Pl*co with possible Swim Bladder Disease?

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asgard
Posts: 11
Joined: 22 Feb 2003, 00:11
Location 1: Auckland, New Zealand
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Pl*co with possible Swim Bladder Disease?

Post by asgard »

Hi guys,
it's been a while since I posted, and I feel sad to have to post over something like this.

My pl*co Bob, is dead.

This afternoon when I came home from work, I saw that he was floating at the top of the tank with his belly facing up.
When I gently touched him he reacted and swam to the bottom of the tank, but as soon as he stopped swimming he started to float up without swimming or anything. He ended back with his belly up at the top of the tank.

I rang my local fish shop and explained the situation to them. The guy said that it sounded like swim bladder and the only thing I could do was place him in a bucket with water just past his dorsal fins. The pressure was supposed to help. He took my number down and I went off to do as told.

I also logged online and asked a friend for advice (she works at a fish store & I know she knows her stuff.) She recommended putting him in a bucket with Epsom salt. I was getting ready to go out to buy it when the guy from the fish shop. He said I needed to put him in a bucket of TONIC salt, for 20 minutes a day and also put medication in the tank.

So I went to the fish shop, spent alot of money buying what was recommended and then went home and set up the bucket.

As soon as I put Bob in, he started thrashing around like crazy and at one point jumped out of the bucket. He started bleading in the mouth, and then became still :(

He's dead and I feel extremely awful right now... but I want to know WHAT was wrong with him first off, and what I SHOULD have done to fix it.

PLEASE HELP :(
Zeb A.
Pl*costomus Beginner
http://www.asgard.gen.nz
asgard
Posts: 11
Joined: 22 Feb 2003, 00:11
Location 1: Auckland, New Zealand
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Re: Pl*co with possible Swim Bladder Disease?

Post by asgard »

asgard wrote: I was getting ready to go out to buy it when the guy from the fish shop. He said I needed to put him in a bucket of TONIC salt, for 20 minutes a day and also put medication in the tank.
Let me clarify, he said put a CUP of the tonic salt in a bucket full of water.

From what I've gathered since, he had advised me to put WAY TOO MUCH salt in.
Apparently it's supposed to be 1 tablespoon PER gallon. The bucket was approximately a gallons worth, and I had gone and put a whole CUP in ~_~

Apparently the salt would have burned his insides :(
Zeb A.
Pl*costomus Beginner
http://www.asgard.gen.nz
micahgee
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Joined: 10 Dec 2003, 23:08
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Location 1: newton, MA (suburb of Boston)

Post by micahgee »

ouch...that sounds painful..., i once poured in aquarium salt and it burned the crap out of my amazon sword, it was nasty looking with holes in it, i take it freshwater organisms and direct contact with salt = :evil:
micahgee
Posts: 20
Joined: 10 Dec 2003, 23:08
I've donated: $5.00!
Location 1: newton, MA (suburb of Boston)

Post by micahgee »

ouch...that sounds painful..., i once poured in aquarium salt and it burned the crap out of my amazon sword, it was nasty looking with holes in it, i take it freshwater organisms and direct contact with salt = :evil:
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Fiskars the Whiskers
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Location 1: Ketchikan, Alaska
Interests: Catfish, coffee, math, reading, the internet, frolicing, going for drives, anthropology, Terry Pratchett books
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Post by Fiskars the Whiskers »

Ohhh, I'm really sorry to hear about Bob. :cry:
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