Tiger barb, with suspected swim bladder problems. Please help!!!!

[Tiger barb]

Hi guys

One of my albino Tiger barbs started displaying (im guessing) swim baldder problems this weekend. He kinda struggles to stay down, so he is constantly swimming with his nose downward to keep his body down. I moved him to a quarantine tank where he seems to be a bit better this morning and is eating well.

Please help to distinguish the problem.

Tank: 3ft standard
Heat: 150watt heater
Filter: Boyu submersible(filled with ceramic rings) 750l/hr
Substrate: PFS
Tank mates: Few convict fry, 5 other Tiger barbs

pH-6.5-7
Ammonia - 0

Nitrates could be the problem, havent tested for it as yet.

I do 40% water change every two weeks.

Any idea guys, let me know if I need to provide more information.

[azurekoi]

Swim bladder problems is not an easy one to deal with....the fish maintains neutral bouyancy in the water by passing gasses between the paired swim bladders.... Its when something happens to this little sphincter muscle,that we see the symptoms of "Swim bladder disease"

Raise the temp(Slowly!) by about 3 degrees or so ove rthe next week - try getting some live Daphnia - it acts as a laxative...sometimes an internal blockage in the intestines causes presure on one of the 2 swim bladders,preventing its full inflation/deflation...

There is no hard and fast rule about why this happens - best t try the above,but if the fish does not recover,don't make it suffer for too long...G'luck!!

[Tiger barb]

@azurekoi (http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/member.php?u=1190) thanks for the advice.



Raise the temp(Slowly!) by about 3 degrees or so ove rthe next week - try getting some live Daphnia - it acts as a laxative...

I have raised the temp in the QT , I added a bit of salt. It has seem to have worked, he looked a bit better this morning. Where can I get live daphnia?

[Skyecloud]

Sometimes a bit of gas build up in the gut. Daphnia help to clean out the gut....try frozen food and thaw it out. Slightly increased temp also helps.

[Tiger barb]

Update....So last night and this morning the TB was looking much better. Very active and swimming easily. I will leave him in the QT for the rest of the week, will probably return him to his counterparts the weekend.

Thanks for the advice provided.