Tinfoil trouble

[esoxlucius]

Came down this morning to find my yellow tinfoil barb at the bottom of the tank on its side. I thought it was dead but on closer inspection it was breathing and its eyes were looking around. It just seemed to be paralysed. I netted it out of the tank very easily because it can't swim. I checked it all over for signs of trauma thinking it may have hit something really hard and broke its spine or something. But nothing. Not a split fin or scale out of place. No lumps, dints or anything. It just looks like an exceptional specimen of a tinfoil barb, only paralysed.

Anyway, i put it back in the tank and it sank to the bottom. I then went to work hoping that its mystery condition was temporary. When i got back home it was in the same place i left it, still breathing, still looking around and still paraylsed. I'm absolutely lost. I plan to leave it tonight and hope something miraculous happens from now until mornng. If there's no change i'll have no choice other than to euthanise it, something which i absolutely do not want to do. What a bummer.

 

[Bonytang]

Wait a little bit before euthanizing, could just be some stress or something. Fish both captive or in the wild will try to recover from ailment..most recent near death fiasco happened maybe 3 months ago when i was cleaning a 10g quarantine i was keeping acrossocheilus kreyenbergii in. so after emptying about 75% of the tank + unplugged heat, oxygen, etc. i went upstairs for like 5 minutes came back down and he was upside down, breathing still, but pretty much at the state of checking out.. after freaking out a sec i didn't want to waste a chance to do any attempt for recovery. real quik i put him in another tank and yeah it made the other fish freakout for a little bit i took the airline directly to his gills + tossed in some melafix while keeping fingers crossed. 5 or so minutes later breathing picked up, stabilized himself / swimming posture / & that was that. was waiting to share that experience on here. yellow tinfoils are one of my favs too so cheering for your fin til the end man!

 

[FishEZ]

I had an albino tiger barb once swimming in tight little circles for hours all over the tank. Couldn't figure out what on earth! No other fish exhibited this behavior. Then after about 3 days of this, it just stopped and acted normal again. Has been doing just fine and normal ever since. Never did know why.

 

[Deadliestviper7]

Wait a few days, he may have spinal swelling, which can take awhile to heal

 

[mattison187]

My guess would also be an injury. They are jumpy as hell.