Some of my new tiger barbs appear to have a swim bladder problem?

Question

What is the cause and what is the best way to treat it? And will it spread to my other fish?

Some basic information about my tank...it is 55 gallon, fresh water tropical. It has 15 tiger barbs (recently introduced about a week ago), 13 glow light tetras, 2 male platys, 10 female platys, 1 leopord pleco, 2 rainbow sharks, 2 african dwarf frogs and one red spotted shrimp and one dwarf powder blue gourami. Partial water change done 2 days ago, and is usually done every 2 weeks. flakes are fed in the morning, frozen feds at night. Usually tank is very clean as pleco eats all leftover food.

Just treated the tank for ick, i believe the tiger barbs broughgt it in, now it appears they have swim bladder problems. Have never personally dealt with swim bladder, please help. Have already lost one in the night

Answer 1

Move your tiger barbs to a hospital/quarantine tank (any other tank you have laying around, provided it is clean and preferably has a filter). Fill the hospital tank halfway with your aquarium water and halfway with fresh dechlorinated water. The hospital tank is important because it allows you to treat the infected fish in a controlled environment, without messing up your balance in your main aquarium or unnecesarily treating your healthy fish. Plus, it prevents any possible infection from spreading to your healthy fish. Once they are in their hospital tank, feed the barbs a very small amount of food (live food or flake food soaked in water) and watch to see if they are constipated (a common cause of swim bladder problems).

If they are constipated, add 1 tablespoon of Epsom salt per 5 gallons of water to the hospital tank. Epsom salt is not freshwater aquarium salt. You can get Epsom salt at a pharmacy or the grocery store and it is used by people to reduce swelling and infection and treat constipation. Try feeding them a cooked green pea with the skin removed. See if that fixes it. If it doesn't, don't feed them for 3 or 4 days, and then try the green pea again. Continue until they are no longer constipated. Do small water changes in the hospital tank (10%) every other day.

If they are not constipated, add 1 tablespoon of freshwater aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water, and don't feed them for 3 or 4 days. If they still aren't doing any better after 3 or 4 days, feed them a cooked green pea with the shell removed. Repeat with the not feeding and the pea. Do 10% water changes every other day.

I'd also buy some water testing kits to check the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in your main aquarium, to make sure this was not a contributing factor. Ammonia should be zero, nitrite should be zero, nitrates should be less than 20ppm. These are all poisonous to your fish, so if any of them are high, you will need to add 1 tablespoon of freshwater aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water to reduce the intake of toxins and do 10% water changes daily, or 20% water changes every other day, until the parameters are back to safe levels.

Answer 2

Firstly stop feeding the barbs for 3-4 days and see if that fixes it. If not feed pees(without the skins), these act as laxatives and will help to sort out the swim bladder problem