Concerned

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
szumis
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Concerned

Post by szumis »

Hi everyone. My GSP's color has been off today and I'm a little worried. He is also refusing live earthworms as well as snails which he usually gobbles up. He took a few nips at a live crab I put in today but then lost interest.

He's currently in my goby tank as he was a rescue from a freshwater tank. The tank is 10 gallons which I know is too small, he'll only be in there until his 30 gallon finishes cycling. I do 20% water changes daily to try and compensate for the tank size. There are currently three juvenile bumblebee gobies and a nickel sized red claw crab in there with him. He has a sand substrate, a piece of white coral rock, a moss ball, several different kinds of plants (mostly java fern and banana plants), and several terra cotta pots that serve as goby hiding spots.

pH:8
Ammonia:1.0 ppm
Nitrite:0 ppm
Nitrate:0 ppm

I know the ammonia is high so I did a partial water change and added some ammonia remover. The water here at school is also very hard. I'm not sure what to do about that. I tried driftwood but that seemed to poison my gobies. The tank has been fully cycled (although not for very long). I am moving back home from school in a few weeks and I just want to make him as comfortable as possible until I get him into his more suitable home.

Note: He's currently harassing the crab (which was the intention)
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Re: Concerned

Post by Pufferpunk »

Ammonia of 1 is EXTREMELY toxic. No wonder he won't eat. At this point, since the 10g isn't cycled anyway, you might as well just put him into the 30g. Add Tetra's Safestart to the filter & it'll be cycled instantly.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

That's what I thought and what I was afraid of. I've already moved him.
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Re: Concerned

Post by sgtmyers88 »

Good deal. The larger water volume will dilute any toxins in the water. Keep us posted. :)
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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

He's in his new tank and the ammonia is hovering around .25. I would really like it to be 0 obviously but I tested the water straight from the tap and it tests at a .25. I use prime but it doesn't seem to be helping. The gobies seem to be doing fine but the GSP still refuses any food offered. He's looking kind of skinny and it glass surfing like a lunatic. I'm really not sure where to go from here.
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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

He was also clenched up in a ball earlier for about fifteen minutes kind of bobbing near the plants. The water was a bit too warm I think so I dropped the temp and he seems fine other than the not eating and glass surfing
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Re: Concerned

Post by Salmon »

Give him time to get settled in and he will start eating and quick glass surfing. He is probably really stressed right now with all the changes taking place let alone water conditions not being ideal. Also if your water comes out of the tap with ammonia readings I would suggest not doing as many water changes since you're adding ammonia each time I would cut back to weekly 50% water changes to give the bacteria time to break down the ammonia and so you aren't overloading it.

Btw what do you use to test your water?
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Re: Concerned

Post by Pufferpunk »

What foods are you offering him? Have you tried live? Soaked in garlic?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

I am using the API master test kit for freshwater. I have been feeding him live earthworms which he readily ate before all this start and he used to beg. I also gave him small pond snails. He's also eaten a small red claw crab (yesterday). He won't touch the thawed bloodworms, never has. He sometimes would take a bite out of some thawed krill but would usually spit it out. Last thing he ate was the crab yesterday and now shows zero interest in the earthworms or anything else.
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Re: Concerned

Post by Salmon »

Sounds like he had a big meal yesterday. I wouldn't be too concerned if he isn't eating today
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Re: Concerned

Post by RTR »

If you are using Seachem's Prime as instructed before tap water is added to the tank, there should be no ammonia in the make-up water. If you do weekly water changes at 50% partials per week, there is no valid reason to cut back on partials at all, and I very strongly disagree with any advice to the contrary. If the nitrification bacteria are not well established, daily or or frequent 50% partials may be done as needed. Advice to the contrary is more than 50 years out of date.
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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

Ammonia reading is still coming in at .25ppm. He's still refusing the live earthworms, he just kind of eyeballs them and seems to be afraid of them which is new. His color is still off. He's not glass surfing as much. It looks like he might have a white film on his belly but it's hard to tell if that's just his sand sticking to his belly.
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Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Concerned

Post by Pufferpunk »

Probably just sand.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Re: Concerned

Post by szumis »

Still refusing food. His belly is looking sunken and a little lumpy. He's listless and his color is off. I've tried garlic soaked krill, earthworms, gut loaded ghost shrimp. Doesn't even seem interested. Ammonia is a .25. Still doing daily partials.
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Re: Concerned

Post by Flutter »

My understanding is that Prime renders the ammonia in the tap water harmless to the fish. It will still test but not harm your fish. However, once added to the tank you should see the ammonia level go down as your bacteria converts it (in a healthy tank).

He was moved 3 days ago right? I'd keep everything around him quiet and not disturb him other than for feeding and water changes and keep the lights dim. Give him some time to settle in. How heavily decorated is this tank? Does he have plenty of room to hide?
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