Swim bladder disease

RE: Swim bladder disease

Holly Norman — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 21:51:29 GMT

Thanks Sammy,

I did wonder about that as I do feed floating pellets for my koi. But I’ve fed this food for the past two years without problems. I have several water lilies in the pond which are well established.

I had someone house sitting while I was away but I didn’t ask them to do anything with the fish as it’s winter and my koi don’t really need anything doing.

I did a water change today and topped up the pond.

The affected fish are about six inches and four inches long so could inject I suppose?

I do have a tiny separate pond that has no fish in as I was hoping to encourage frogs (frogspawn doesn’t do well in the big pond with my ravenous koi about!) so I guess I could potentially isolate the goldfish there?

RE: Swim bladder disease

Sammy82 — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 19:30:27 GMT

Goldfish are prone to swallowing too much air when eating food from the surface like flakes or floating pellets which can lead to an overfilled swim bladder and associated balance problem. They do best with sinking pellets and also need some plants to munch on. Peas are supposed to help with this problem too. I am speaking as a fishkeeper here, I am not a fish vet. What size are they? Just wondering how practical injecting them would be.

RE: Swim bladder disease

Holly Norman — Sun, 03 Dec 2017 15:42:24 GMT

Sorry to resurrect a very old thread but I was also after a bit of advice about possible swim bladder disease!

I’ve just returned from a holiday and discovered that two of my goldfish (outdoor pond) are swimming sideways, with their lateral flanks uppermost. There is another goldfish and shubunkin who are unaffected and all of my (beloved!) koi are fine.

With two of them affected, is this more likely to be infectious? I wouldn’t know where to start with investigating this! Trial antibiotic injections or cull?

any help much appreciated!

Re: Swim bladder disease

Mark Rowland — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:39:31 GMT

I ususlly feed them in a separate tank if there is a live filter. Its readily accepted so they eat their daily fill quickly. Ususlly though if a client has spent lots of money on a system they will let me work the case up more or give injections.

Re: Swim bladder disease

Mark Holmes — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:27:25 GMT

Mark doesn't Baytril have -ve effects on any living filter systems?

Re: Swim bladder disease

Mark Rowland — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:22:38 GMT

When I get a chance Ill send you my patented baytril fish food formula, easy to make and they love it!

Later today hopefully.

Re: Swim bladder disease

Clive Ansell — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:32:06 GMT

Mark - many thanks.

Work up unlikely and compliance may be an issue here too, are there any effective alternatives than can be added to the water? are most of these bacterial?

Re: Swim bladder disease

Mark Rowland — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:39:52 GMT

Hi Clive,

I like to xray these cases to check for swim bladder displacement (e.g. by tumour/granuloma/Organomegaly).

Otherwise I generally go for amikacin injections (hydration normally isnt a problem) every 3 days if finances wont allow work up.

Goodluck.