Cherry barb not eating and with swim bladder disease!

My cherry barb lost one of its fins that helps him balance like 2 months ago so he likes to sleep on the floor because he wobbles a lot trying to float. But recently ( like a week ago) he stopped eating because it was to hard for him to get to the top of the tank. I have noticed about a week or 2 ago that his stomach is basically inverted how hungry he is but he wont eat. He now has got some swim bladder issues probably from another disease in the tank because my gourami has it just not nearly as bad. And now he just sits in a corner of the tank. When he tries swimming up he sinks right back down unless he swims really fast then in that case he can stay up alright. But he only stays there gasping for air and does a spin every once in a while. I have a smaller QT tank set up for him because maybe it would be easier to eat and he wouldn't be as stressed. But I don't know if I should or what I should do. the back part of his body is also super skinny so is the other part just not as much I am assuming where it is really skinny it is because of the swim bladder. I am not sure how he has problems because my gourami has swim bladder problems from stress/constipation and the cherry barb is definitely not constipated. Maybe stressed? I have had him for about 6 months now though. Thanks!

 

It sounds like this little guy is having a lot of issues. Are you able to post a clear picture? Do you know what originally caused him to loose his fin? Is it a single cherry barb or is it in a school of otherwise healthy cherry barbs? Unfortunately there are a lot of things it could be from bacterial illness to intestinal parasites and without some more info I don't really have any advice unless you want to quarantine and treat with antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs

 

It sounds like this little guy is having a lot of issues. Are you able to post a clear picture? Do you know what originally caused him to loose his fin? Is it a single cherry barb or is it in a school of otherwise healthy cherry barbs? Unfortunately there are a lot of things it could be from bacterial illness to intestinal parasites and without some more info I don't really have any advice unless you want to quarantine and treat with antibiotics and antiparasitic drugs

He is being treated in my 40 gal with my other fish because people were saying on my forum about a different fish that they might all be infected. I don’t know how he lost it maybe fin rot? My gourami keeps losing it sending organs and grows them back and loses them again. I think that is fin rot also. It is a group the other ones are fine. He just started getting bad after losing his fin. Do you think the back where it is really skinny is the swim bladder? I have a qt tank that is smaller so he can get food easier and be away from other fish to relieve stress. Should I put him in there instead? Thanks!

 

This is defiently a tricky post for me to answer, but here is my two cents. Fin rot shouldn't progress to where the fish looses the entire fin unless something is seriously wrong with your parameters, or the bacteria eating away at it was unfazed by clean water and was not treated correctly. If your gourami is loosing his feeler fins as well, that leads me to suspect either something wrong with your parameters or there is some bullying going on in your tank. For what it's worth, I think it would be helpful if you could fill out the emergency template.

As for severe emaciation in fish, I have only seen it in two cases. One was internal parasites, which if you suspect this then you should also be looking at your fishes poop to see if it gives off any clues. The other time I have seen it is from malnourishment from neglect or stress, which might also explain why you are seeing him look so skinny from the back, since I'm interpreting it as you seeing his spine.

Barbs are schooling fish and IMO separating him in the condition he's in might stress him out enough to the point of death. Maybe look into buying a breeder box for the time being so he has an easier time getting to the surface. What are you trying to feed him? Live foods and foods soaked in garlic juice are often more enticing to fish. Also, what are you treating the tank with?

 

This is defiently a tricky post for me to answer, but here is my two cents. Fin rot shouldn't progress to where the fish looses the entire fin unless something is seriously wrong with your parameters, or the bacteria eating away at it was unfazed by clean water and was not treated correctly. If your gourami is loosing his feeler fins as well, that leads me to suspect either something wrong with your parameters or there is some bullying going on in your tank. For what it's worth, I think it would be helpful if you could fill out the emergency template.

As for severe emaciation in fish, I have only seen it in two cases. One was internal parasites, which if you suspect this then you should also be looking at your fishes poop to see if it gives off any clues. The other time I have seen it is from malnourishment from neglect or stress, which might also explain why you are seeing him look so skinny from the back, since I'm interpreting it as you seeing his spine.

Barbs are schooling fish and IMO separating him in the condition he's in might stress him out enough to the point of death. Maybe look into buying a breeder box for the time being so he has an easier time getting to the surface. What are you trying to feed him? Live foods and foods soaked in garlic juice are often more enticing to fish. Also, what are you treating the tank with?

Prazi pro and salt. I am feeding dry fish flakes. They are a fluval brand they seem pretty good. I have one it’s small though but it will do I am pretty sure. It will fit him. My gourami poop is clear as for parameters the ph is way to high for the gourami it was 8.2-8.1 I moved him though to a 20 gal. The ph is way lower and better and it is a way more peaceful tank. I noticed recently that he was getting bullied a lot in the other one. Like if he left that corner fish would chase and bite at him like crazy so he would just run back to the corner of the tank. He is going better now. Idk how to treat the cherry barb for what is happening to him I am treating the tank right now for fin rot and flukes. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

Hmm. Happy to hear you gourami is doing better.

As for the barb. While it's great that you know the ph, what about the other parameters, like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kh and gh?

IMHO the ph is also a little high for cherry barbs as well. They can live in it, but I believe they prefer softer water. Adding botanicals like Indian almond leaves can help with this. I'm not sure if this applies to other fish as well, but Indian AL are often added to beta tanks to be used as a "de-stresser" since the tannins they leech into the water are helpful to the fish in quite a few ways. Regardless, I don't think adding botanicals would do any harm, and might help the fish out. PraziPro I think can help with internal parasites so I would keep treating the tank for that. (someone please correct me if this is wrong.)

What is the current stocking of the tank? Are any of the other fish scratching against decor or rapidly breathing?

 

Edited**** thought twice about what I posted, I'm just not gonna get into it beyond dropping the link.
euthanize

if it's as bad as indicated.... There's a thousand other time's Id be optimistic about convalescing a fish and would opt to treat it.....

 

Edited**** thought twice about what I posted, I'm just not gonna get into it beyond dropping the link.
euthanize

if it's as bad as indicated.... There's a thousand other time's Id be optimistic about convalescing a fishand would opt to treat it.....

what do you mean by convalescing fishhand? Thanks!

Hmm. Happy to hear you gourami is doing better.

As for the barb. While it's great that you know the ph, what about the other parameters, like ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, kh and gh?

IMHO the ph is also a little high for cherry barbs as well. They can live in it, but I believe they prefer softer water. Adding botanicals like Indian almond leaves can help with this. I'm not sure if this applies to other fish as well, but Indian AL are often added to beta tanks to be used as a "de-stresser" since the tannins they leech into the water are helpful to the fish in quite a few ways. Regardless, I don't think adding botanicals would do any harm, and might help the fish out. PraziPro I think can help with internal parasites so I would keep treating the tank for that. (someone please correct me if this is wrong.)

What is the current stocking of the tank? Are any of the other fish scratching against decor or rapidly breathing?

yes the gourami was rapidly breathing and my RTS was rapidly breathing and scratching himself but on day of the prazipro stopped it. He also had fin rot but it is better now or it is healing at least. Sorry I keep forgetting to put the parameters in here they are now it is weird it's like a whole new tank I have no clue how this happened this probably why they are doing this. The parameters did like a swap on me Nitrate- 40 chlorine-0 nitrite-0 hardness 0-25 buffer is 80-120, Ph is 7.6 So they actually didn't switch that much. I wish my hardness and buffer was up more though because I have nerites also. I have 22 fish around in a 40 gallon tank- 1 red tail shark, 5 red eye tetras, 2 long skirt white tetras, 4 black tetras, 5 cherry barbs,and 3 mollys I had a gourami but I moved it to the 20 gallon. what do the almond leaves help with? Thanks!