"Crooked" Danio?

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TPIRman

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Hi all,

One of my pearl danios has developed a strange behavior over the past couple of days -- he has been spending a lot of time hanging around on one side of the tank, swimming in place. That by itself is odd, but he's swimming a little crooked -- not much, but about 5-10 degrees "off." He's not swaying from side to side, he always leans the same amount and always to the same side. It's somewhat subtle, but I think I would have noticed it before if he'd always been this way. He has a good appetite and has no trouble swimming to different areas of the tank when he wants to (chasing or eating).

I just got finished treating what appeared to be a bout of IP in the tank with garlic + metro. Perhaps I misdiagnosed the problem. Any ideas?

Edit -- the "crookedness" is side-to-side -- i.e., the fish is leaning a little to his right.
 
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Philbe

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My guess is he has a problem with his eye on the leaward side. I noticed the same thing with a new tetra, turns out it was missing an eye and he swiims on a slant.
HTH Phil
 

TPIRman

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Interesting. This fish appears to have two working eyes -- they move, look intact, etc., but I'll try to get closer and see.

Oh, and to clarify, though it looks like one of the eyes is bulging in the photo, it's just an artifact of the lighting.
 

Philbe

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Ah, well keep a close look. My tetra does not behave any differant than the others except he swims at a slant. My young one calls him 'old one eye'.
 

OrionGirl

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I've seen this with cichlids--it was usually the result of an injury at some previous point in time. One chum had to remove the fish from his main tank, because she was always targetted by the other fish. He knew she'd been hit a couple times pretty hard before she started this behavior--she had bruises and a couple missing scales after one.

He moved her intoa 10, and she lived her normal life span there. He named her Ilene. ;)
 

TPIRman

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Originally posted by OrionGirl
He named her Ilene. ;)
Hahaha -- that's perfect. Thanks so much for your reply, OG, I think you might be on to something. After reading your message, I looked again and noticed that the male pearl seems to be favoring his right pectoral fin over the left -- you can see it in the picture, actually. Maybe he injured the left one. I can't tell whether this "limp" is the cause of the leaning or just a factor of it, though. He seems to be able to move the other one.

Hard to diagnose a 1.5" fish!

I thought of trying some Melafix in case this is an injury. Think that's worthwhile? Other than that, it's pretty much a wait-and-see game at this point.

Thanks again!

-John
 

travelinman1969

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"What is it with you and that %^$ fish tank" said the wife.
HAHA!! I get that quote five times a day!! But I'm not married. :p

This seems to be a topic lately, fish swimmin on their sides, upside down. Seems they may be bladder issues. Too much air when eating, swimming. Goldfish are prone to this and I know danios love to scoop air when their swimming. Any chance that they are related? I started feeding my goldfish her food by puting it in the downflow of the filter. Almost all the food goes to the bottom or floats around and I've seen a huge improvement in her swimming. Plus the cories love it. She still gets lazy and likes to lay on her side at the top but it's not an all the time thing, like before. Anyways, not sure if this is part of it or not.
 

TPIRman

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Originally posted by travelinman1969

Seems they may be bladder issues.
Another good thought. I fed them a thawed pea yesterday in an attempt to get them "cleaned out." Other than that, I guess I'll just have to be patient, wait and see. Pretty frustrated right now.

Thanks again for all the help!
 
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