Your fish is swimming upside down because it is suffering from swim bladder disease. This disease is not fatal and your fish will not die from it but will keep on suffering a lot if not cured. Though the disease itself is not fatal it can cause a great amount of stress in fish that can lead to low immunity causing other fatal diseases.
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What causes this disease?
This disease is caused because of an internal organ failure called as a “Swim bladder”. When fish swim in a water column this organ helps them to move upwards and downwards by filling air/gas in the swim bladder.
Problem begins when fish can’t expend or contract the swim bladder sufficiently and causes them to swim erratically and sometimes upside down. One of the primary reasons why swim bladder gets affected is “constipation” in fish.
How to detect this disease?
Observation is needed to detect this disease and the first symptom is if your fish is swimming sideways or upside down, then you need to pay closer attention to what’s really happening in their body. Some other ways to detect this disease
- Fish swim upside down
- Swimming sideways
- Fish can’t maintain level in fish tank
- Can’t swim easily
- Fish swim erratically
- Fish swim vertically
Will my fish die because of this?
Fish will not die if they swim upside down, however will feel difficulty in eating food if this is not cured for a long time. If fish won’t be able to eat food they will start to lose immunity and catch up some other disease.
It’s better to cure this disease as soon as you see primary symptoms of this. The best way is to shift the fish to a quarantine tank and start treatment there. This disease is not contagious and is caused by failure of an internal organ called as a “Swim bladder”
What are the causes of this disease developing in fish?
Most causes for fish diseases are related to two things
- Water quality
- Stress in fish
Water quality directly does not produce swim bladder disease but is a big reason to develop stress in fish. Invisible chemicals in water can affect fish health and that’s why it is necessary to keep testing water using a “water testing kit” regularly to maintain healthy levels of invisible gases. Ideally when you introduce fish in the fish tank it is necessary that the tank has undergone a “nitrogen cycle” so that harmful gases have been settled successfully presenting a clear and healthy environment to fish.
Fish can go under stress because of a variety of reasons and stress of all types causes fish to lose immunity. Fish with weak immunity are likely to catch up disease quickly.
Apart from these there are two main reasons why fish gets a swim bladder disease.
1) Constipation – This is considered the primary reason for this disease. The intestine creates a pressure on the “swim ladder” organ internally which changes the volume of this and fish lose control and ability to control the inward and outward movement of air/gas causing irregularities in swimming patterns.
Because of constipation there is difficult in digestion and the intestine creates a pressure on the swim bladder of the fish. The volume of air/gas coming out and going in the swim bladder differs causing great difficulty for the fish to maintain a level in the fish tank.
2) Internal parasites – Fish suffering from internal parasites suck out all the energy required for living healthy. These parasites live on the same food; the fish eats causing disturbances in digestive system. This weakens their immunity a lot and fish feel difficulty in swimming the normal way.
What are some possible treatments for this?
Before we look at the treatments it is necessary that we identify the cause of the disease because treatment could differ based on it’s cause.
1) If your fish is suffering from constipation then the first thing you must do is to shift him to a quarantine tank and stop feeding him for 2 days. after that, feed him a special kind of diet different than what you feed him every day.
He needs boiled green peas by removing it’s cover as diet that will solve his constipation problem naturally and his intestine will become free of any indigestive food. Once his intestine is clear the pressure being exerted on the swim bladder will get reduces and eventually the volume of air/gas being controlled inside the swim bladder will get normalized. This will automatically eliminate the “swim bladder disease” as well causing the fish to swim naturally in the fish tank.
2) If your fish is suffering from internal parasites then also you must first shift to a new tank and treat him there. As a first step you can try increasing the water temperature a little and observe him for two days. Parasites cannot survive in increased temperature will die causing the harm to the fish.
3) You can even try soaking the fish in Epsom salt (Magnesium Sulfate) and observe his behavior.
If you don’t see any improvement in 2 days you can increase the quantity of salt slightly and observe again, this gradual step by step methods works really well with diseased fish. Read this article to learn in detail how to treat the swim bladder disease.
Can a fish recover from swim bladder?
yes, fish can definitely recover from swim bladder disease, the secret is in identifying the exact root cause of this disease and then simply apply the best possible treatment. However you must keep observing his behavior during the treatment and alter or adjust the methods as required.
You must always keep a habit of observing fish behavior, even when the fish is not sick, so that whenever there is any irregular behavior or swimming patterns you can immediately start any possible treatments
Fish floating upside down but still alive
If this disease is not cured, in the advanced stages the fish will appear to helplessly floating in the tank, upside down but is still alive and the reason for this is it can’t operate it’s “swim bladder” organ that helps him to maintain the desired level in the tank. This is the same organ which fish can control and swim in up or down levels of the tank.
Can swim bladder cure itself?
No, swim bladder disease cannot be cured itself naturally. This disease is caused because of indigestion and constipation issues. When fish gets this disease they either swim upside down and sideways because of which they feel difficulty in eating food and this creates another set of problems.
When fish can’t eat food they start losing immunity. The swim bladder disease itself is not fatal but it creates obvious behavior issues that lead to stress. Unless the constipation issue is solved this disease will not get cured by itself. As an owner you can help the fish to get over this easily by identifying the root cause.
Fish swimming upside down after water change
If your fish is swimming upside down after a water change then this is because of “shock” or stress caused by shock. Fish are extremely sensitive to surrounding environment and this includes
- Water quality
- Temperature
- Tank mates
- Water chemistry
A change in any one of these over the limits can “shock” your fish and cause them to go under stress immediately. While changing the water or cleaning your fish tank it is necessary that you don’t overdo the replacement.
Normally the fish tank water contains beneficial bacteria that take care of breaking down the harmful toxic gases dissolved in the water into less harmful ones and need to be retained in the water.
If you change too much water, then these beneficial bacterial are removed from the fish tank water replacing them with a void because the new water will not have that much amount of beneficial bacteria that were present previously.
This can lead to a immediate shock to fish causing a pressure on their internal organs. When this happens these organs are likely to exert a pressure on the internal “swim bladder” organ causing the fish to swim upside down.
That’s why while changing water always pay attention that you don’t change too much of it. A 20% water change (per week) is acceptable to maintain levels of beneficial bacteria in a fish tank.
How does Epsom salt cure swim bladder?
Epsom salt can cure a lot of fish diseases such as dropsy, bloating and constipation. As mentioned earlier “constipation” is one of the primary reasons for swim bladder disease in fish and Epsom salt can definitely cure this.
The fish that is suffering must be separated in a quarantine tank and must be given a bath of Epsom salt water and observe the changes in his behaviors over a few days to sees remarkable results.
How to decide dosage of Epson salt?
When you want to treat just one fish in a quarantine tank then you need a highly concentrated Epsom salt solution to treat him alone. When you treat fish in this way you must do this for just 10 minutes to see good results. Once the 10 minute Epsom salt bath is over you can put the fish back in original tank with other fish.
The dosage for such “emergency Epsom salt bath” is 1 table spoon per gallon of fish tank water volume. This is approximately 15 to 17 gms. per 1 gallon of fish tank water volume.
Watch this video to find out how to give you fish a Epsom salt bath
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Precautions
- When you are treating just a single fish don’t soak him in Epsom salt water for more than 15 mins.
- Aquarium salt and Epson salt are two different products.
- Aquarium salt is Sodium Chloride but Epson salt is Magnesium Sulfate
- Always buy Epson salt with magnesium suplhate to cure fish diseases.
- Always buy 100% pure Epsom salt with no added preservatives or chemicals to avoid further injury to fish health
How long does it take for swim bladder treatment to work?
There is no definite answer to this because immunity of every fish is different. The best way to treat the fish that is suffering from swim bladder disorder is to shift him to a quarantine tank and then observe step by step how he responds to treatments.
However the short answer to this is if the problem is not too severe you will see improvements in 4-5 days once you start the treatment. The moment the fish gets relief from constipation he will be able to control the swim bladder more efficiently and start swimming in a normal way.
To release him of constipation you can stop feeding him for two days and after that feed him with smashed boiled green peas by removing outer cover and start observing him. While feeding green peas it is important that peel off it’s cover and then feed them. The cover or the shell of the green peas is difficult to digest for the fish and that’s why you must remove it before you feed them.
Watch this video to find out how to feed green peas to fish
Do frozen peas help swim bladder?
No, frozen peas will be extremely difficult to digest for fish. You can buy frozen peas from any supermarket but before feeding them you must process then like this.
- Boil them for 5 minutes
- Peel off their cover (from each peas)
- Smash each of the nut
- Then feed the fish