I have a 13'' Spotted Gar that has been having trouble swimming horizontally. She, (I just call her that cause she's a sweetie. I don't actually know her sex.) still eats really well, she just always swims like she has a helium balloon stuck up her tail pipe. Do you guys know of anything I can do to fix this. I have heard of some guys using a needle to puncture and release any gasses that may be trapped subcutaneously in the wrong area of a fishes body. Do you guys have any experience with this? You two guys are why I originally got into keeping Gars back in the old A.P. days. She is such a gem too. She will swim up to my hand if it's in the tank and pet herself cat style on my. What a suck. I can pull her out of the water with my bare hand and she will let me without thrashing at all.

P.S. I don't really want to take pictures of her but I will if you absolutely positively need to have them.

 

[bradenpoole]

ya pics are great

 

[Gar keeper]

Need Pics

 

[E_americanus]

it does sounds like an equilibrium issue. i would not recommend puncturing anything as a gar gas bladder is different than those of many other fishes. sometimes salt will help equilibrate a gar, so i would go with that as a start...and it's safer too.

start with 1 tbsp of salt per 20g of water, do this after a water change of about 50% volume. see if this helps at all. i would repeat the water changes 2-3x a week and add only as much salt as you take out from that point on (so you now have 1 tbs/20g, if you do a 50% water change, only add enough salt for the new water...but you probably figured that out).

if this doesn't clear up the problem in a week or two, then we can move on to another treatment (this one uses epsom salts).

another thing to note is if all the fins are working properly, this will at least rule out any sort of back injury. good luck, and i'm sure the gar will recover--
--solomon

 

[SovietFireExtinguisher]

I already did the salt thing myself for the last few months, and she is still the same. All her fins move fine and she has full movement through her entire body. She looks like when a gold fish has eaten too much and has trouble staying even in the water. Her back end just floats up on her so she can't stay horizontal. A video would be better then a picture and I don't really know how to do that.

 

[Polypterus]

What concentration of salt where you adding?

 

[SovietFireExtinguisher]

I have been using 2 lbs per 100gal on a 300 gallon tank.

 

[Polypterus]

I think the first step might be to move her to smaller quarters.. What do you have available?

 

[E_americanus]

I have been using 2 lbs per 100gal on a 300 gallon tank.

yeah, smaller tank first would help for sure as richard said. i assume you are using 2 tbsp per 100gal for your tank and not 2 pounds, right? if it's 2 pounds your fish probably all have osmoregulation issues.

remove the fish to a smaller tank and then go with the 1 tbsp/ 20 gal water for a brief period of several days, then we can see how it does and move on to other treatment if necessary.--
--solomon

 

[SovietFireExtinguisher]

yeah, smaller tank first would help for sure as richard said. i assume you are using 2 tbsp per 100gal for your tank and not 2 pounds, right? if it's 2 pounds your fish probably all have osmoregulation issues.

remove the fish to a smaller tank and then go with the 1 tbsp/ 20 gal water for a brief period of several days, then we can see how it does and move on to other treatment if necessary.--
--solomon

Uh no, I do mean lbs as in pounds. On a 300 gal tank that brings my salinity levels to about 0.02% salinity. That's a very commonly accepted level for prevention of minor parasite control, and good health promotion in an aquarium. I have them in with Datnoids, Stingrays, Clown Loaches, Discus, even a Mpimbwe Gibberosa and everyone is healthy. I don't think it's an osmoregulatory issue.
The basic formula is gallons of water/125 x desired salinity (in ppt) = pounds of salt

There's a back story that maybe you should know about, but I thought that it might turn into a red herring type of thing so I didn't mention it.

Last summer my large tank developed a slow leak so I had to get it repaired. My local fish store took my fish in for me and fed them and looked after them for about 4 months. They were all together in an about 90gal tank. They were a little cramped but not too badly so that they couldn't swim or anything like that. Before I had to take them there both my Gars were fine. After I picked them up my girl Gar was the way it is now. The only fish that I lost in the whole ordeal was my prized Brachyplatystoma Tigrinus who got too stressed out with the move and stopped eating and died. Very sad. I didn't think this really had anything to do with anything so I hadn't mentioned it.

Any way, here are some pictures.