Can Cold Water Temperature Affect the Balance of Tropical Fish?

Sudden changes to water parameters can cause problems in a fish's swim bladder. This causes them to lose their balance and have trouble swimming -- or even floating -- right. However, other problems can cause the same symptoms, with different treatments, so you must rule out other causes.

  1. Shock

    • Sudden changes in water parameters can trigger a kind of shock in tropical fish. A sudden influx of cold water in a tropical fish tank. This shock causes fish to have trouble controlling their swim bladders. This organ helps tropical fish control the way their bodies float in the water. When fish looses control of their swim bladder, it typically causes them to struggle to keep themselves properly oriented, floating at funny angles and even upside down.

    Treatment

    • Unfortunately, if your fish has gone into shock, you need to do as little as possible. In most cases, the fish will recover on its own, and most attempts to correct the problem will only make it work. For example, sudden changes in water temperature, even changes back toward ideal conditions, can also cause shock, compounding the problem. You can take the step of turning off the aquarium lights, which can help fish adjust. In most cases, fish will get over shock over a few hours.

    Prevention

    • No situation better illustrates the old maxim of "an ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure" better than shock in aquarium fish. You can easily avoid causing shock in aquarium fish by taking precautions when changing the aquarium water. Whenever you do aquarium maintenance, always test the temperature of the new water before adding it to the aquarium. Never change aquarium temperature more than a few degrees per day. Once shock happens, you can do very little, but you can take important steps to prevent it in the first place.

    Other Causes of Balance Issues

    • If you see a fish having trouble swimming, you need to make sure it's not something other than temperature, since these problems have different treatments. A number of problems can cause problems with the swim bladder and cause identical problems. Infections of the swim bladder can cause identical symptoms to shock. If you see a single fish having trouble swimming, you may want to treat it in quarantine, since swim bladder infections are not very contagious and antibiotics can have side effects in aquariums. Additionally, injuries from fights can damage the swim bladder. In all cases, providing clean aquarium water with stable parameters can promote healing.