# help fish is sick swiming upside down



## matt44p (Feb 21, 2011)

he is a convict chichlid. he is sitting at the bottom of the tank. he is upside down and or sideways. barly swiming, still breathing. his scales and fins are really frayed all over. i change water weekly like i should and i feed my fish once a day and i dont think the amount is excessive. he is currentley in a breeding box/net i put in the tank to seperate him from the other fish in the tank. 

please help i dont know whats wrong because it seems like a few different problems i looked up. anyone who knows whats wrong or what to do please help me.


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## GwenInNM (Feb 2, 2011)

matt44p said:


> he is a convict chichlid. he is sitting at the bottom of the tank. he is upside down and or sideways. barly swiming, still breathing. his scales and fins are really frayed all over. i change water weekly like i should and i feed my fish once a day and i dont think the amount is excessive. he is currentley in a breeding box/net i put in the tank to seperate him from the other fish in the tank.
> 
> please help i dont know whats wrong because it seems like a few different problems i looked up. anyone who knows whats wrong or what to do please help me.



I wish I could help, but don't have much to offer. Sounds like your poor little guy won't live much longer :-( If the other fish aren't showing signs of distress, it shouldn't be your water parameters. Are you testing your water? Even with water changes, there could be a problem.

Sounds like you really want to help, I hope someone weighs in with some help. I can only think to test the water. Perhaps he had some disease when you got him, and it's showing now. How long have you had him?

Best of luck!

Gwen


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

Is it still alive at this point? I once found my goldfish had jumped it's bowl. a bit dried up and fuzzy from the carpet. I put it back in and held it up-right, moved it back and forth to get water over it's gills, spent some time holding it up-right to rest and it eventually swam again and lived. Depends on what the issue is. if it's Bloat or Swim Bladder discease then that is internal and is kind of like an air bubble inside at the bottom so the fish so it turns belly up. Don't know what else you can do. good luck.


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## LasColinasCichlids (Jan 4, 2011)

Frayed fins and scales...sounds like another cichlid(s) has beat the crap out of it. Same thing happened to my Firemouth after my juvenile red devil changed colors and got him. (Red Devils look like juvenile Firemouths while juveniles themselves.)

What other fish are housed with this guy (or were)?


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## matt44p (Feb 21, 2011)

he is not beat up bye the other fish. they all get along well for the most part. yes like most they sometimes nip at eachother and fight. but normally they just have small marks from that and still like the same.

his fins are 100% frayed, every last part down to the bottom. the scales are pretty bad im guessing he has about 60% of his scales left. he is breathing harder today. still sitting upside down in the breeding box/net i put into the tank with no attempts to move around or anything.

the other fish in the tank are a little wierd but they will still come up and eat ( normally if someone scares them they hide in their homes and refuse to eat) so they are not very stressed out. so i dont think that they are sick or have a problem. oh well

i mean i really dont know what to do because there isnt a very good disease to describe it.
swim bladder seems to state the fish is okay just swiming around like hes drunk. my fish was frozen like a rock on the bottom.
I guess it could be malawid bloat. my fish are fed pellets which seems to be a factor that causes it. like previously stated by someone the gas could be whats making him float upside down. he didnt have white stringy feces. it seems like this could be it but i thought it was more of a problem with arfican cichlids.
if this is the problem it is deffinitly too late to save him. i cant put him out of his misery because i am just hopeing he may get better.

help is still apreciated if anyone knows its not to late or what to do


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## matt44p (Feb 21, 2011)

oh and the fish is close to a year old. if it matters


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## matt44p (Feb 21, 2011)

he died later that night i posted the last message


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## SeaHorse (Dec 27, 2010)

So sorry to hear that. They are very fragile creatures aren't they? Lost my Pearl Gourami yesterday too so I'm with ya!


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