Moray with issues

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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Tihsho
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Moray with issues

Post by Tihsho »

All I can say now is 'OHHH CRAP!' This afternoon I came home finding the 'freshwater' moray acting weird, as in his breathing was more slow then his normal pace. I thought that it was because he had not eaten in a while and the problem would be solved by later today. So I went out and got some krill, ghosties, garlic gaurd, and the other 2 morays (to give the other one company cause he seemed sluggish after he was taken away from the others.)

I get home to find him laying on the tank doing his slow breathes and then he gapes his mouth and lunges towards the glass (OK, seems I scared him) so then I continue to float the other morays in the QT. He looks at the bag, then goes back facing the glass.

45 minutes after complete floating and water being introduced to the bag the *new* eels go to check out the first one, they rub against him, nudge him, and seem to sniff him. One then goes off to a cave in the tank (a cup) and the other goes to the opening between where the aquariumglass and the cup meet. The original moray is just dazed for the moment. Then out of no where he follows the second eel to the crack. I watch for a little to find no aggression, so I go off to feed the puffs (oh and yes I soaked some krill in garlic gaurd to find he is not intrested, so I introduced 5 ghosties.) I come back down to check out the eels to find my 1st guy on his side (breathing) as if he were euthanatised. I get a soft brine net to nudge him and flips over to move to some PVC to support him (there is a pretty strong current in this bare bottom tank.)

I don't know what to diagnose this guy with so I have no clue on any remidies.

Only things I could think of were the following:

~SG hasn't been raised yet and the eel isn't taking to the temporary fresh too kindly.

~He is not eating, therefore he is weak.

~I medicated the tank with a partial dose of Pima Fix to help calm him and help treat him for anything bacteria related that I might have missed while examining him before taking him home.)

~I've been using DI water for watcher changes.

~Ph 6.5 has been added to help make the water slightly acidic (last water change with this added yesterday)
<80 gal> 2 GSPs & a Ceylon!
<75 gal> 3 Figure 8s & 1 Butterlfy Goby
<75 gal> *Empty*
<55 gal> 3 Gymnothorax polyuranodon (FW eel)
<30 long> Pair of Lorteti's & Irrubesco's, 1 DP, Endlers Livebearers, Clown Pleco, Royal Pleco, 2 Bumblebee Cats
<20 long> 4 Flounders
<4 gal> 2 Sparkling Gouramis & 3 ottos heavily planted

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~Tihsho~
nick h
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Post by nick h »

interesting..whats the SG supposed to be normally?
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Why would you want a BW fish in such low pH? Possibly pH shock?
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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demented_lullaby
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Post by demented_lullaby »

I don't think the additional two were really needed, especially since this one is sick. It's best to not dose them all together, the two new supposedly healthy ones don't need medicating and this will stress them out. QT the other into another tank or a hospital if you have one and medicate him separately. If they pimafix isn't doing anything I'd suggest to have marcyn 2 on hand just in case it is bacterial. Switching around meds isn't good for the fish though.

Your PH is also way to low for them. They like a more alkaline "hard" water. Many people buffer their water rather than make is softer for these guys. I'd suspect the problem might not be disease related but rather to low PH.

I've always found the best remedies are sometimes the natural ones. So the sooner you can add the salt the better. Even just a small amount for now will be great and do the eel good.

How long have you had the original guy for and how long has it been since the others were introduced? Best of luck, they're awesome little creatures. It must suck to have to watch one suffer.

Nick average gravity is 1.010 all though they can survive in 1.005 and slowly be brought up. They generally don't live very long in completely fresh water.
Current fish :
Spot(GSP), Fancy Fin Goldfish, One Danio (Sanchez, last of the tribe)
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