Gas bubble disease

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olzkool

Members
A while ago I was driving near an Lfs I frequent when in the area and went in for a browse. I seen an albino fryeri and decided to pick him up. I have never seen them in there before. I have been looking for a luecistic hap ahli for sometime and decided to settle for this guy since he was right in front of me. A few days after being in my tank I noticed what looked to be tiny air bubbles in his right eye. They continued to worsen over the next few days. There was no sign of clouding, infection, etc but they looked to be pushing his eye out slightly. So I took the proper precautions. I removed him and placed him in a hospital tank. I then treated him with antibiotics in case some sort of internal infection was causing it. After 3 courses of 3 different antibiotics, a melafix treatment, and countless water changes, there was no improvement. I decided it was safe to put him back in the tank with the rest of his buddies and see if it ran its course naturally. It's been weeks since I started all this. It has not improved. I did alot of research and it seems it is gas bubble disease. I don't know how but in all my years of fish keeping I have never ran across this. According to many articles it can be caused by 2 things: super saturation and a fish version of the bends. The first seems unlikely as I did no water changes prior to seeing this, and furthermore the other fish are showing no signs. The latter seems more likely. Apparantly it can be caused by a deep water fish being brought to the surface too fast (highly unlikely as these are tank bred)and air transport due to the difference in pressures. Several articles suggested that it may take a little while to actually set in. Has anyone heard of this??? Can it be fixed? Aside from building a pressurized tube of sorts I'm at a total loss. I don't know what to do with the fish. He doesn't seem affected by it but its in one of my show tanks and it doesn't look good. Any help or experience with this would be helpful
Thanks
Chris
 
cichlidaddicted

cichlidaddicted

Members
Huh, I just started a thread for this same exact thing just a few weeks ago. Here's what I know and this is experience not what I read because I obviosly read the same stuff you did and none of that crap applied in my situation, as appears to be the case in yours as well. My fish started with one small air bubble perfectly clear it then turned to two then three then they all combined to one. Since it began the number of bubbles changed several times some days one, some days three, there is no apparent explanation for why. It has however gotten much better and a month later almost gone. My fish was in a battle for a dominant spot in the tank and these bubbles have not effected him at all he still battles with the best of them. This may have something to do with the cause of these bubbles I do not know. This is a weak spot in the fishes defenses against disease so clean water is very important it is not contageous and can't be treated with something from a bottle but if it does begin to cloud over something got passed his defenses and you need to start treatment. Other than that I learned no matter how much I read, it didn't help, so I stopped reading and let it go. If he was effected by it I would worry but he ate he swam he faught, his vision wasn't effected and I assume he didn't even realize it was there.

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olzkool

Members
Thanks alot for the info. I have read enough stuff on it to write my own article and found it all pretty useless as well. That's why I finally posted on it. Ill just let it go awhile and see what happens I guess. I couldn't get a good pic for you. He is being camera shy at the moment and is staying at the back of the tank. Ill just post one for you even though you can't really see enough to appreciate him
 
cichlidaddicted

cichlidaddicted

Members
Very cool I am curious what will turn out that orange red color on him. I've seen just the anal fin then others with lots on the lower body. Is that dragon blood in the front as pink as he appears in that picture? Never seen one that pink he's sweet.

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O

olzkool

Members
Its a crappy iphone pic sorry. The camera is totally dead. Usually they get that bright orange/yellow anal. Another Chris on here has a beautiful example of this in one of his tanks. Seen it in person but he won't come of off it lol. This one has developed a thin orange line on the top of the dorsal. He is real young so it will be awhile until I know. I'm curious to see what comes of it. Yes he is that pink, if not more than the pic shows. He is an awesome fish. By the way your ost describes my fish/symptoms exactly. Let me know if you figure it out and keep me posted on his condition
 
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cichlidaddicted

cichlidaddicted

Members
He's doin good just one very small bubble left. I wish I knew what caused the **** thing. I still haven't come up with any reasonable explanation.......I haven't given up thinking about it though!

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Localzoo

Localzoo

Board of Directors
Well if I remember correctly didn't you do a large rearranging etc around the time you noticed? Also your media is sand right? There's trapped wast etc that decomposes and turns to gas then released into the tank. Sorry just a guess.


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cichlidaddicted

cichlidaddicted

Members
No in that tank its gravel and aragonite only about two inch deep at most. I did rearrange stuff but I'm an OCD rearranger I move stuff around a lot. That is the only thing I did about the time it happended so anythings possible

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O

olzkool

Members
Just an update. He has been going back and forth almost daily since the post. 1 bubble, 3 little bubbles , on the top, on the side, etc. etc. totally random. Since 2 days ago there were no bubbles. The eye seems to be going back in place and not being forced out by the bubbles any longer. Cross your fingers but this thing may have run its course
 
cichlidaddicted

cichlidaddicted

Members
Interesting because my fish has also almost totally healed in the last few days. Only one very small bubble left. strange observation is that the silver/gold ring in his eye has vanished. His eye is pure black not sure why this happened.

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Localzoo

Localzoo

Board of Directors
Great! Well in my research it just an over saturation of gas their body absorbs a bunch and tries to process it apparently over oxygenated water does it too. Harmless but uncomfortable not enough to change their behavior but nonetheless


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