Darkening GSP w/ "stuck" feces

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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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GSPdragon
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:14 pm
Location: Michigan

Darkening GSP w/ "stuck" feces

Post by GSPdragon »

Also posted in the general area...

tank set up Friday, 60 gallon w/ 2 young GSP's cycled with Bio-Spira. 0 to barely detectable ammonia (my test kid is based on color, my husband & I weren't sure if it was pure bright yellow which signifies 0 ammonia or a tiny bit greenish), 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, ph8

Those who read my post yesterday about Dragon's feces... new problem this evening, he has had a "piece" of reddish feces part way out for about the past 40mins, and is now turning dark on his normally white belly... so its obviously stressing him out.

Is there anything I can do? Do you think he's partly constipated? First the jelly like feces yesterday and now this... I'm really worried about him. He's eating normally, shaped normally, and until he just started turning dark was acting normal all day.

Thank you.
GSPdragon
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:14 pm
Location: Michigan

Post by GSPdragon »

Opened the tank top and he came begging for food as always, back to normal coloring although feces still "stuck" there... he always changes colors based on where he is in the tank but this was the first time with a dark belly. I'll keep an eye on him...
GSPdragon
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 87
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:14 pm
Location: Michigan

Post by GSPdragon »

he "went" and was acting normal the rest of the time I was up (it was already late), this morning when I got up he was hiding in his favorite dark reddish plant almost matching the color but his belly was white and when he came out to see me he changed to his normal color.... hopefully all is fine :)
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