I have been battling swim bladder with my oranda for the past month and a half. I have been feeding him peas 2-3 times/week, I check my water quality on a weekly basis. He is always floating upside down, he can right himself when it comes to feeding time, and he does eat well, but he is always struggling and it really seems to stress him out. At what point is it better to euthanize him and at this point is there any hope of him getting over it?
thanks.

I'm curious as to what else do you feed him other then pea's. Some members seem to have sucess with SBD by keeping them on a strictly gel food diet.

We've discussed this before and most members seem to feel that euthansia is called for when the fish's quality of life is completely deminished. Don't be too quick though, you'd be suprised how long fish can live in this state and seem none the worse for it. My black moor has been floating for about 2 months now, I almost euthanized but I decided against it and put him back in my gf tank with his buddies (after keeping him in a hospital tank for a while). He still eats and the other fish visit him, I'm glad I didn't make the choice to put him down too quickly. You can search the site for euthansia to see what other members have to say, it's definatly a hot topic around here. Good luck.

Chrissy

Nice post Chrissy . I too choose not to euthanise my seriously upside down sbd fish because of a personal decision that he does have some happiness, some quality of life. It is a decision only you as the owner can make.

As Kat says I wonder what you are feeding too. SBD can sometimes be improved upon with varied sinking foods.

When he's upside down, how much of him is exposed to the air?

I ask because I was trying to make this same decision about a month ago, and one fin that was constantly above water when he floated got so damaged by the lack of moisture he developed an infection that once it hit the fin moved internally within 24 hours and I had to put him down. I'd been trying some antibacterial food for him before that, in case it helped, but he refused to eat it (he'd alreday been on a no grain gel food for months). He had been just frantic about trying to get that fin underwater and trying to keep himself under the waterfall from the filter, but failing, so I feel I waited too long.

Some of them can do all right for a long time, but it depends on how he's floating really, in my opinion.

Good luck, it's a really hard choice to make.