Sick Zebra Danio? Swimming tail down

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 32.5
How long has the tank been running? 6 weeks
Does it have a filter?yes
Does it have a heater?yes
What is the water temperature?76
What is the entire stocking of this tank? 6 danios, 4 pond snails
Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 25% weekly
How much of the water do you change?
What do you use to treat your water? Nutrafin water conditioner
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Vacuum lightly right now, newly planted

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes, used old filter media plus added nutrafin bio
What do you use to test the water? API master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: o
Nitrite: o
Nitrate: 5
pH: 7.2

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Twice daily
How much do you feed your fish? One pinch
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Omega pellets, Tetra flakes, Bug Bites
Do you feed frozen? Tried, wouldn't have it
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 8 months
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 day
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? He struggles to swim straight, tail is down, back seems curved
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No, moved to a quarentine tub, put in a pea
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? He is actively trying to swim and get around but it's a struggle

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
Can't really add to how I just explained it. I just purchased new fish and noticed this guy doing this before I released the fish into the tank so I'm concerned that there's a bacterial something in the tank. I'll do a water change today but I don't want to stress out the new fish too much. I really need help. Danio is in a container. I haven't dosed it with anything other than conditioner and I dropped in a pea just in case it's constipation. I posted a picture but my video keeps getting rejected. The picture is as straight as he can get. Not for a lack of trying. He's really trying.

 

If you are saying that its spine is bent...
Then in my opinion...
Go somehere in woods dig a deep hole and bury your aquarium and products which came into contact with it and cover it with soil on top of it put a flag bio hazard...
It is fish TB you are dealing with and it is no joke...
Even you can get infected.
It also might be genetic defect....
But its your call...
I would personally have got rid of it
It also might be genetic defect....
But its your call...
I would personally have got rid of it

 

If you are saying that its spine is bent...
Then in my opinion...
Go somehere in woods dig a deep hole and bury your aquarium and products which came into contact with it and cover it with soil on top of it put a flag bio hazard...
It is fish TB you are dealing with and it is no joke...
Even you can get infected.
It also might be genetic defect....
But its your call...
I would personally have got rid of it
It also might be genetic defect....
But its your call...
I would personally have got rid of it

Settle down IF it is Fish TB, it's very common in the hobby, proven to be in about 40- 80% of the pet stores sampled fish in a few studies I've seen. It's caused by mycobacteria, and that is very prevalent the world over. in lakes ponds, streams, mud dirt sand, water, oceans, ect ect ect. it's literally everywhere.

If a person gets it, it causes sores that don't heal, usually on hands or feet with a wound that comes in contact with the water that then becomes infected with the bacteria. it's very rare for this to happen, commonly called "fish handlers disease", you don't hear much about it, It's rare.

in fact, your fishtank likely has mycobacteria in it in the biofilm, so does mine, so does everybodies fishtanks most likely that's how common it is. However, it's usually picking off sick or weak fish in the hobby setting and other fish don't have a problem with it.
. It can be devastating to a fish farm though, where the fish are crowded and stressed which is why it's taken so seriously.

Just as likely to be a swim bladder issue with the fish not being able to remain neutrally buoyant, than it being a parasite, or Fish TB swollen or infected swim bladder I'd think. they get out of shape when it's severe also and people mistake it for a bent spine.

as far as the tank:
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 32.5

32.5 what? Gallons or Liters?
either way the tank's too small for danios, they are avid swimmers, it's all they do, zoom around,. they really need 3 ft of tank length or more to have the room to really swim naturally.

My guess, intestinal bacteria creating gas and pressuring the swim bladders forward and upward causing the tail to sag and "lump up" in the middle between the head and dorsal fin. Look for danio anatomy I'd post a pic, but It's not mine and I been down that "removed for copyright" road already too much. But if you look you'll see how the swim bladders are positioned above the intestines and how intestinal issues could displace them upward or forward cause bulging of the back and the sagging back half. yes, a fish could and normally does bloat and bulge in the abdomen, but there are exceptions to this and it doesn't always manifest in that way. It looks caved in (indented) by the pelvic fin analfin area also where it shouldn't be. the two opposing issues I see, suggest displaced swim bladders.

 

Settle down IF it is Fish TB, it's very common in the hobby, proven to be in about 40- 80% of the pet stores sampled fish in a few studies I've seen. It's caused by mycobacteria, and that is very prevalent the world over. in lakes ponds, streams, mud dirt sand, water, oceans, ect ect ect. it's literally everywhere.

If a person gets it, it causes sores that don't heal, usually on hands or feet with a wound that comes in contact with the water that then becomes infected with the bacteria. it's very rare for this to happen, commonly called "fish handlers disease", you don't hear much about it, It's rare.

in fact, your fishtank likely has mycobacteria in it in the biofilm, so does mine, so does everybodies fishtanks most likely that's how common it is. However, it's usually picking off sick or weak fish in the hobby setting and other fish don't have a problem with it.
. It can be devastating to a fish farm though, where the fish are crowded and stressed which is why it's taken so seriously.

Just as likely to be a swim bladder issue with the fish not being able to remain neutrally buoyant, than it being a parasite, or Fish TB swollen or infected swim bladder I'd think. they get out of shape when it's severe also and people mistake it for a bent spine.

as far as the tank:
Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 32.5

32.5 what? Gallons or Liters?
either way the tank's too small for danios, they are avid swimmers, it's all they do, zoom around,. they really need 3 ft of tank length or more to have the room to really swim naturally.

My guess, intestinal bacteria creating gas and pressuring the swim bladders forward and upward causing the tail to sag and "lump up" in the middle between the head and dorsal fin. Look for danio anatomy I'd post a pic, but It's not mine and I been down that "removed for copyright" road already too much. But if you look you'll see how the swim bladders are positioned above the intestines and how intestinal issues could displace them upward or forward cause bulging of the back and the sagging back half. yes, a fish could and normally does bloat and bulge in the abdomen, but there are exceptions to this and it doesn't always manifest in that way. It looks caved in (indented) by the pelvic fin analfin area also where it shouldn't be. the two opposing issues I see, suggest displaced swim bladders.

I am not risking it anyways...
One of my friend had serious issue. His infection grew to be antibiotic resistant...
It took really long time to heal...
Incliding 1 week hospitalization for heavy dose of antibiotics...

 

i had a zebra danio that was like this and i just thought it was a birth defect. he survived for a while and it didn’t affect his eating or behavior.

 

Thanks everyone. This just happened to him. He could be one of the original danios I got over a year ago or he could be one of the new ones approximately 8 mths ago. I can't tell. I could be wrong with the timing as well. I tend to do that. Regardless, he just started this, could that still be a defect? I'm leaning towards a bladder issue, constipation......This last week I've been giving them these mini Betta pellets off and on. That's the only change to their tank. Not every day, 2 days pellets, 4 days flakes and 1 day bug bites. They've had everything else except the mini pellets before. I'm just going to keep an eye on him and keep him in quarentine. I'll look up TB. My tank is 32.5 gallons, 32 inches long - from everything I read on zebras this is a good size for them. Is it not? Should I worry about something being in my tank? Like enough to do a major water change?

 

Thanks everyone. This just happened to him. He could be one of the original danios I got over a year ago or he could be one of the new ones approximately 8 mths ago. I can't tell. I could be wrong with the timing as well. I tend to do that. Regardless, he just started this, could that still be a defect? I'm leaning towards a bladder issue, constipation......This last week I've been giving them these mini Betta pellets off and on. That's the only change to their tank. Not every day, 2 days pellets, 4 days flakes and 1 day bug bites. They've had everything else except the mini pellets before. I'm just going to keep an eye on him and keep him in quarentine. I'll look up TB. My tank is 32.5 gallons, 32 inches long - from everything I read on zebras this is a good size for them. Is it not? Should I worry about something being in my tank? Like enough to do a major water change?

a major water change doesn't hurt on general principal to promote healing and a strong immune system with some new water and to de-stress the inhabitants. I'm leaning towards swim bladder also, it could be bacterially caused though so a water change wouldn't hurt anything.

If you weren't soaking the betta pellets in tank water before feeding in order to swell them up first, they can be eaten to an extreme by a fish and then swell up inside the fish with the water absorption and cause issues for them in the digestive sensitive fish. cause a swim bladder issue from displacement, cause a blockage, then bacteria buildup,,,, Hard to say, quarantine isn't gonna hurt anything if you can do it either, and it's the safe bet.

the 32.5' gallons I had as reference were about a 25" footprint. if yours is nearing 3 feet, it's much better than near 2 ft for them for sure.

 

a major water change doesn't hurt on general principal to promote healing and a strong immune system with some new water and to de-stress the inhabitants. I'm leaning towards swim bladder also, it could be bacterially caused though so a water change wouldn't hurt anything.

If you weren't soaking the betta pellets in tank water before feeding in order to swell them up first, they can be eaten to an extreme by a fish and then swell up inside the fish with the water absorption and cause issues for them in the digestive sensitive fish. cause a swim bladder issue from displacement, cause a blockage, then bacteria buildup,,,, Hard to say, quarantine isn't gonna hurt anything if you can do it either, and it's the safe bet.

the 32.5' gallons I had as reference were about a 25" footprint. if yours is nearing 3 feet, it's much better than near 2 ft for them for sure.

Yes it's why I chose this one. It was either this or the 30 gallon which is longer and not as tall as the 29gallon, specifically for the Danios, but also I was interested in fish that are active swimmers so I bit the bullet and got the fluval flex. It's my first community tank. I've been waiting for 2 years to set up a community tank. I'd be devastated if something affected all these fish I just added. I'll do a 50% change tomorrow. Is that enough do you think? No, I didn't soak the pellets. ****. I'm hoping that's it. He's very active in his little quarantine container but still struggling to swim, tail down. I don't see anything else on him, colour is normal. I read up on TB - it's no joke! But unless you have a lab handy there's no way to know.for sure. I've had zero health issues with these guys. I absolutely love watching them

i had a zebra danio that was like this and i just thought it was a birth defect. he survived for a while and it didn’t affect his eating or behavior.

Did any of your other fish get sick

i had a zebra danio that was like this and i just thought it was a birth defect. he survived for a while and it didn’t affect his eating or behavior.

Did any of your other fish get sick

i had a zebra danio that was like this and i just thought it was a birth defect. he survived for a while and it didn’t affect his eating or behavior.

Did any of your other fish get sick?