Posted by Netti on February 15, 2003 at 12:28:15:
In Reply to: Re: labored breathing, swollen... posted by mrkeeg on February 14, 2003 at 22:55:34:
My thoughts were of two things, maybe a combination of both. Either a problem with their swim bladders or some kind of internal infection, or an infection of the swim bladder, altho I haven't ever heard of anything like that. What you have already done will help, but you might want to try shallower water if it's a swim bladder problem as it'll be easier for them to keep upright. If it's an internal infection of some kind, your best bet is probably prescription antibiotics, or at least the strongest you can buy over the counter. For it to be displaying signs like this with an internal infection it sounds pretty serious. If you want to pull out all the stops, ask your vet to have a look at them and see what he'd prescribe, otherwise go with the antibiotic treatment, in flake or pellet form if you can find it. I must warn you tho that problems like these are not always cureable, even if you start treatment right away. And I am not entirely sure this is the problem, just what I would suspect if this was my fish.
My other thought was - do you know if all these fish were from the same bloodline? If so, there may be a genetic element causing them to have problems with the swimbladder or perhaps it is mis-shapen, etc and is only showing up in adulthood. How old were these fish when you lost them? Could you estimate?
