Any ideas for swimbladder treatment.?

One of my scissortails is in dire trouble.The pet shop is closed so am unable to get any Swimbladder 13 for it.Does any one know of a treatment to aid it.Poor little bugger is in turmoil.

I was extremely surprised and dismayed to find my oranda George McBubbles floating upside down at the top of the tank yesterday. I had never known him to have this problem . I thought he might be dead, but I walked up to him and he seemed perfectly alert. He flipped himself right side up and I soon noticed he could not get to the bottom of the tank no matter how hard he swam.
I called petsmart and they told me to feed him frozen peas. You have to peel off the leathery outer coating first. You can do this by holding the pea under warm water and rubbing your fingers together. The peas sink really fast so you might need to hold the pea on a tooth pick under water if your fish can't swim far enough downward to get it.
I wanted more info to speed George's recovery and I stumbled across this..."Recent research has closely linked high nitrate levels with SBD; in many cases, 'floaty' fish were restored to normality fairly quickly when placed in nitrate-free water. It is therefore recommended to check the nitrate levels in tanks with fish suffering from SBD, and try to keep the nitrate level below 20ppm, max., at all times". I don't know how to check nitrate levels, but I headed off to Walmart to look for a nitrate reducing solution. I found a product in the fish section called "Nitraban" by Tetra. I put it in the tank and within 30 minutes George was happily swimming at the bottom of the tank!!!! He is completely back to normal now! The nitraban definitely did the trick.

Sorry mate not sure with this 1 I think I remember something abouyt adding a small amount of salt but I would check that first mate. I have kept fish for years and know there are products you can buy may also be worth trying pets at home they are often open 7 days a week. I got to say I usually let them die as they are in trouble when the swim bladder goes and it is just like staving off death not curing it. best of luck to you mate.


http://www.petsathome.com/page/lt_store_... check up and it will give opening hours and you can them cal lthem to make sure they have got stuff in. :)

For best results and temporary treatment, raise the temperature of the tank(water) to 28 degrees and add 1 tsf of Epsom salt per 10 gallon of water.

If its swim bladder problem, you would need to use antibiotics before it goes out of control.

There are 2 causes of swim bladder problem: bacterial infection or good old constipation. If it's constipation, simply give it some vegetation (best is a shelled thawed out frozen pea). If it's bacterial, do what the other posters suggested with salt and up the heat slightly until you can get an antibiotic.

Hi Butt
Sorry to hear your sword-tail is having trouble. All I can suggest is stop feeding him for 3days but if you have got any frozen peas boil one up shell it and feed it to him. swim-bladder as you might know is caused by constipation which is pressing on his swim-bladder. The pea acts as a laxative. A suggestion would be to put him in a separate tank to make sure he gets the pea or failing that boil up a few peas and shell them and feed te whole tank. Just one quick question: Has he lost weight?

Do not use peas as these swell up inside the fish cause problems later on in life. the best aid is salt, this can be used as a vital medicine as used by many aquariumist and hobbyist use salt as a curing remedy and a stress relief.

Quarantine the fish and treat on its own the fish may not survive because 80% the fish will die whilst under treatment.

Hmm, don't know about scissor tails, but when I began keeping fish I started with goldfish - one had swim bladder problems - always swam upside down - he survived all the others!!!! I wouldn't recommend this unless it was absolute emergency time, but if you squeeze him VERY gently - maybe it would help?