swimming in circles, nose to the bottom

On Sat, 09 Sep 2006 19:12:00 GMT, "Jules59 via PetKB.com" u25279@uwe
wrote:

does anyone know what causes a fish to swim in circles with it's nose to the
bottom? obviously it's in distress, in fact I'm sure it's dying, but is
there any danger to my other fish? Is this contagious? Help--this is my
first tank.

Thanks.

I don't have an answer, just a suggestion, talk to your local fish
store.

In my experience, odd swimming behavior was probably related to a
failure of the float bladder. I have never seen it spread to other
fish. One White Cloud lived for a year. It learned to swim to the
bottom then float to the top. It seems possible for a float bladder
to remain empty, thus making it hard for the fish to get off the
bottom.

If you learn more, I hope you will share.

I hope you can avoid feeling guilt. I suffer guilt feelings with
every sick or dead fish. I almost have a mantra, "fish and all things
living die."

dick

Dick ...I'm going to look into the float bladder thing. I had a zoology
teacher that might know something about it and I'll email him. I'll let you
know if I find anything out...thanks very much.

Dick wrote:
does anyone know what causes a fish to swim in circles with it's nose to the
bottom? obviously it's in distress, in fact I'm sure it's dying, but is
there any danger to my other fish? Is this contagious? Help--this is my
first tank.

Thanks.

I don't have an answer, just a suggestion, talk to your local fish
store.

In my experience, odd swimming behavior was probably related to a
failure of the float bladder. I have never seen it spread to other
fish. One White Cloud lived for a year. It learned to swim to the
bottom then float to the top. It seems possible for a float bladder
to remain empty, thus making it hard for the fish to get off the
bottom.

If you learn more, I hope you will share.

I hope you can avoid feeling guilt. I suffer guilt feelings with
every sick or dead fish. I almost have a mantra, "fish and all things
living die."

dick

--
Message posted via http://www.petkb.com

Jules59 via PetKB.com wrote:
Dick ...I'm going to look into the float bladder thing. I had a zoology
teacher that might know something about it and I'll email him. I'll let you
know if I find anything out...thanks very much.


I do not think this is a swim bladder problem either.
dc pointed out the more likely scenarios. I your water parameters are
fine (no ammonia or nitrite, 80 ppm Kh or more), I would consider a
relatively safe treatment of Pimafix either in your main aquarium or a
hospital aquarium. Metronidazole is effective for some problems you
described if caused by a parisite. Another treatment that is organic is
to use Usnea lichen in a boiled tea form, this has strong anti-fungal
and anti-parasite properties and I have used this where other treatment
have failed.

Carl

Dick wrote in
:

In my experience, odd swimming behavior was probably related to a
failure of the float bladder. I have never seen it spread to other

Swim bladder damage is another possibility, however the fact that the fish
can only swim in a circle suggests that there is muscle or nerve damage
involved as well.

Difficulty staying neutrally buoyant is usually more typically akin to swim
bladder problems, but that can also be due to gastro-intestinal problems as
well--a condition common to goldfish. Usually if the condition is
transient the later is responsible. Increasing the amount of vegetable
fiber in a fish's diet can often help with gastro-intestinal conditions.