DAGES

HI
this is the second fish i have had do this in a week and my tank is almost 1 1/2 yrs old and I have never had this happen. What is this? is there any hope to fix for the fish, or will they succumb? i took in water to petsmart and she said the nitrates and ammonia were both a tad high, but nothing too toxic. i did a water change when i got home, took out a plant and put in some "amonia down"....not sure if this will help ? any thoughts?

Tony G.

Hello and Welcome to Fishlore!

Twirling disease cannot be treated. I am unsure of what causes it, but i know there is no cure.
You said they people at petsmart said that your ammonia and nitrates were high.
Ammonia is toxic to fish, at any level. nitrate is "ok" for fish, in low concentrations (below 20ppm). I would Add some prime to your aquarium to detox your ammonia for the next 24hrs and do a 50% waterchange. This will lower the ammonia and let your tank finish the cycle.
Also, your Aquarium Info says that you do not know about the nitrogen cycle. here is a link that will help you out with that:
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Also, we highly suggest to get a personal liquid test kit. They are reliable, and cheaper in the long run.
One more question, what size is your aquarium?

ray_sj

I'm sorry to hear your fish have these symptoms.

By twirling, I think you mean swimming in a "corkscrew" fashion? If that's the case, I haven't found a way to treat it. I've read that it is a loss of muscle control caused by parasites or some nervous system or brain damage.

One of my guppies came down with this when I first got back into fish. It lived for a few weeks, but never got better. I had tried Coppersafe, Parasite Clear, and Maracyn I and II, and they didn't help.

Tony gave good advice. One of the best ways to prevent problems is to make sure you have excellent water quality.

JoeSmo

My tetra(s) does this on occasion, although I think they are just being their spaztic selves beacuse they only do it every once in awhile and they are always pretty hyper so I was't really to shocked to see it the first time.

DAGES

thanks for the reponses..
I am going to clean the filter tomorrow and maybe change out more water..
it is wierd that i have had the tank up for soo long, and had healthy fish and now in the last couple months it seems to be plummeting. I have medicated 2x's and still seem to have these random things come up.... i found something online that alluded to copper buildup in the filter may cause posioning which has similar symptoms but Ray if you tried all the meds for that and it didn't help, i am not holding out much hope for this fish

heather84

one of my neons got a injured eye and then began doing this....he didnt make it

aquarist48

Good morning. So sorry to hear your fish are not doing well. It does sound like "whirling" disease. If you'll go to the top right hand side of this screen and do a "search" for "whirling disease" you'll find some good information there. If indeed your fish do have this disease, I'm afraid I don't know of any cures for it either.
It's been stated that this disease is caused by parasites that can lay dormant for years in foods such as tubiflex worms.

As stated above it would be a great help for you to have your own test kit. What is most recommend is the API (liquid) Master Test Kit. Agreed that any amount of ammonia can be toxic to your fish. I suggest doing daily water changes of 30 to 50%, add some Prime to detox the ammonia for 24 hours until it's time for the next water change. Continue with the daily water changes until you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5-10 nitrates.
Best of luck.
Ken

Shawnie

sounds like you lost your cycle when we medicate tanks, no matter how old they are, the beneficial bacteria gets killed off from the meds.....that tank needs to be recycled again especially quick if there is ammonia/nitrites,,,as tony and others suggested, get some prime and stop using meds/chemicals to lower ammonia and such...do daily partial water changes of 30-40% with the prime ...do this for a couple weeks then retest (gives you time to get your test kit) and see where you stand....