Name: Spirals

Symptoms:

Spirals is a condition that affects young fry up to 3cms in length. The condition is characterised by extremely eratic swimming initially, followed by swimming in a spiral pattern until crashing onto the bottom. In the early stages the fry will regain a hold on the bottom with its mouth, however, as the condition gets worse the fish will simply bob about until another spiral swim. symptoms will apear in some fish within several minutes of being exposed to the pH swing while other fish, generally larger fry, can take up to 48hrs to begin to show symptoms.

Treatment: prevention is the best cure, check water differences and make sure to when moving fry to acclimatise them like all other fish. If it is resulting from a water change using high pH water then try and rebuffer water to correct pH or add water from a lower pH tank.

Prognosis: Once a fish is in the spiral stages it is normally fatal. however, if the fish can be moved to suitable pH water then it is possible to save them.

Cause:

It is caused by swings upwards in pH of about 0.3 or greater, generally from about 7 to upwards of 7.3 which the fish are not used to. I.e. if the fish normally live in 7.3 then they are used to it, but a sudden swing to 7.7 will have the same effect.