The Somersaulting Tetra

[Danio35]

My Red Eyed Tetra has swimbladder disease, I believe. He began doing somersaults this AM. He's in a QT tank right now. Any suggestions on treatment? I read that trimethoprim helps, but at what dosage? Are there other treatments? Can this guy be saved?

Also, the water parameters are fine. No ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. But, the pH is very high = 8.4. This is nothing new. I got him before I realized that Tetras prefer lower pH. I know, bad fish owner.

I plan on getting some driftwood to lower the pH, but have read that this will actually take a while.

Thanks,

Michelle

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Lowering the PH can be achieved by adding Peat to the filter.

Fish can somersault for many reasons, typically this is shock, swim bladder disease the fish has a hard time staying horizontal and tends to swim "nose down".

The PH of your water, if the fish has been there for a while, would not have caused this, but a sudden spike in ammonia, or a sudden drop in ph or a rapid temperature change, sometimes it could just be as simple as the fish got stuck somewhere.

If he's in a QT tank, then it might be best to observe for a day or 2 before treating for swim bladder problems.

I had a clown loach that did the same thing, he's doing fine with no treatment, he just needed to relax and calm down which took a couple days (his tail got pinched somewhere)

Perhaps someone else may have a different view tho.