Tangs and Swimbladder probs.

[anchar]

Hi all,

I have a colony of L. calliurus "margarae" and have problems with what appears to be swimbladder probs. I always wet the food and it is released to them below the water sothey aren't taking in air when they feed. They are fed %90 mof the time with sera flora and have supplements of live brine (water strained off) and small sinking shrimp based pellets. They never get anything "naughty" to eat. What's going on? I have hundreds of tangs. and it's only these guys that are affected. Water parameters are all good. Help please??

merjo

[Gcichlid]

I have absolutely no experience with tangs but I have had quite a bit of experience with swim bladder disease in American cichlids.

I've found that -

a. its just as often caused by damage to the fishes internal organs caused in fighting as it is by bad diet;(although an unvaried diet of high protein fatty food is dangerous),and poor water conditions.

b. I have had fish recover from swim bladder disease. It takes time and the fish really needs to make an effort but I have genuinely had fish go from laying on the bottom of the tank seemingly unable to swim at all to swimming a little to finally

returning to near normal swimming patterns on all levels of the tank.

Nick

[anchar]

Thanks for your input Nick. These guys suddenly start adopting an almost vertical position - like they have air trapped inside (kinda like when some gulp in air at the surface when feeding).

As far as I can tell it's not from fighting - although I don't observe them 24/7.

They appear to have trouble swimming down to the aquarium bottom, rather than lie on the sand.

merjo