What do you know about swim bladder disease?

[WoopAhhh]

I had 3 small fantail goldfish in a 20-gallon tank (yes, I know that's too small, but I bought the fish before I learnt that; I do extra PWCs to help make up for that). They seemed to be doing wonderfully, until one of the fish suddenly became lethargic and began staying in one corner, hardly moving. The next day, the fish moved more, however its swimming was forced and it would swim on its side and have trouble staying in the right position: it would float to the top of the tank and the bottom uncontrollably while still trying hard to swim, sometimes flipping around in the water. Finally, the day after that, the fish was found dead.

I thought this was swim bladder disease, so I then began feeding each of my fish a portion of a pea each week to help with that.

However, a few weeks later, another goldfish showed the exact same symptoms, and ended up dying the third day as well (today :[ ).
The fish seemed so healthy; this was extremely unexpected.

Because of how quickly the second fish was diseased, I'm no longer sure if this disease was of the swim bladder.

With that, can you tell me what the exact symptoms of swim bladder disease are, and how to tell for sure if that's what they had, or if what they had was a completely different disease? If it is swim bladder disease, is that spread by a pathogen, or is it caused by poor water conditions/diet?

 

[HUKIT]

Here's a good link regarding swim bladder.

Swim-bladder Disease

One thing that helps to prevent swim bladder with goldfish is switch to a sinking pellet to stop the fish from taking air in when eating. Also thawed and deshelled peas once a week will also help to regulate digestion, but the sinking food is the most important step.

 

[dkpate]

Fresh veggies are also good for goldfish, like cucumbers and zuchinni (blanched first).

 

[Mr. Limpet]

Here's a good link regarding swim bladder.

Swim-bladder Disease

One thing that helps to prevent swim bladder with goldfish is switch to a sinking pellet to stop the fish from taking air in when eating. Also thawed and deshelled peas once a week will also help to regulate digestion, but the sinking food is the most important step.

I've heard of this (myth IMO) many times, but I feed my Moors (4+ years old) both floating and sinking food and have never had an issue with SBD. I feed them peas (shelled) once a week and zucchini once in a while.

Taking that (myth) point even further, my Moors will go to the surface and take a big gulp of air then swim around blowing bubbles as some kind of game they play, not to mention surfing the bubble stream from the air stone. If any goldies were gonna get it, mine should be suffering from perpetual SBD lol.

 

[krap101]

Back when I first started keeping fish, I bought some fish without cycling the tank, and they ended up not being able to swim. High ammonia levels can cause swim-bladder-like symptoms, as well as very high levels of CO2 (unlikely unless you are injecting co2 for plants).

 

[HUKIT]

I've heard of this (myth IMO) many times, but I feed my Moors (4+ years old) both floating and sinking food and have never had an issue with SBD. I feed them peas (shelled) once a week and zucchini once in a while.

Taking that (myth) point even further, my Moors will go to the surface and take a big gulp of air then swim around blowing bubbles as some kind of game they play, not to mention surfing the bubble stream from the air stone. If any goldies were gonna get it, mine should be suffering from perpetual SBD lol.

While I respect your opinion there is plenty of documention regarding sinking vs floating for swim bladder as a measure of prevention.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

While I respect your opinion there is plenty of documention regarding sinking vs floating for swim bladder as a measure of prevention.

I agree that there's lots of info on SBD caused by floating food and I'm not saying it isn't possible. I'm just saying that after 4+ years of floating food, why haven't my Moors gotten even a hint of SBD? My <1 year old Panda Fantail in the same situation hasn't gotten it either. Why is that?

Others (myths IMO) include anaerobic gas pockets in sand beds killing fish and carbon leaching junk back into the water column. I have yet to see the former documented in the real world (same as SBD vs. floating food), and the latter I found (thru research) to be an outright false statement.

Fluval 405 media? - Page 2 - Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community

 

[HUKIT]

It's funny you mentioned anaerobic gas I just posted last night comparing that to Santa Claus, as you always hear about him but never actually see him.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f100/cichlid-vs-corys-152937-2.html

Back to your question regarding why your fish has not shown symptoms isn't a very scientific conclusion, this is one fish keeper results of a larger test showing a small portion of the results of a whole. Or the same reason someone who smoke's their entire life never gets lung cancer, in my opinion why take the risk when the possiblity is there.