If your fish body is bent, you should find the main cause of this problem. In this article, we have added signs, symptoms, and methods to help a fish with a bent body.

Why is My Fish Body Bent? Your fish body can be bent due to low water quality, poor diet, overcrowding, tuberculosis, scoliosis, high-levels of ammonia, rapid change in water temperature, and various infectious diseases. You can help a fish with a bent body by starting proper medicines and removing the risk factors.

Contents

1 Why is My Fish Body Bent?

Why is My Fish Body Bent?

Due to some abnormalities in fish, you may notice that the spine or the face of your fish is bent. This abnormality does not relate to one specific disease or condition but there are many possible reasons for this bent.

Tuberculosis can make a fish spine bent

Gram-positive mycobacterium has a crucial role in the curve or bent spine of your fish. It is also known as fish Tuberculosis, piscine TB, and acid-fast disease.

It is a chronic disorder that may take several times to develop. The following sign and symptoms are fatigue, scale and fin loss, inflammation on the skin, bulge eye, ulceration, edema, abdomen inflammation that results in fish deformation.

There are the following fish varieties that face these severe problems. It includes neons, black mollies, gouramis and several tetras, crab, and many others.

The rapid change in pressure during capturing

The fish curves when subjected to the sudden rapid change in pressure during the catch. It is described as decompression sickness or barotraumas.

This disorder associate with the extensive decrease in environmental barometric pressure. This bent also contains the types such as these are mostly internally, but some externally occur.

In this condition, the bent is developing due to swim bladder changes. Swim bladder pressure change according to the situation.

In practice, natural floating occurs when you maintain the constant volume of the water. When your fish sink toward the depth, the gas also moves inside the swim bladder. When fish move outside, gas exhales from your fish swim bladder.

The sign and symptoms during the barotraumas are the gas bubbles. These cause air embolism that acts as a barrier for the blood flow and the oxygen.

Bloating also occurs due to this disease. Salmonids, freshwater, and marine water fish face this problem. Small salmonids have gas bubbles in the tail and the fins. Large and older fish face this problem more than the smaller and younger ones.

Scoliosis in fish

Scoliosis defines as lateral curve abnormalities in the spine. This disorder mostly occurs in the fry-fish or at the larval stage of your aquarium fish.

Scoliosis disorder involves spine deformation like the S shape curve or the C shape. It occurs in the adult fish, commonly female guppies that can face this problem during birth. In this process, pressure occurs on the abdomen that leads to this problem.

Scoliosis affects the healthy life of your fish and decreases the health quality. These remain in untreated form throughout the lifetime.

Your fish face problems due to this deformation like the swimming difficulties and other fish make them bully. It includes many others, like pollution, nutritional deficiency, infectious disorder or genetic problems, thermal problems, and overcrowding.

In your fish, the leading cause of scoliosis is an ascorbic acid deficiency. Due to this deficiency, the gill cartilage or gill tissues affects. The spine bent occurs at any part of your fish, and the curvature is the vertical and horizontal type.

Lordosis

Lordosis defines as the vertebral column abnormality in which the ventral vertebral column is affected, and in this case, the abnormal calcification occurs in that spine. These are usually due to the deficiency of different nutrients and minerals and essential fatty acids.

Inbreeding

Inbreeding often occurs in fry fish that lead to spine deformation. It happens when you breed the new traits like guppy fish variation. If the gene pool is limited, then this problem usually occurs more.

Poor diet

If you have the limits in the aquarium quantity and overcrowd it with fish, then the oxygen level becomes low. In this condition, the diet and water quality also disturb.

You cannot give them enough food to every aquatic pet, and competition high. Your fish is whether omnivores or herbivores need good quality food with proper diet plans such as flakes, pellets, freeze-dried shrimp.

Overfeeding also cause the problem such as the digestive system, bloating, and your fish can become fat.

Hereditary factors

Fish reproduction is another factor that also leads to the fish bent or curvature. If the female fish have the deformation problem, it goes down to their offspring.

In this case, almost 90 to 95% of the disease inherits into fry-fish-like scoliosis. If your fish with a bent spine, they also produce abnormal offspring. You have to make the fish fry to live in with other adult fish, so they eat the bent spine fry fish.

Overcrowding

You make keen observations during these types of problems. Check all the parameters that affect it. Air issues like the space between the fish inhabitants are the aquarium problem with a large mess.

Give your fish some blanch peas and place them in the aquarium. After that, you put enough water into the tank that is beneficial for them.

Stocking is a harmful issue for your aquatic pet’s health. Overcrowding of fish in the aquarium can cause a messy environment. If you have a decent stocking test kit is available, then the problem of fish spine curvature causes resolves.

High levels of Nitrogenous components

You have to check the aquarium parameters like ammonia, nitrates, phosphates, pH, and temperature.

If the nitrogenous waste concentration higher than the optimal level, it affects fish body health and composition. You have water issues sometimes, so you have to observe these parameters and the water quality test.

Aquarium Temperature

Mostly your fish are temperature sensitive. If your aquarium temperature is high and not in the normal range, it also affects the fish’s spine.

Your fish spine curvature increases with the raised temperature. For this, check the water temperature and the intensity of fish spine bent to place the fish in the aquarium at different temperatures. Avoid this problem by putting your fish into the water at ambient temperature.

Tank size

Tank size is according to the fish requirement and the population of your aquatic pet. If the fish is in fewer amounts, then you require a small fish tank. If the fish crowd is high, then you have to require a large-sized aquarium.

How to help a fish with a bent body?

If all the aquarium inhabitants are dying due to this disorder, you have to sterile with the bleaching agent help, then rinse your fish tank with a sufficient amount of water before the new fish addition.

Treatment

You can treat them with some effective medication like Chloramine B, Cyclosporine, Ethambutol, Isoniazid, Streptomycin, and other favorable antibiotics. You give them the prescribed medicine for the first 3 to 4 days at 10mg/L for 40mg/gallon.

After the complete treatment, you can present the rifampin a diet of 10mg/100grams for a 1 to 2 months period.

Barotrauma is also the leading cause of fish spine curvature. Decompression and venting use to treat this disorder. Decompression is the best treatment way than the venting process.

In the venting process, use a hypodermic needle; insert it near the pectoral fin under a scale. When you insert the needle, place the pressure on your fish ventral surface to remove the air bubbles. Before, use sterilized the needle carefully. You stay away from your fish from the direct sunlight and handle them gently.

Euthanize your fish

This method is not a humane way to finish the life of your fish. The best way is to add the clove oil to your aquarium.

If you use the clove oil at a high rate, it generates the sedation property, and it works well for your aquarium fish. If clove and water ratio are optimum makes your fish unconscious, their breathing stop, and oxygen depletion occur leads to death nearly in 5 to 10 minutes.

For more effectiveness, you add clove oil approximately at 300 to 400mg/L dose in your aquarium. You add the warm water with clove oil and add slowly into the fish tank. If you add it all at the same time make the fish condition more alarming. Observe for 10 minutes and check the gill movement.

You have to use sterile and insulate tools for infectious fish that may cause transmission of the disease.

Quarantine the fish

First, you remove the infectious fish from the aquarium and place it into a separate tank. You quarantine them for some days, usually a month or more.

You can avoid these problems by maintaining the water quality and less overcrowding. You change the aquarium water after some days, which prevents the parasite infection.

Some aquarists expert suggest that you place the freshwater fish in the saltwater so that any salt-tolerant pathogen presents a finish. If some signs and symptoms appear, then use some antibiotics or formalin.

Disease prevention in fish

You maintain the water quality and change the aquarium water frequently.
Prevent overstocking and overcrowding.
Provide them a balanced diet with proper nutrients.
Quarantine your new fish for one month.
Buy the fish from good sources.
You observe and monitor your fish regularly and examine any diseases or symptoms.
Tools used for the aquarium and fish are sterile and rinse in the bleach solution for some time.

Conclusion

It concludes that TB fish, scoliosis, and other infectious diseases can easily prevent and treat. You have to make the keen observation that parameters are normal and quarantine your aquatic pet for further complication protection. Allow your fish the right breeding and avoid breeding in the stock.