Fish Ingesting Air During Shipping

[IFbettas]

This morning I received a small (1.5") female red tailed tamarin wrasse. It appears that during the shipping she ingested air and now she can't swim correctly. She's trying to swim, but always ends up floating back to the surface.

I had this problem once before with a meleagris leopard wrasse who swallowed a lot of air during shipping. She died the next day. Is there anything I can do to try and save the new tamarin?

Thanks.

 

[snorvich]

May be decompression problems? Who shipped it?

 

[MrTuskfish]

How do you know these fish are swallowing air? The symptoms you are describing are fairly typical of any fish in trouble.

 

[Green_Reefer]

I'd have to agree with decompression issues. Fish can move ingested air out of their system fairly easily, I've read of fish ingesting air and then farting or burping little bubbles into the water column. Is there any bulging on the fish? If so, that could be the swim bladder extended from poor decompression and/or no pinning of the swim bladder during the collection process.

Depending on how studied you are in your fish's anatomy and your handiness with a pin, you could fix the problem yourself. Not that I would advise or try it. I have read of success stories with the fish rehabilitating with time.

I have no personal experience with this, but have been doing a lot of research lately into some deepwater fish for future additions to my tank.

 

[snorvich]

Yes, many collected fish are pinned as they were not properly decompressed. (By the way, it does not work on people, that is what hyperbaric chambers are for).

 

[IFbettas]

I can't be positive what the cause is, so I suppose it could be her swim bladder. I've heard before that fish who breath heavily, such as wrasses, can have a tendency to ingest air during shipping. I just assumed that was the cause, because I don't think this vendor would ship out fish with swim bladder problems.

She's already looking a lot better and is now swimming around picking at the rocks.