Gas Bubbles ?

[justahobby]

My mandarin is swimming at the surface of the tank. I put my hand in and he didn't swim down and doesn't seem able to. I haven't encountered this one and still doing research. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[justahobby]

It was late last night and scared me but here's some more info.
I found her swimming close to the surface so I cut the powerheads off and got some food. Thats when I noticed her problem.Her back was touching the surface of the water. She looked alert and using her fins. I cupped her body in an attempt to fun my fingers down her body to find the air bubble. She shot out of my hand and dove into the rockwork. She never resurfaced. After lots of research for a couple hrs I found some good info. GBD is rare in marine fish. Without any abrasions it didn't seem likely. Next was Swim bladder disease, but that is also far more prevelant in freshwater. Then I stumble across a very short sentence. Upset stomach from eating a new food can cause your fish to be unable to control bouyancy. As I posted yesterday she had finally ate frozen food. I had used a mixture of foods that I feed my coral that included euphasia pacifica plankton. It's larger than mysis and didn't expect her to be able to eat it. I was very surprised when she sucked it down. This morning I found her huntin pods in the rockwork like nothing had happened :applause::bighug:. I would've been very hurt if she died the same day as accepting frozen food. I propose her newly found taste for meatier foods made her a little sick and may have been swimming to the top to avoid pooping where you sleep. Hopefully my experience can be of use to someone else since it took me a sleepless night to discover the problem.

[Gilbert]

thanks for them heads up, i had no idea that could happen.

[justahobby]

Ya I found the answer in a very unlikely place. Google led me to a yahoo answer :what_smile:. As soon as I read the part about food causing an intestinal problem I felt much more at ease. Here's the link if anyone is curious:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070517003112AA7Kgz2

[JoshOdphi]

wow ....interesting......well u learn something new every day....

[justahobby]

She wasn't very interested in frozen today. Can't say that I blame her. Reminds me of the time I got sick off vodka....It's been years and I still won't touch the stuff

[JoshOdphi]

same way i feel bout 151 or everclear...lol