Swim Bladder

wsboyette

New member
One of the new Maroon Clownfish I just introduced to my tank seems to have a swim bladder problem. He has to sit on top of
something to avoid having to struggle to maintain his depth, poor fella. Does this kind of thing ever heal on its own, or is there
some treatment available for it ?
 
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This happens sometimes in air shipping, too much sloshing about, feeding too close to shipping, breathing in bubbles, and then all the reasons they list. I did surgery on a freshwater angel once, case of it was dead if it didn't work, because its tankmates had chewed off most of its finnage: got an anatomy chart and pierced the side with a very sharp sewing needle. It did work, but for the sake of the fish, I wouldn't recommend it as a general practice: too risky on any fish that has a hope of any sort of recovery by other means. This was back in the 60's. I would rate the chances of success at 5%.

Healing the finnage was another challenge, but the fish did live.
 
Piercing this fish wouldn't do any good, as the problem is with the bladder not inflating; the fish has to struggle to keep from sinking to the bottom of the tank. I hope it gets better after a while; I'm thinking it must have happened at some point during the move from the LFS to my tank.....
 
I think not inflating would be a preferable problem. And might cure itself.
 
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