Sick Zebra Danio

[tigerpaul1977]

Need some help with a diagnosis. Late last week I noticed that one of my Danio's was kind of hiding out in the bottom of our aquarium, we have a 12 gallon with 4 Danio's and 2 Oto's. When it was time for feeding, it came up and ate but looked very pale, almost a cloudy gray color, and it looks like he has a bruise or something on one of his sides, definitely doesn't look normal. It's not white spots like I see on pictures of ich, more of a total pale color of his whole body. The rest of the fish look fine, I tested my water over the weekend and everything looks normal. The fish is eating, but still pretty much hides out in a boat we have in the bottom of the tank until it is feeding time and right after he eats he goes straight down to the boat. Just not sure what to do. I tried getting some photos but it didn't work out too well. I know my description is kind of cryptic but it is literally what it looks like. Thanks for any help.

 

[cwt]

If it's eating and moving around ok, that's a good sign. Sounds like it scraped up against tank decor or something. If it's not getting visibly worse, I'd just let it be; when I've separated sick danios from the others, they tended to stop eating, and then they get sicker. You could put some additives for slime coat (Stress Coat) if you have any of that already.

edit: if it DOES get worse, then you may need some antibacterial like Maracyn and separate it out; would probably need some more visible symptoms to really be sure.

 

[tigerpaul1977]

Thanks, I added some stress coat to the tank tonight. The more I look at him the more it I think he got a little banged up swimming around the tank and is just trying to get better.

 

[mcgrady7761]

stress coat is the way to go, i always use it when introducing a new fish to the tank and whenever i do a water change

 

[tigerpaul1977]

Well just to give an update, he never got any better. His spine got real crooked but he was still eating, tonight I found him stuck to the water intake area still alive, he was swimming on his back, I decided to put him down. I didn't have any clove oil but had some vodka and I gave him a shot and I must say it seemed pretty peaceful to me. He died almost instantly, I am going to get some clove oil just to have on hand though.

 

[cwt]

sorry to hear it; must say I've never seen my sick ones swim upside down so he must've been very sick, sounds like you did the right thing.

 

[spoonman]

You did the right thing... Sorry for the loss.....

 

[JPKeenan]

Well just to give an update, he never got any better. His spine got real crooked but he was still eating, tonight I found him stuck to the water intake area still alive, he was swimming on his back, I decided to put him down. I didn't have any clove oil but had some vodka and I gave him a shot and I must say it seemed pretty peaceful to me. He died almost instantly, I am going to get some clove oil just to have on hand though.

Sorry to hear. "Twisty" one of my Zebra Danio didn't have any bruising, but I had some above 0 ammonia readings in my tank. First he was swimming like he was drunk, and was weak. I gathered from folks on here that it was a swim bladder condition. Then as his dipping/drunken/swim bladder condition was getting better it was like his spine was twisting (thus Twisty). He started swimming a bit stronger but his spine started to twist.

I almost want to say that Twisty was swimming a bit like a sea-horse cause of the spinal bending, but it wasn't that bad..... This has been going on for maybe a month or two....

...Looking in on the tank today and it seems like his spine is starting to straighten up a bit.


Is there some sort of temporary fish spineabifita?