Luvachicken Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 One of our guppies is floating sideways and has done for the last couple of days. What is the best way to put the poor thing out of it's misery ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lillybettybabs Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Instant would be a blow to the head i guess, Ha it got that swim bladder thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couperwife Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 We used to have fish. Just spoken to kev, who was expert in all things fishy. He said it sounds like a problem with the swim bladder, and it sometimes sorts itself. Practical fish keeping magazine is a good place to look. They have a website and forum. Might be worth a look on there. Hope that helps Cathy X Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Thanks you two, it is more kind of bent and has sudden splurges of life. Perhaps I will leave it for now and see if it gets better by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 I used to keep goldfish and they got this every so often. The best thing to do is starve them for a couple of days I believe edited to add - found this - 'The key to avoiding swim balder problems all together is to keep your fish on a varied diet. Which includes greens (not just peas) lettuce, spinach, duckweek, peas green beans, zucchini etc. Greens help keep the digestive tract of the goldfish clean. they have no stomachs like other fish and there fore need something to help push the foods thru their systems. Greens will do this. Adding these to their weekly even daily diet keeps them healthy. Secondly, if you cannot get your fish to eat ONLY greens, do not even feed the other fish foods, give them all greens for a day or two and they will right themselves. If you cannot get him to eat yes you will need to use swimbladder meds, however I find they really don't work all that great. Also, swimbladder is often confused with bloat. Bloat is caused by a number of things with goldfish mostly due to poor water conditions and salts in the water. The only salt that should ever be added to a goldfish tank is epsom salt. Never aquarium, table or marine salts. Salt interfears with all freshwater fish's ability to process water leading to all kinds of internal problems like bloat, dropsy and yes even swimbladder to name a few. Try to get your fish to eat greens. Never feed tanked goldfish floating pellets, sinking or flakes in combination with fresh veggies and fruits. Even brine shrimp and bloodworms are a great addition. Keep the water quality up, routine water changes feed veggies and fruits and quality flake foods. He should show signs of improvement within a day' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby22 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 Hi, apologies I have only just seen this post. How is the fish now? The best thing to do is to do a 25% water change to rid the tank of any nitrates, often high levels can trigger this off. It can also be caused by constipation! Therefore, if you chop up a few peas and add them to the tank, if the fish will eat, this will help to clean its system. However, bloodworms will do a really good job of cleaning their systems and even a fish that is quite ill will eat these. If you feed bloodworm once a week, you will notice the result There are treatments out there for swimbladder, but it would be worth speaking to the fish shop as I haven't had fish for 12 months now and the treatments have probably moved on. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted December 29, 2012 Author Share Posted December 29, 2012 Thanks libby 22, they can have some peas tomorrow, we change the water each week any way, but will look into the worms too. The fish is still here at the moment, so fingers crossed one of those things might make him feel better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libby22 Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Hope it sorts out - distressing isn't it when one of them isn't well. Difficult to explain to anyone who doesn't keep fish I did have three or four fish at one point with the problem and the pet shop gave me a treatment for the tank - they recovered, so touch wood it is sortable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted January 9, 2013 Author Share Posted January 9, 2013 The poor fish is still here - still lopsided. The water has been changed, the peas etc and nothing has worked. How do I end it for the poor thing ? It has been nearly 3 weeks now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raina Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 some fish have been known to happily live swimming upside down. it could be something wrong with the swim bladder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RyanR Posted January 9, 2013 Share Posted January 9, 2013 Clove oil, mix 10 drops with water you may have to dissolve them in a teaspoon of alcohol. Vodka will do, add to a small amount of water and mix. Put the fish into a small container of water, add half the mixture. It will be anesthetised very quickly, then add the remaining mixture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Thank you RyanR x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Sorry to hear this, I have a fish in my pond who keeps lying on his side amongst the dead iris leaves, he seems to be having swimming problems too. I have tried the peas and will keep an eye on him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I was advised to put my tropicals in a bowl of very cold water with ice cubes as and when they became terminally unwell. Much easier and gentler than hitting them with anything and they seemed to pass away peacefully. Hope you and your little one don't need to find out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 18, 2013 Share Posted January 18, 2013 I was advised to put my tropicals in a bowl of very cold water with ice cubes as and when they became terminally unwell. Please, please don't do this, it's actually considered quite cruel (no offense intended dancing cloud, it is suggested all over the internet I know!) as it just means the poor fish freezes to death and not always quickly . Clove oil, as previously suggested, is the most humane way to dispatch a fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancing cloud Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Wish I'd known that at the time and please ignore my suggestion. It was the way the "specialist" shop recommended twenty-odd years ago and clearly not the best way. If I ever have fish again, I'll know better (though, with three cats and four dogs, keeping fish alive might be more of a problem!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Dont be , I shudder when I think of what my poor childhood goldfish must have gone through as a result of 'accepted practice' at the time - it's a miracle it lived as long as it did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvachicken Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 Well we didn't need to put the fish out of his misery in the end. He must have died in the night. But he did put up a good fight and still managed to eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandmashazzie Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 When we had fish a book said kindest way was to severe the spinal cord with a sharp knife.we had a poorly fish that was swimming sideways and looking very weak for few days so OH decided to put him out of misery and attempted this did succeed but not a pleasant thing to do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
