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Curved spine and can't swin down

2K views 14 replies 4 participants last post by  xShainax 
#1 ·
I saved a betta from wal-mart a couple days ago. I went to look at the fish and there were 2 containers with absolutely no water in them and a fish in each. So I opened one of the betta water bottles that they sell and added water to each of the containers. So of course I had to take the one that didn't look like it was going to live, but it did. Anyway...the one I bought can't swim downward, it struggles to go to the bottom, so he just stays at the top most of the time. He also seems to have a curved spine, like an s shaped of some sort. Does anyone have some advise as what might be wrong with him? His appetite is normal, wants to eat all the time. Oh yeah, he also has silver or grey patchy looking spots around his gills. Any opinions would be helpful. :)
 
#2 ·
Can we see some pictures?

What are you housing him in right now? It could very well be that he's just been in a cup for too long. After acouple weeks in a QT with daily water changes with Stress Coat added he should be able to get back to normal. If he has trouble swimming don't have the water too high.

If he can't go down he might have some kind of bloat problem.. But if his spine is super curved he could have scoliosis.

Pictures will help to determine what is wrong.
 
#5 ·
Alrighty...I'll get some pics and post them ASAP! Also...I had him in a 1 gallon small shallow plastic container while using Lifeguard in hopes of clearing up any fungus/external infection he may have had. It may have helped a little. He can swim a bit better when going to the bottom. You can tell by watching that he struggles a bit, but much less than before using the Lifeguard. As of right now I have him in a less shallow container, about 2 gallons. Do any of you have any thoughts on the silver spots around the gills? I guess a pic would help in having thoughts...I'll get to that right now.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Here's some pics. Thanks so much for the help!!! Oh and by the way...it's really strange but since I made the post the lil guy seems to be swimming 100 percent better. Maybe the Lifeguard kicked in...who knows, I'm just happy he's able to swim. The patches around his gills don't look so bad in the pics, it actually looks like it could be his coloring, but I honestly don't think it is. I've been known to be wrong a few times...lol Freshwater aquarium Aquarium Fish Aquarium decor Fish


Freshwater aquarium Fish Aquarium decor Aquarium Marine biology
 
#12 ·
My boy Eery has those silver marks on the sides of his face too. They have been there since I've put him in a QT (about 3 weeks now). It looks similar to stress stripes, but it's not all the way down his body, just on his cheeks. I think that's all that it is. Once you get his actual home set up for him and once he has settled down into it they should go away. Even with the help of the API Stress Coat that I use all the time they haven't disappeared completely, Eery is kind of a scaredy fish though lol.

I've gotten 3 different fish before from the WalMart style cups who had problems swimming, but it was mostly because they were too big for their containers and had to sit on their butts at the bottom. After having been like that for who knows how long they ended up having problems swimming right and getting to the top of the water. Once you take them out and put them in a tank where they have more room to swim around, mainly horizontally and not vertically they tend to end up getting better much faster.

It might also help him out if you can hold up a mirror to him once in a while to get him to flare up and get some exercise. It helped out all my fish who were going through that problem.
 
#13 ·
Thank you so much for your advise. I have put him in a larger tank after the five days of using Lifeguard, although it's more vertical than horizontal, he's doing much better. I kinda thought taking him out of the shallow container and putting him in the larger one would make him swim rather than just sit there and do nothing. I don't know if this has anything to do with him getting better...but I noticed he had started eating the bubbles around the plant that appear when doing a water change, could that have something to do with it? Whatever it is, I'm just happy he's happy.
 
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