Swim bladder or other?

[jonfish]

My flametail blenny has been acting weird the last couple days and I’m not sure what to do next. Started to notice she was very bloated first and then that she had buoyancy issues. Her tail would float up, so I thought swim bladder issues. But then I read blenny fish don’t have them? I tried fasting 3 days and I’ve done 2 big water changes. Not seeing her float anymore but just caught her laying sideways on top of her hide. Breathing hard and only minimally eating. Advice?

 

[jonfish]

Extra pic

 

[jonfish]

I’ve had her for a year, last new addition was a filefish in Dec. 30 gal with 4 fish and some inverts. Temp has been a little high lately but never went above 80 and never for long. Normally at 78F. Dealing with low pH and elevated phosphates but that’s been true forever. Recently been working through some cyano and treated with chemiclean but she did fine with that when I had to do a treatment back in the fall.

 

[vetteguy53081]

My flametail blenny has been acting weird the last couple days and I’m not sure what to do next. Started to notice she was very bloated first and then that she had buoyancy issues. Her tail would float up, so I thought swim bladder issues. But then I read blenny fish don’t have them? I tried fasting 3 days and I’ve done 2 big water changes. Not seeing her float anymore but just caught her laying sideways on top of her hide. Breathing hard and only minimally eating. Advice?

Appears to be one of two things. . . My gut feeling says this fish is full and loves to eat and the other would be egg-bound which I have low suspicion of. Its swimming normal and does not appear to be constipated but view again tomorrow and see if this has lessened. You can feed brine shrimp the next few feedings in the event its constipation to help the fish pass food

 

[jonfish]

Yes she is an absolute pig normally! Frozen brine shrimp is pretty much all I feed, should I continue that or would live be better?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My flametail blenny has been acting weird the last couple days and I’m not sure what to do next. Started to notice she was very bloated first and then that she had buoyancy issues. Her tail would float up, so I thought swim bladder issues. But then I read blenny fish don’t have them? I tried fasting 3 days and I’ve done 2 big water changes. Not seeing her float anymore but just caught her laying sideways on top of her hide. Breathing hard and only minimally eating. Advice?

Most blennies lack a swim bladder, others have small ones.

In the video, the fish is bloated, but seems fairly evenly so. This could be unreleased eggs, or possibly impacted food. It could also be fluid from ascites (due to liver or kidney damage).

The positive buoyancy you saw might have been related to gas build up due to bacteria action on some sort of infection inside the fish.

The rapid breathing means whatever is going on is causing more widespread symptoms.

Sometimes with fish (pretty often in fact) there just is no treatment, especially for internal issues. Sorry I don’t have a treatment for you other than to keep trying to feed it and wait and see if it can work through it.

 

[MnFish1]

I think the fish is ill with something - which is possibly not a parasite issue, as compared to something more treatable. Unless I'm reading the video incorrectly - I'm wondering if it is suffering from old age (i.e. dying) - unless there is more information you could provide - QT? Other fish sick? inverts? etc. Egg bound-ness (not sure thats a word) - wouldn't cause upward floating - the only things that would would be a gas forming organism in the body.