Trying to get some advice for one of our bs tetras. I had noticed that one of the tetras had been in a constant swim 24/7 at a 45° angle nose up. If he stops swimming, unlike most fish that can swim idle in one spot (swimming still), he sinks. I didn't think anything of it or even realize it was constant behavior until about a week into it. I originally assumed he was just being very active. Not the case. I did some research and found that he's got swim bladder disease except the opposite as most would think. Most cases the swim bladder is expanded causing the fish to float, usually upside down, to the top of the tank. In Door's (Named after the band. 4 members 4 fish... The wife lol) case his swim bladder is deflated causing him to sink and stay in a constant swim to stay afloat. I've read that peas (organic) can cure the disease as long as it's not in his DNA. He's about 6yrs old now and has never swam like this before. The other 3 are swimming normal. I took him out of our 75 tank and put him in a 30 tank (our spare) hospital by himself. I had tried peas but they just sink straight to the bottom and he would never touch them. Guessing that would be because of the nose up deal kind of making it hard to swim nose down to get food off of the substrate especially when he's a middle feeder anyways. I did more research and found that I should raise the temp to 80°, fast him for 3 days, on the 4th day feed him one pea a day until he's healthy again. Well, we're back to the pea dilemma. Ok, so this time I tried feeding him by hand first... Literally sat there for an hour with my hand in the water holding the pea in my palm at an angle so he could get to it. Surprisingly after a while he got used to my hand being in there and was swimming in/out and all around my hand but wouldn't touch the pea. New plan... I got a needle and thread. Strung the pea on the thread and have the pea floating at the top of the tank. He seems to always be at the top gasping for air so thought if I put it up there he'd try to eat it. I mean he hasn't eaten in 4 days, I'd be STARVING! But still he just swims around it and won't eat it. I have a video of his behavior but this thread does not allow video upload. So I'll post a photo. Anyone have any suggestions?????? If I start feeding him flakes again the whole fasting thing would have been for nothing.