This morning I was cleaning my tank and Found My Ornate Birchir floating upside down in the tank. I think that it might be a bladder infection, but I am not sure. I don't have a lot of experience with fish diseases. I added salt, about 1-2 tsp per gallon and turned the temp up to about 84 degrees, now he is sitting on the bottom, some times he looks normal, perched on his fins with his head up, and some times he is laying on his back. Does anyone have any other ideas about what might be going on, or something else that I could do?
Ornate bladder infection? Treatment ideas?
- Thread starter Gooda
- Start date
If it is swim bladder disease then believe it or not the recomended cure is to not feed it a couple of days and if that doesn't work give a laxative, with a bicher that won't eat veggies I think you could try pellets soaked in crushed garlic or rubbed with skinless canned green peas, or the same injected into a small earth worm. Strange I know but I just check a 1/2 dozen sites and that is what they all said including the University of Virginia.
The temp and salt are a good start. It sounds like your poly is running a bout of bloat. It's not certain what the exact trigger is that causes this. But, it seems to occur with infrequent water changes, lower temps, and undiverse feeding regimens.
There's a product called Metronidazole. Use of this med along with the salt addition and frequent water changes have been successful in beating bloat.
Perform at least a 30% water change, treat with the med, and don't try to feed the poly for the next several days. On day 3 of the treatment, perform another water change and retreat with the med at full strength. Repeat this plan for a third treatment. During the treatment, watch your poly for waste elimination (sign of kidney function) and check your ammonia level. As the poly kicks the bloat, it'll dump a huge amount of waste to clear its system so, additional smaller water changes may be needed to keep ammonia levels down. A couple of days after the 3rd treatment, you can offer your ornate some food. Increasing plant protein in its diet will help in flushing its system and can be achieved by stuffing algae wafers or spirulina into non-living food or by gut-loading live food items prior to feeding them to the ornate.
Once the bloat is long over, keep up a regular schedule of water changes. Continue to offer foods that contain animal and plant protein (gut-loading is the easiest way). I also recommend keeping a trace amount of rift lake salts in all poly tanks to help maintain proper kidney function and osmotic regulation. Rift lake salts differ from sea salt in that rift lake salts are a calcium chloride derived salt instead of sodium chloride derived salts from marine mixes.
I maintain close to 40 polys and have followed this plan since my last bout of bloat over 8 years ago with no reoccurrances of this disease. Good Luck.
There's a product called Metronidazole. Use of this med along with the salt addition and frequent water changes have been successful in beating bloat.
Perform at least a 30% water change, treat with the med, and don't try to feed the poly for the next several days. On day 3 of the treatment, perform another water change and retreat with the med at full strength. Repeat this plan for a third treatment. During the treatment, watch your poly for waste elimination (sign of kidney function) and check your ammonia level. As the poly kicks the bloat, it'll dump a huge amount of waste to clear its system so, additional smaller water changes may be needed to keep ammonia levels down. A couple of days after the 3rd treatment, you can offer your ornate some food. Increasing plant protein in its diet will help in flushing its system and can be achieved by stuffing algae wafers or spirulina into non-living food or by gut-loading live food items prior to feeding them to the ornate.
Once the bloat is long over, keep up a regular schedule of water changes. Continue to offer foods that contain animal and plant protein (gut-loading is the easiest way). I also recommend keeping a trace amount of rift lake salts in all poly tanks to help maintain proper kidney function and osmotic regulation. Rift lake salts differ from sea salt in that rift lake salts are a calcium chloride derived salt instead of sodium chloride derived salts from marine mixes.
I maintain close to 40 polys and have followed this plan since my last bout of bloat over 8 years ago with no reoccurrances of this disease. Good Luck.
Oddball said:
Should he be isolated for this, or would it be ok to leave him in the tank with the other Bichirs?