gsp's not doing good at all!

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.
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jeff_purdon
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gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by jeff_purdon »

nitrite 0
nitrate 0
ammonia just above 0

i just returned from two weeks of training in the army and had my bro feed my gsps, and fig 8's while i was gone. got home yesterday and did an immediate water change. the water was a little cloudy. after the 50% waterchange my gsps had dark lines across thier sides and the bellies are still white. tried feeding them bloodworms but nothing touched them. so decided to wait overnight to see what the outcome was. still the same this mornig so i did a 70% waterchange and still the same. treated with prime. my tap water has high ammonia levels straight from the faucet but when its treated its normally pretty good. i've never had a problem this bad before. all my fish are just laying on the bottom of the tank hardly moving. one of my gsp's was just floating around in the current of the tank and looked dead except for his eyes moving back and forth. he didnt even move when i touced him. any suggestions???
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t1gerbee
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by t1gerbee »

sounds like they've been overfed and the tank has suffered an ammonia spike. Only thing you can do is more huge water changes and hope they pull through...

maybe getting some melafix from LFS may help, but it depends how far gone they are. :(
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LilGreenPuffer
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by LilGreenPuffer »

Got an update?
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him or her. Will she gain anything by it? Will it restore her to a control over her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Found among the papers of Mohatma Gandhi


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jeff_purdon
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by jeff_purdon »

its still the same. after water changes they get sick and about the time they start looking healthy again its time for another waterchange and start the process all over. i thought it was maybe something in my tap water but the brackish tank is the only one thats having any sort of reaction. my 29 gal marine tank with my valentini puffer is thriving (other than my crabs and snails that hes slowly picking off) and so is my freshwater community tank. i'm freakin baffled
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LilGreenPuffer
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Location: Kentucky

Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by LilGreenPuffer »

Weird! Are any of your water-conditioning products or your salt... expired? Idk if they can even do that... But it's only affecting the GSP tank... That's really weird. You would think that the water changes would help, and that's what's got me stumped. What are your parameters now? Still got any ammonia?
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him or her. Will she gain anything by it? Will it restore her to a control over her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Found among the papers of Mohatma Gandhi


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Come and visit http://www.thetriopsforum.com!

I AM A DUDETTE!

NEED NITRIFYING BACTERIA FOR YOUR NEW TANK? PM ME!
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Jay.B.
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by Jay.B. »

If you have tap-water issues, have you tried using RO water? all you'd have to add then is the salt, no conditioners or anything at all, got to be worth a try.
The only other thing I can think of is... how are you measuring your salt? Refractometer or hydrometer? or just going by cup measurements?
Is it possible it has been a little in-accurate and you killed your bacteria by swinging the SG by more than 0.002 at a time? just a thought... as that would cause your tank to cycle again giving you ammonia issues
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LilGreenPuffer
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RIP James Bond.
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by LilGreenPuffer »

Maybe your tap water's PH is really high/low? Idk if PH can do that to your fish, but my tap water is about an 8.4, so I'm going to have to medd with that a lot before I get my fish. Cetain substrate and some decor can change it, given a little time. So if yours is really off, and you have substrate/decor like that, maybe that could be it?
"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him or her. Will she gain anything by it? Will it restore her to a control over her own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to freedom for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

Found among the papers of Mohatma Gandhi


Image

Come and visit http://www.thetriopsforum.com!

I AM A DUDETTE!

NEED NITRIFYING BACTERIA FOR YOUR NEW TANK? PM ME!
jeff_purdon
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Joined: Wed Jun 18, 2008 4:35 pm
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by jeff_purdon »

well its been a while since i've updated my situation. its been about two weeks since i did a waterchange becuase i was in a pretty bad car accident and have been too stiff and sore to do much of anything but play xbox. but i'm doing it today and i'm trying something different. i'm pulling all my decor out and slowly putting it back in to see if maybe something with one of those is causing my problem. if that doesnt do anything i'm going to have to maybe switch out my substrate? i have no idea. i'm testing my ph finally now that i have a good test for it. whats a normal ph for gsps?
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Re: gsp's not doing good at all!

Post by crazedpuffer »

7.0 or higher.
Your zero nitrate is a sign of an uncycled tank, and your ammonia levels could be causing your little puffer problems. I'd suggest buying RO water from a LFS and seeing how your fish do after a w/c with that
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