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After 3 weeks of setting up a 5 gallon quarantine tank, I placed a sick glowlight tetra in it. 2 weeks later she succumbed to what was most likely "swim bladder disease" as she kept swimming in loops and upside down, and would float on the top for a while. Now i would like to use my hospital tank again but am not sure of how to best clean it. I have a Whisper Internal power filter for a 5-10 gallon tank. it has a biological filter made of the black bio-foam. I know i have to clean everypart of the tank, but what do i do with the bio-foam, do i have to disinfect it as well, or can i somehow save my precious bacteria culture ?

Hi marsha and welcome to fishprofiles.com

I have a Whisper Internal filter and have contemplated that question. However, the biofoam issue is an easy one, if you want to sanitize it. You can either buy a new one, or you can soak that one in a bleach solution overnight. Marineland recommends one part chlorine bleach to 3 parts water for its micron polishing sleeve (between uses). Then you simply immerse it overnight. When done, remove it and rinse several times with a good overdose of chlorine remover and let air dry. Always use cold water as chlorine is a gas and heat will take it away.

The filter itself is a different matter as some things can corrode. I don't know what the filter looks like in the area that is inaccessible. I would run it on the side of a dishpan with a weaker bleach solution for a half hour or hour. With filters, I have used about a half cup of bleach in a 4 gallon dishpan.

Once again, rinse several times and include a good run with an overdose of dechlorinator. I would let that air dry too (residual chlorine bleach will dissipate in air).

Now, lets say you want to set it up in a snap again when a fish gets sick. What I've done with that particular filter, is to stuff the biobag with a good handful of surface gravel from a well seeded, otherwise healthy tank. I also squeeze or rub media from a seeded filter pad or sponge on the biobag and the block sponge. And, I always use a bacterial starter poured directly into the filter.

If you have just a single fish in a 10 gallon, it doesn't produce much of a load and that little bit of seeding will help. Even when meds are used, I find that I don't have much of a problem with ammonia and nitrite, but I still test daily.

The concern I have with SBD in a fish such as yours would be infection. Unless she was injured by another fish (ramming by an aggressive male), then I would consider possible infection. Constipation causes SBD in goldfish so with them it is hugely diet. But they have scrunched spines which compress internal organs. Not so with the kind of fish you have. A blow of any kind can cause SBD so maybe your fish didn't survive because it was more of an injury. Also, some internal parasites can cause a swelling in the intestine and put pressure on the swim bladder. If more get it, consider a round of Parasite Clear with Praziquantel.

Hope this helps and hope to see you around in our forums

Diane

Last edited by Cory_Di at 08-Mar-2005 21:16

Thanks Diane

This is definitely helpful. great detail. My fish was more specifically put into the hospital tank because she was severely overweight and the other fish were picking on her constantly, even my other tetra's. I've never seen a little fish eat so much, i've seen her swallow in one gulp a flake the size of my thumbnail. a very agressive eater. I was afraid the stress would make her sick or the other fish would hurt her. I wonder if they were picking on her because they knew she was sick, Do they do that? I didn't know SBD could be caused by so many things. What do you think could have killed my little fish? This is one of my original fish that i bought for my first aquarium,a year and 3 mo. ago. so the loss was not taken lightly. I haven't had new fish for months and have not had any disease, water problems, a dirty tank, and my 20 gallon is highly understocked. Is it even possibe to be caused by a disease, or bacteria?

Thanks again, i'm very happy to become a member of this forum.

If other fish were picking on her, my money is on swim bladder damage from one of her attacks. I watch my white clouds, who are generally peaceful. When the boys start jockeying for position , it gets rough. The smaller of the two males has always got battle scars, one that is permanent and now an ever developing growth. I watch him get "rammed" in the sides often, but he just stays there and takes it like a man .

All it takes is one carefully place side ram to get a fish just right and cause damage to the swim bladder. Someone here, recently lost a beloved fish after a rocky formation fell on him. After it was pulled off of him shortly after, he was left floating at the top of the tank, on his side and upside down, then he died. In his case, no doubt that at least one of the organs damaged in the hit, was the swim bladder.

There is, however, another possiblity in my mind. That is, this fish was eggbound. Every now and then you happen upon a female who fills up with eggs and is 2-3x fatter than any other female with eggs. I don't care what species it is, I see my females all eating more than my males. But my eggbound fish had an apetite beyond the others. There is not much that can be done for egg bound fish so tiny, other than to wait. Maybe your fish finally succumbed to the condition. Below I'll post a pic a normal female with eggs, and in the next post, one that is perpetually eggbound.

I would carefull watch the tank. If other fish start showing any symptoms whatsoever, come back to the hospital forum and post what you see. But, start a new post and provide all relevant information.

Hope to see you around our forums :88)

Last edited by Cory_Di at 10-Mar-2005 17:43

Here is the normal white cloud female



Cory_Di attached this image:

Here's the eggbound female (poor quality pic, but the only one I have)

Cory_Di attached this image:


Last edited by Cory_Di at 10-Mar-2005 17:44[/font]

you truly are a great help. i think you could be right about the damage, but it could also have been an eggbound problem, she's at least as fat as the eggbound pic if not fatter. she has been a round ball of a fish for about 4 mo. maybe now she's out of her misery.

thanks a lot, see you around

Marsha

Oh, that sounds like she was probably egg bound. It can be fatal as something ends up perforating inside. I know I'll find my lady in really bad shape, if not dead one day. But, she's already lived a good two years & 5 months and is still going strong.