Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

here is a really interesting one for you all
came home last night and found one of my Barra swimming upside down, quite happily mind you, still going for the food, no stress indication, the only thing I can see is that it's missing a couple of scales on one side and is swimming upside down.
was thinking to myself it could be something to do with it's swim bladder or similar but doesn't appear swollen or anything out of the ordinary
have quarantined for now in 10ppt salt where it's still happily eating and hiding in the corner opposite the bubbles
none of the others have any stress indication and still going as normal.

any ideas, solutions, thoughts

Maybe it is just an attention seeker!! Sounds like a great party trick though

Interesting Freebz, Id flick troutman a PM as he is good with this stuff. Must be a inner buoyancy issue Id imagine.

A lot of going on... Did he come good with the salt?

in addition to the added salt,

what about a few chips and a fresh AP salad. I have found this to significantly reduce the stress for the humans involved in this type of situation.

Beer! ...... beer fixes everything. Ive used it as a stress relief (quite regularly) for many, many years. It works a treat.

If all else fails.... pore in some beer.

still going, still upside down hiding in the corner
if it is an inner buoyancy issue, which is what I'm thinking at this stage, what would be the best way to approach it?
was thinking of sticking a small sinker on a hook and hanging it from it's mouth. any better ideas?

unfortunately it's bit small for eating yet but the worst is that we are going away for the weekend so can't closely monitor the situation

[quote unfortunately it's bit small for eating yet [/quote]


Two words

FISH FINGERS

It most likely has a swimbladder disorder/disease. This happens when the swim bladder, the gas filled organ that controls the fish's bouyancy by inflating or deflating, is unable to control itself and causes the fish to either stay at the bottom of the tank, float helplessly at the top, bob-around head first at the bottom, swim on its side, or swim upsidedown. A swimbladder problem can be caused by consipation, bacterial infection, poor water quality, physical damage to the swim bladder, or physical deformity of the swim bladder.

I think usually its difficult to find the cause but Im banking its constipated. Can you quarantine him freebz, keep him in a small tank with a low water level, salt to 1ppt and feed him peas for a while and see if there is any improvement. Use peas that are cooked and shelled. Peas are a laxative and should hopefully relieve him if constipation is the issue. If there is no improvement theres a good chance the bladder infection has developed into dropsy.... which is terminal.

Good luck!

Now a serious answer to the problem Charlie?

I liked your first one:

Pour in some beer. Hopefully as the fish gets drink it will begin to swim the right way up thinking it is upside down.

ok... time to update, it's still alive , having to force feed it though , it does seem to be getting better and now when moving is up the right way but slips onto it's side when it stops and chills out/pretends its a rock or something. I think I will monitor it for another week or so then see where we are at..

well it's still going. swimming up the right way now when moving but rolls onto it's side when it slows down an stops.
it seems that it cannot swim straight and only swim to it's right which is also making it unable feed, it looks like it's spine has a kink in it so I think it may be time to let this one go

now thinking it might have taken a hard blow from another when in their feeding free for all

Hey freebz, howd the wobbly one go?