My fish has gas, i think...

[cole3178]

Hey guys,
Need a little advice. My baby comet/moor approx 2.5 months old, is floating upside near the top of the water level and seems to have a 'flatulence' problem. One of the other fry also had this problem, but after 24 hours, seemed to be ok. this little fella has been struggling for about 4 days now and i have just isolated him but arent sure how to correct the problem as the previous just righted itself.

Any help?

Thanks

Cole

[yarra2]

I've been told, right or wrong, that it is often a constipation problem that affects the swim bladder. Maybe you could try blood worms and see if he takes those (remembering his stomach is only about as big as his eye) - but be careful, some fish cannot handle blood worms well.

Mike

[cole3178]

Just a bit of an update for those interested. This morning i blended up some frozen peas corn and carrots with a little boiled water and put a little bit in for the poor tiny thing. I can report this afternoon, he isnt 'upside' as much, more to one side now, and there are little poo trails in his bowl. I dont want to get too ecstatic, but i think it's going to be ok.

Thanks yarra2 for the advice. I decided against the blood worms only because i wanted to try out the vegan option first. fruit and veg always gets me going :P :rolleyes:

[cichlidboy]

well done. fibre seems to be something most of us turn a blind eye on.

[DiscusMya]

Do you feed the fry right before lights out?...just curious as fry can become sick in the gut if they go to sleep with a full belly...

Good for bloat...

Magnesium Sulphate aka Epsom Salts... One or two teaspoons of Epsom Salt per 10 gallons of water. Fish should be better in 4 hours or you can add another dose. Epsom salt will not hurt the filter or the other fish. You can also dose in higher amounts of even one or two tablespoons per 10 gal/40 litres. If fish is not better in 24 hours you could suspect a bacterial infection/worm infestation.

When you say poo trails, is the poo normal or different than usual?

Another good bloat prevention is soaking hard pelletised food just before feeding and also feeding brine shrimp as they are an excellent source of roughage and will keep your fish...regulare;)

HTH

[cole3178]

Hi,
The little ones are fed a little in the morning and then again when i get home from work, which is about 430-5pm. theres still plenty of light before the have their little sleeps.

Little 'Kinky' is fine now apart from the little kink in his tail, but when he finally broke the constipation barrier, his poop was separated with empty patches, or little air bubbles... which makes me think that he definitely had gas.

Next time i will give epsom salt a go.

thanks for the tips!

cole

[BIGW]

This happens to one of my larger Ryukin.

A serve of duck weed sorts it out within 24hours.

I will cover the entire surface area of my pond and in one night its all gobbled up!