Rosy Red swimming up-side-down

[HooKooDooKu]

Dead Rosy Red

I had a Rosy Red that was being a bully and had to get taken out of the tank. The only thing I had on hand was a large vase (1/2 to 1 gallon in size) that I filled with tap water that was about the same temperature as the tank, added two drops of Prime, chased down the fish and immediatly placed him in the vase. I added a little bit of food, and had to leave him for the night.

In the morning, his stomic was bloated and he was floating upside down but still alive and swimming.

By lunch time... he was dead. When I got home, I saw how is stomic had become even more bloated, but not quite to the point of slpitting him open.

What happened? What caused the boating stomic that obviously lead to his death. I know I wasn't happy with this fish, but I honestly didn't think this treatment would kill him. The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was not acclimating him to the new water. But I figured since the tanks were filled from the same water source and I got the temperatures to roughly match there wouldn't be an issue.

Can someone explain what happened so that others might learn from my mistake?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

After doing some more internet searches, here's the best I can come up with.

I think he might have had a bacterial infection. The illness was the reason be seemed to suddenly become a bully. When all the stress was added to him (being chased by a net... never did catch him until he got a little worn out, being moved to a new tank without acclimating him, suddenly being in a small tank all by himself) his immune system basically shut down allowing the bacterial infection to simply take over.

No one thing killed him. He very well might have survied if we had known he had a bacterial infection and we treated it. Chasing him down didn't kill him... just made him tired (think of you and I as being out of breath after a quick run for a few minutes). Being moved to fresh water without acclimation didn't kill him, after all the old and new water were not that much different... in temperature or chemistry, it anything it was cleaner. But when you put all these things together... I guess it was a combination of an infection and stress.

Anyone got any better ideas.

 

[missileman]

Could have been internal parasites as well, almost the same symptoms.
Did you notice any white and/or stringy poo recently?
If so that is also a clue to a gut problem. Extra mucus is formed to try to rid the fish of the infection, hence the white poo.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Any odd poop I've noticed lately has come from the common. Nothing odd I've seen from the Rosys.

However, I now have a second Rosy with problems. This one isn't swimming upside down (yet), but then he hasn't been under any extra stress. The best way I can thing to discribe his condition is that he's swimming drunk. When he wants to, he can swim. But other wise, he just floats and doesn't always remain steady. The only external signs that I see is that he over-all seems a little bloated (he seems to be fatter and not as lean as the other rosys) and MAYBE looking a little bug eyed.

For now, I've at least moved him to quarantine so that he's got a 10 gallon tank to him self (and the snails).

 

[krap101]

"drunken" swimming can be caused by high ammonia/other bad params, not enough oxygen, or swim bladder disease. Can you test the water?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Is swim bladder disease contagious?

Let's backup and give some more relevant details and an update on where we are now:

I started a 10 gallon tank in December with a single common and a single rosy. About a month ago, I started a 20 gallon tank, moved the common and rosy into it and purchased 2 more rosys. The rosys went in the old tank for quarinte for a week. A few days ago we noticed one of the new rosys chasing/harassing the common. It was bad enough that we moved him to the quarintine tank. To perhas spread the agression around, we bought three more rosys and placed them in the quarintine tank as well. But the harassing rosy started to harasse the new rosys. So I took him out of the quarintine tank and into a small bowl. Next morning, he was swimming upside down and dead several hours later. Next, the 1st rosy we ever had started swimming drunk yesterday. I moved him to the quarintine tank and risked moving the new set of rosys into the main tank. This morning, that 1st rosy was dead. I also noticed when I first turned on the lights this morning that the common was swimming a little off... sort of like the drunk fish, but being much bigger and stronger can better swim when he wants to.

I just tested water parameters. Ammonia is zero, Nitrite: zero, Nitrate: 7ppm. It's a lightly planted tank with a couple various forms of algae (brown on plants and tank walls, bright green on the bubbling diver with treasure chest. As for oxygen, I've got one 40 gallon pump supplying 6" air stones to each tank (10 and 20 gallon) plus a 10 gallon pump supplying the diver with treasure chest. The air stone is a fine bubbler, so it doesn't create much surface adjitation. The treasure opens about 10 times per minute, creating waves on the surface.

So currently, all fish are in the main tank. The original diseased fish from the 1st set of rosy's is dead, the original rosy that's lived with the common is dead, the common is starting to show some of the same signs, and all the other rosys seem normal (including the one that originally came with the original sick fish).
set of One thought was to increase the number of rosys to spread the agression around, so I bought three more rosys and put them in the quarintine tank. After another day, the harassing rosy was getting, especially when there was food around. One though was to increase the number of rosys to perhaps lower the

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Well, I increased the output from the air pump into the tank to try to make sure oxygen levels were good. Based on some additional research, it was starting to look a little bit like a swim bladder problem. So based on a suggestion I saw somewhere, I didn't feed the fish for 24 hours, and then this evening, feed them peas (supposed to help with constipation issues which can cause swim bladder issues).

Well after stuffing himself on pea (will a goldfish eat too many vegtables) he's looking a lot better over all. However, I've afriad he's also gotten some extra protein too. One of the latest rosy's I had added to the tank was a pretty small one. Since I placed him in the tank with the common and turned off the lights, I haven't seen him since. I'm afraid the common has swallowed him whole. I knew it was a possibility, but given that the common has been living with rosys the whole time we've had him, and he leaves shrimp alone (one of the ghost shrimp doesn't even bother trying to hide, struts out in the open), I was suprised to see him eat the rosy. Can't prove it, but it's been two days and I haven't seen anything of him.