# me giving my fish a salt bath and force feeding cooked pees for swim bladder issue :)



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Well the title says it all! I picked up this beautiful red severum from a member that has a pretty bad swim bladder issue and I'm trying to nurse him to good health 

-First i put him in a salt bath of 6 tablespoons of pure salt (no additives) to 3 gallons of water from my aquarium for 30 minutes or until he lost his equilibrium (10 minutes for him)
-then i got my wife to mash up some cooked pees in her new mortar and pestle she got for xmas 
-then used my modified test syringe ( cut some of the tip off do it would suck up)

after he ate all the pees i put him into my aquarium where he seems to be comfortable in 

All in all it went pretty well sorry for the bad video its from instagram and they only let you do 15 seconds so its cut really badly lol


----------



## waterbox (Nov 26, 2011)

Wow. Are pees a recognized treatment for swim-bladder issues? Or did you just see that he wasn't feeding and wanted to give him some nourishment?


How's he doing now?


----------



## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

Wowo good job!
I tried to inject through the mouth before but mine went through the gills.


----------



## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

waterbox said:


> Wow. Are pees a recognized treatment for swim-bladder issues? Or did you just see that he wasn't feeding and wanted to give him some nourishment?


Peas work as a laxative for most fish. Canned peas work fine and I have used frozen peas, just peel the skin off after the they thaw

Cool vid Med, I need a small one for a Bettas lol seem the are the only fish that ever get swim bladder problems with me


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Thanks everyone! Yes the fish is doing great and from what I've read it is a lax like previously posted. It seems to work so I did it


----------



## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

That's cool! My ruby red got beat up and needs help, I think he's losing the fight but I got him eating still. Don't think I'd be comfortable enough to try this kind of stuff


----------



## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

MEDHBSI said:


> Thanks everyone! Yes the fish is doing great and from what I've read it is a lax like previously posted. It seems to work so I did it


Do you inject the tube all the way to the stomach? How did you do it? Any trick you can share? I tried this before but I was not able to get the syringe to go all the way; it poked out from the gill.


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Fish rookie said:


> Do you inject the tube all the way to the stomach? How did you do it? Any trick you can share? I tried this before but I was not able to get the syringe to go all the way; it poked out from the gill.


You can try and put the squeeze tube all the way into the stomach but i wouldn't recumbend it if you've never done that. if its coming out the gills i would try putting the tube a little farther in and squirt just a little at a time. I am by no means an expert at doing this! One thing that was hard was getting his mouth open i had to pry it with 1 hand and put the tube in with the other. how big is the fish? the severum is like 8" and fat so that might be why its a bit easier.


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Vancitycam said:


> That's cool! My ruby red got beat up and needs help, I think he's losing the fight but I got him eating still. Don't think I'd be comfortable enough to try this kind of stuff


Will he not eat a cooked pea? is it a swim bladder issue? what are your nitrates at? if you weren't in vancouver id come over and try to help lol. You should try a salt dip its really easy to do. 2 table spoons of salt (pure salt no additives) to every gallon of water so you make a 2 gallon jug with 4 table spoons of salt and leave the fish in there for 30 minutes or until he loses his balance.


----------



## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Well not to hijack but he was the runt and always shy but ate and just minded his own bussines but he got beat up before so I built an egg crate box to give him a rest for few days in my tank (I don't really have a other tank to house any of my haps and peacocks) but last time he still ate 3mil nls like normal and pooped good so fins healed I let it back and now some time later now it's happened again but he just spit out the 3mil so I tried soaking in tank water first to try to make it easier with no luck he chases down pellets and then spits it out, so I got out others smaller I think 1 mil nls but now he's eating little bits of the smaller nls. I just think its worsened from a malawi beat down and fin repair to other things now his bellys a little sunken and losing colour.


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

you really should try a salt dip! salt fixes everything lol


----------



## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Thanks for the peas tip. I forgot about using the de-shelled pea mash as a laxitive. I got him eating a few mushed up yesterday and he's got some colour back I will have to see tonight if he will take any nls and if not then more peas. I'd try the salt thing but still unsure of my skills and what might be wrong, btw the tanks in north delta not vacouver exactly but you know I was born and lived in van before the burbs so I just put van as my location.


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Well maybe I'll make a video  I've got a discus I'd like to salt dip


----------



## Vancitycam (Oct 23, 2012)

Well looked this morning and fed a bit more peas only to come home to a belly up red ruby. RIP you little runt he did well just not enough. I'd still like to see the salt bath stuff though.


----------



## Fish rookie (May 21, 2012)

With salt dip you put the fish in a very concentrated solution until he loses his balance, is that right?
How often can you do this?


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Vancitycam said:


> Well looked this morning and fed a bit more peas only to come home to a belly up red ruby. RIP you little runt he did well just not enough. I'd still like to see the salt bath stuff though.


Thats to bad  losing a fish always sucks. I'm going to do the salt dip on my discus this weekend and post the video


----------



## MEDHBSI (Sep 4, 2011)

Fish rookie said:


> With salt dip you put the fish in a very concentrated solution until he loses his balance, is that right?
> How often can you do this?


Thats pretty much it yep 2 tablespoons per gallon of PURE SALT NO ADDITIVES. from what I've read you can do this every couple of days if needed but it usually heals a fish pretty fast.


----------

