Blood parrot trouble!!!?

Question

my blood parrot is swimming upside down since yesterday!!!!
What should i do??

the dude died the next day.
may he r.i.p now

Answer 1

Get some frozen peas and thaw them and deshell them. See if you can get the parrot to eat it. It's a problem with his swim bladder. Do not feed him other food. Parrots get swimbladder problems for a few reasons: constipation pressing on the bladder or gulping air at the surface; infection and some specimens of bloodparrot have a congenital defect.
Viral or bacterial infection causing swimbladder problems is actually quite rare. The treatment is maracyn-2 but not with a lot of success. Sometimes toxins in the tank can cause it (if you can smell sulphur) or if water wasn't properly dechlorinated.
Unusual anatomy in some fish, such as the stomach of globoid-shaped ornamental goldfish or parrots, makes them more susceptible to problems with the swimbladder. These fish are predisposed to impactions with food, which in turn clogs up the pneumocystic duct, which does not allow the swimbladder to inflate and deflate properly.Fish that lay or swim upside down are said to have "Flipover".
Overfeeding/constipation: This the most common cause of SBD! Usually, the abdomen (belly) is swollen when a fish is constipated. Also, fish that gulp air at the water's surface when feeding can have swimbladder problems. The treatment is to withhold feeding for 24-72 hours or longer, and see if the constipation corrects itself. Examine what, how much and how often you are feeding the fish. Freeze-dried foods are notorious for causing constipation and swimbladder problems in fish.
For many fish, pre-soaking flake or pellet food (in conditioned water) is appropriate, as this will allow expansion of the dried food to occur prior to the fish eating it, and will lessen the chance of impaction. Switching to frozen or live food would be helpful. If the fasting does not work in a few days, then you may wish to try feeding a tiny piece(s) of frozen (but thawed) shelled pea, as this may help to dislodge any impaction.

Answer 2

Blood parrots are not normally prone to constipation unless fed heavily and exclusively in dry foods such as freeze dried foods and pellets. I would not count on constipation treatments to help your fish at all.

Luckily, no virus infection has ever been identified as a cause of swim bladder disease, so that leaves parasites and bacterial possibilities.

Very few parasites can cause such a problem so I would treat asap for a bacterial infection. Waiting several days to test a constipation treatment could be fatal to the fish.

Maracyn-2 is a very poor choice for an internal infection and will very, very rarely affect a cure. That's one reason people consider swim bladder infections so hard to cure, they treat with the wrong medications. mAracyn-2, like many commonly available antibiotics are very poorly absorbed by fish and therefore treat surface infections well, but not internal infections as they can't get inside the fish well.

The very best choice for internal infections is Furanace or Cipro. Both are quite well absorbed. Since Cipro is not yet available for fish over the counter that would require a prescription from a vet or Dr. and a trip to the pharmacy. Better to see if Furanace is available in your area. Assuming neither of these is an option, the best easy to find medication for this is tetracycline, Maracyn TC is one brand.

If treating with tetracycline, I would suggest treating as directed on the package, but also making a medicated food. Dissolve 500 mg in 1 liter of water and soak a dry food such as pellets or freeze dried food in this until it's water logged but not breaking apart. Feed the fish as much as he wants once a day. Keep the solution refrigerated in a light proof container to prevent the medication from being damaged by light or heat.

Feel free to email me if I can be of any additional assistance.

MM

Answer 3

This happened to my parrot about 6 months ago. I set him up in a seperate tank with a bubbler and marycyn-II. He was upright in about 2 days and has been happy ever since.