Potential swim bladder...trapped air???

[krzr3000]

A few minutes ago while in the middle of a water change my senegal just starts floating. Completely out of nowhere, now it floats around the tank upside down. Occasionally trying to swim to the bottom and just swimming overall erratically.

As it floats its gills and mouth are not moving. What should i treat this as?

It has been fine for the past few months up until now, is about 5 inches long, and does not appeared to be bloated. I feed sinking pellets and krill. There was no drastic change in temperature or anything like that.

Thanks!!

 

[krzr3000]

Update: in matter of 5 minutes its completely unresponsive. This is very disappointing.

 

[rjmtx]

Hmmm. The bichir swimbladder is more like a pair of lungs. It's connected to the esophagus. I'm thinking maybe something is lodged in there trapping a gulp of air... Maybe a pellet? He should still be able to breath out of his gills, though. It could be something else entirely, I just don't know. You sure there was no change in temp? If mine started doing this out of nowhere-let me emphasize this is my fish (not exactly a recommendation)-I'd pull the bichir to the top of the water and gently squeeze/stroke the fish from back to front. This could dislodge anything if there is a blockage. I've only seen fish behave like that right after a water change because of a blast of cold water. Good luck

 

[krzr3000]

rjmtx, thanks for the input/pm.

I had not fed since yesterday morning, and that was frozen krill. I am in a dorm building so i can only use buckets of water (as opposed to hose from sink) so i am sure the water temp was not off that much, plus there are about 15 various tetras in the tank that were fine.

It was completely unresponsive, floating upsidedown. I lifted it out of the water a few times and it made its way back in the water. But eventually it stopped all movement.

 

[rjmtx]

Is it dead now? Maybe a heart attack or something... You said you're in a dorm-bio student by any chance? If it's dead, I'd do an autopsy, or find someone around who can. I wish you were a little closer than CT... I'd do it for you.

Sorry, that's really a bummer.

 

[krzr3000]

Heart attack of some sort sounds like a reasonable guess, i work in a fish shop and see that all the time. I pulled it out a little while ago, not a bio student but i will ask around, i'm definitely curious.

 

[FishGoneWild]

Heart attack of some sort sounds like a reasonable guess, i work in a fish shop and see that all the time. I pulled it out a little while ago, not a bio student but i will ask around, i'm definitely curious.

Fish have heart attacks? Do you feed your fish Mc Donald daily?

 

[Merbeast]

pH is the most likely culprit.

 

[Cohazard]

Fish have heart attacks? Do you feed your fish Mc Donald daily?

ASS!



This is bizarre. There are times (mainly young polypterids) when they will swim tail up and appear to struggle to stay on the bottom of the tank.

IME, it's only a matter of hours before they pass a bubble and are back to normal.

You should be testing your PH before and after water changes to determine if merbeasts suspicions on on target.

Sorry to hear about the problem.

 

[krzr3000]

Fish have heart attacks? Do you feed your fish Mc Donald daily?

Not sure about polys, but its very common with mbuna and bala sharks in my experience. With the mbuna they usually come around though, i've had one ob zebra for over a year that when i bought was out for a good 10 min. They freak out when the net comes swooping in.