Nerve to swim bladder problem - pls help urgently?

Question

My luohan fish (flower horn) is a great fish - v human in nature and will welcome us when we come back. He's down with swim bladder problem. lie on his side most of the time. eat little, gasping for air and has changed his color. try his best to swim when turned upright but after a few secs will have to lie down. Brought to vet who gave daily injections of methylcobalamin for 2 weeks. He said it's too late and is fatal. Now back home for rehab. Any one has suggestions and advice for help ? pls don't give answers like - ' don't u think he's dead ?' that's just silly and insensitive. Need real solutions in treating the nerve problem - apparently nerve supply to the swim bladder is damaged. would steroid injections help ? if so, what dose ? again, pls provide answers if you have solutions. thanks.

Answer 1

I am sorry to hear about your pet. Your Vet probably knows about as much as anyone.
But knowing causes may help; Fermenting food can cause this (or similar intestinal infections), I recommend soaking your fish' food for about 5 minutes to remove air which can cause this problem. Also worms can sometimes cause this, so remove them from his diet if you feed them, stay with a quality pellet such as Sanyu or Hikari for now.
Aeromonas bacteria can also cause this and these are opportunist bacteria that thrive in less than perfect environments.
Kanamycin and/or Nitrofuazone can help here (as well as water changes).
Hopefully these are a few places to start, good luck.

Here is more information that may help and a professional led aquarium group:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html
http://groups.msn.com/EverythingAquatic/

Answer 2

Try http://www.fishforums.com - you're more likely to find intelligence there than here.

Good luck with your flower horn. They are beautiful fish but unfortunately I cannot help you.