Swim Bladder issue after sudden NitrAte spike

[Minanora]

• pH - 8.0
• Nitrates 5
• Hardness 12
• Nitrite 0
• Ammonia 0
• KH/Buffer 11
• Water Temperature 77

How do I treat swim bladder issues after nitrate poisoning?

I had a sudden 24 hour spike of nitrAtes after using some easy green root tabs. I got a spike from 5ppm to 80ppm, which caused three of my fish to get sick. One is fine, one is in a quarantine tank being treated with the quarantine trio due to her behaviours after, and the last one is having swim bladder issues. her form is perfect for a non-pregnant guppy; she's never had any issues before, I do not over-feed, she hasn't hurt herself as far as I'm aware. She's not bloated or too thin. The issue only came about after the sudden nitrate spike. She's eating, not as well, because she is off balance, but eating.

Any recommendations for helping her? Anyone have this happen? The nitrate spike was on the 28th, I got the nitrates down to 20ppm on the 29th, and now 5ppm as of the 30th. Nitrates are steady at 5ppm today. Using the API master test kit.

 

I ask for advice because I don't want to unnecessarily dose meds or stress her out by moving her. And I'm not sure what to do because the symptoms are from Nitrate poisoning not over-feeding, disease or parasites. I see answers for swim bladder issues related to the latter causes, but nothing definitive relating to Nitrate caused issues.

As a reminder: this nitrate spike is a one off event that happened within 24 hours; I always keep my nitrates in check. I've seen a nitrate spike with the root tabs before, but not this significant. This is in a planted, 20G tall tank, that is balanced with the bio-load so the tank never goes above 5ppm nitrates. I check the nitrates daily currently since there are fry in the tank and do 20 percent water changes every other day for the foundlings.

Thank you in advance.

[Guppysnail]

For any poisoning clean fresh water and lots of it. I personally would do 50%each day until they return to normal. Ive seen this bring alot of fish back. A little aquarium salt may also help. I would not medicate other than the ones showing symptoms the nitrate may have lowered their defenses and high nitrate is often accompanied by high bacterial count. Meds are hard on fish i only med if i see specific need. Hope that helps. Im not an expert these are just things that have worked for me. Best of luck. 

[Minanora]

On 10/31/2021 at 2:56 PM, Guppysnail said:

For any poisoning clean fresh water and lots of it. I personally would do 50%each day until they return to normal. Ive seen this bring alot of fish back. A little aquarium salt may also help. I would not medicate other than the ones showing symptoms the nitrate may have lowered their defenses and high nitrate is often accompanied by high bacterial count. Meds are hard on fish i only med if i see specific need. Hope that helps. Im not an expert these are just things that have worked for me. Best of luck. 

Thank you for the advice. I will give that a go.

[Minanora]

@Guppysnail Well, I did a 40% water change last night. This morning everyone seems a bit on edge. No change in the girl that's tilting to the sky. The other girl that was seemingly back to her usual self now has a white patch that's interfering with her gill. Think it's fungal or bacterial? I just gave the tank a dose of API aquarium salt. 3tbsp dissolved in a cup of the aquariums water. Hopefully that helps at least. I have maracyn, ich-x, kanacura, general cure, pimafix, melafix, paraclense, fin & body cure all in my fish med cabinet.