A Quick Tour to the Causes and Cures of Swim Bladder Disorder

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Is your aquarium fish floating upside down? Or is it having swollen belly? Did you notice it to sink towards the bottom of your aquarium? Does it also swim keeping the tail high?

If your answer is yes to all these questions, the first thing you need to do is to stop doing panic!



On a serious note, curved spine or swollen belly or sinking towards the bottom is a sign of a common disorder of the aquarium fishes called swim bladder disorder. Remember, it has an easy remedy too. But, due to the negligence and lack of observation of the owners, this disorder is often overlooked. Also, it is often detected when it is too late to cure the fish!

It is recommended to go through the following guide to keep your fish healthy and lively.

Know the disorder in detail

Swim bladder disorder is the particular state in which the bladder faces obstacles to function in the way in which it should normally do. These obstacles cause to the swim bladder due to some diseases in the fish. Also, it may have some problems in the aquarium water. The fish may also have some balance or buoyancy problems which are causing the obstacles to the bladder.

Symptoms

The symptoms of this disease are mentioned at the very beginning. You have the ability to understand the difference. Here, some more symptoms are listed. Check, if your aquarium fish is also having any of these!

       ·             Tendency of sinking in the bottom
  •          Struggles to come upwards
  •          Occasionally floats upside down
  •          Swims keeping head high or tail high
  •          Uneasy movements
  •         Swollen belly
  •          Improper eating habit
  •          Difficulty to feed the fish
  •          Slightly curved spine

Causes

It is not possible to point out a specific cause of this disease because experts opined that it is a result of multiple unfriendly factors in the aquarium. In general, it can be claimed that compression to the swim bladder is the reason for this disease. This compression to the bladder may cause due to overeating or to be more specific, overfeeding. Also, it can cause if the fish is having problem to excrete normally. There is a possibility of birth defect in the fishes, which leads to this disorder. Apart from these, there are other causes that can lead to swim bladder disorder. These are:

Gulping the air

It is the result of human negligence because it occurs due to the remaining food particles in the water. After feeding the fish, it is always advised to siphon out the food particles, but owners are not much careful to do this.

Improper diet

The lack of live foods in the diet of the fish can also be a reason behind this disease. Owners often rely completely on flakes or frozen foods, which leads to swim bladder disorder. This frozen food or the flakes often enlarge the intestine tract, and the end result is the swim bladder disorder.

Temperature issue

Due to incorrect temperature, the fish may have some problems in digestion. As a result, gastrointestinal tract enlarges, and it pressurizes the bladder.

Disease in other organs

Cysts in the kidney, excessive fat can also pressurize the bladder as well.

Infection from external elements

Swim bladder disorder may cause due to parasites or bacteria.


Remedy

Treatment of swim bladder disorder includes these following steps

  •          Let the fish fast for three days
  •          Adjust the temperature
  •          Feed a cooked pea (skinned) – you can use frozen peas
  •           Continue feeding a pea a day
  •          Avoid flakes for a few days
Along with these, you can adjust the salinity of aquarium water by adding aquarium salt. You can reduce the water level too. Alternatively, reduce the flow of water. Plus, go through hand feeding.

You can always prevent this disease by observing it at an early stage. Tank cleaning and water change can help you here. Maintain proper water temperature to help the fish in digesting and give a balanced diet (frozen food, flakes and live food) to the fish. Clean the remaining food after feeding and just avoid overfeeding.




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