Swim bladder issues?

[Bigfish of La.]

I have a Vrolik wrasse and he has been having swim issues For the past 2 days. He doesn’t swim as normal, struggles and at times will rest on the bottom in the prone position, breathing seems normal and seems alert. When I feed the fish he will eat as normal, but has a hard time competing with the others. He does bury in the sand at night as normal. What can I do?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Can you post a short video? If it is a swimbladder issue it is negatively buoyant and that has a much better prognosis than positive buoyancy does. There isn't any treatment for it though. It does sometime resolve on its own....a video would just help me figure out if indeed that is the case.

jay

 

[Bigfish of La.]

A short video just as lights are coming on. I will try for a better video later today

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

A short video just as lights are coming on. I will try for a better video later today

Thanks - yep, you diagnosed this accurately, the fish is negatively buoyant. I don't know of any treatment for this, but in some cases, this resolves on its own. If the fish stops feeding, you could try moving it to a treatment tank and dosing with erythromycin, but really, bacterial infections seem to more often cause positive, not negative buoyancy.

Jay

 

[Bigfish of La.]

A better video

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So - I see the wrasse laying in the corals, etc. That is one issue that negatively buoyant fish face - they get damaged swimming into things. Moving it to a treatment tank is the only way I know to avoid that, and if you do that, you might as well try the erythromycin while you're at it.

jay