Questions about swim bladder disease.

[driftwoodhunter]

I have to say SBD is a mystery to me. I read so much conflicting info on it. How long do you give a fish the chance to overcome it before you euthanize it? Me, I would wait until the fish is so distressed/exhausted, that it was the humane thing to do. However I read that SBD can be caused by a bacterial infection that's contagious - I don't want to risk my tank and I don't have a QT tank set up right now.

Here's the background (and why I believe it to be diet related & not an infection - what do you think?);

The fish - a black neon - has had what I consider a mild SWD problem for almost 3 days. When I approach the tank the fish swims normally. It seems really hungry, it's engaging me when I go up to the tank like it thinks it's feeding time. When I am further away observing, the fish swims with it's head up (imagine the head at 10 or 2 o'clock). It also likes to stay in the current of a Koralia - I'm sure the current helps take some of the stress off of swimming. Actually all my black neons seem to love swimming into the currents but that's another story.

It started the day after I switched food. I had been feeding a sinking Tetra Crisp - I switched to a floating Omega One flake. I didn't realize how flakes remained floating the first two days I fed it - I would just drop food on the surface & move on (that would be the day before, and the day of, the fish getting ill that I dropped the food on the surface). Once I saw how long the food stayed on the surface I became worried more fish might gulp air, and I've since started using some feeding tongs/tweezers to put the flake in below the surface.

Do you think this could be related to gulping air while eating the floating flake food? I fed peas two days ago, I'm going to feed peas again tonight. Not feeding the tank for a few days is my next option - I just hate to because the Buenos Aires tetras in the tank don't hesitate to gobble up my plants is I skip a day of feeding. If i skip a few day, I may have a very tattered tank! (oh well, leaves grow back). The fish is neither better nor worse today - this is day 3. How often is SBD caused by bacterial infections?

The tank is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates. GH = 6, KH = 3.

~ Thanks ~