Zebra Danio. Yesterday I noticed this one fish wasn't swimming around much, kind of just hovering in the water, the tail would start to float up slightly, then drift back down. It came eagerly to eat as normal, but this morning was skimming under the water surface.
I tested parameters and was about to do a partial water change - all levels normal, but I thought it might be oxygen deprivation? and a quick wc would add some oxygen to the water while I figured out what to do. But just then timer switched the light on and the fish flipped out. Literally. It was suddenly rolling over and over, couldn't swim straight. Alarmed, I scooped it out of the tank in a plastic cup, thought to put it in my
QT with the Otos, but no chance. It jerked its mouth, bugged the eyes out and died right there in the cup, floating on its side.
Now I'm down to four.
I think I've done something wrong in my tank. I baffled the filter recently because the current seemed too strong- the fish were struggling against it, but now the surface isn't agitated as much, so maybe the oxygen is too low, especially during the night? And today has been overcast, so there wasn't much ambient daylight coming into the room, I guess the plants hadn't started photosynthesizing yet and the fish got oxygen deprived. The rest of them look okay, though... I'd run the sponge filter in there again, but its in the QT tank. I do have another airline, and an airstone, need a second air pump I think. Want to prevent this from happening again! It was so fast.
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Note to self- I think now that it was a swim bladder disorder, caused by the fish overeating (I had forgotten to give smaller pinch of food now that 5 fish instead of 8). Finally read somewhere that a symptom of swim bladder issues is the tail floating higher than head, and the fish was definitely doing that yesterday. Still don't know why it killed him so quick, though.
Even more so now, thinking back there was always one fish that swam kind of listed to one side- I believe it was Peaches. Probably a weaker fish, had been suffering from swim bladder disorder for a long time? then the overeating and shock of light was just too much for it. At least, that's my conclusion now.
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