Sick Fish Problem

OFDM

My fish (coldwater freshwater) was having swim bladder problems for the last week or so, usual thing - swimming upside-down, not being able to go to the bottom of the tank. Not feeding it for a day or two would solve the problem but it would return after it was fed. Also tried feeding it a couple of peas and a couple of 30-50% water changes. His dorsal fin is straight up only about 50% of the time.

Now however, it's lying on the bottom and is unable to rise up without considerable effort.
He's the only fish in the tank (he assasinated all the other fish that used to be in the tank) and is about 5 years old.

I have no idea what breed it is so I've included a link to a dodgy picture of it below.

Any ideas on what's wrong with it now and how it can be treated?

The_Conductor

You know your fish looks not dissimilar to a Japanese Koi?
Not sure what I can say re the bladder problem.
I have tropical fish mostly- the general all purpose cure I have for all ills is aloevera juice. Either bottled from the health food shop or freshly squeezed. Its a clear gelatenous fluid- and it seems to works wonders on the fish. I can't say whether it will cure your fish or not- but it will not cause him any harm. I'm against dumping chemicals willy-nilly everywhere- a lot of the best cures are the simplest ones. A simple thing to check, that I imagine you have done already- is your carbon?

S.

FranknFurter

Agreed on the Aloe-Vera thing, amazing stuff, I use the real thing, I keep it frozen! lol ;0)

As far as your swim bladder thing goes, I dunno, some of the remedies work some dont, tbh, my own opinion is that its one of those things that if it dont right itself, it prolly aint going to.

Dunno what to say to ya, ....

OFDM

How much aloe vera do you use per litre/gallon generally?

FranknFurter

tbh, what I normally do, is just take one of the pieces of the plant itself that I have frozen, and float it in the tank, they nibble on it, and as it defrosts it releases into the water, then i chuck it....... just reminded me im runnin low lol