FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Our second danio has started swimming sideways and upsdie down. His body gets twisted into an S-curve, and if he were human I'd say he had a stroke. I suspect I will have to euthanize him, as I did our first danio to show these symptoms. Our other 2 danios are fine. I'm just curious if anyone has thoughts on what this could be?

thanks!

Hi..How long has your tank been set up?..any new fish?Swim bladder the fish swims with its head down(not straight)but you say they swim sideways too,upsidedown..
I would guess this is some sort of water condition..hardness,PH too low or too high..Ive never kept Danios so Im not sure what your tests should be at..
Have you done any water tests?..this would tell you alot..

Sue..

You will indeed have to destroy the fish...

Internal parasites have most likely invaded the internal organs of the fish, destroying the bladder and kidney function.

Or...NTD comes to mind, which, once advanced, destroys the muscle structure of the fish.

--garyroland.

thanks for the speedy replies:

The tank is well established, we've had it for a couple of years. But this particular fish is pretty new. But the other one that died was a long-term resdent. All the chemical tests seem to be fine, although nitrates were just borderline, but we've fixed that. The water is changed regularly.


do you think this is something that can spread? It's strange because the 2nd danio (who died) was actually a replacement for the first one, As I said, our other long-time danios seem to be just fine, as are all our other long-standing fish. although. we did have 2 new mollies die.

thoughts? and thanks!

Old "resident" fish do die...

New fish can, and sometimes do, come in with parasites and/or diseases. Those fish can be returned for free replacements.

Nitrates can only be "fixed" by partial water changes and are not the total enemy they're made out to be. Some may be as high as 50-60ppm with no ill effects.

New fish must be acclimated at least an hour or more before placing in the host tank. Failure to acclimate will shock the fish and can, in many species, lead to death within 24 hours.

--garyroland.

So after a few days in quarantine, the sick fish was at least swimming upright. So we returned him to the tank, where he began eating (he hadn't been doing much of that) and he regained most of his color. His body still has a funny S-curve to it, but he seems otherwise OK. No idea what's wrong with him, but he's our little special needs fish, and he fits right in with our 2 blind cats......