HELP - Near Paralysis?

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.
Headstrng
Dwarf Puffer
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Re: HELP - Near Paralysis?

Post by Headstrng »

Welch4 wrote:Wow I had no idea the charts for fresh and salt were different. Going to get a sw/reef kit asap. Can't remember what people recommend but I normally soak the intended food with 2 or 3 drops for a few minutes and feed.
Try API's customer service first before you go spend $30. Only the cards are different, except FW has the normal pH solution as well as high range. They're sending me the freshwater card in the mail for free. I pulled those from a different website...as soon as I get the freshwater card, I'll scan both onto one 8.5 x 11 PDF for printing. That way, they'll both get scanned at the exact same time so color changes should be consistent between them.
Headstrng
Dwarf Puffer
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:54 am
Location (country): USA

Re: HELP - Near Paralysis?

Post by Headstrng »

Got another one now. I hope he does well. Day 4...he's a shy one. He's actually gotten more timid in day 3 now. Hanging a lot in a particular decoration. I can't help but be nervous...

0 am, 0 Ni, 5 Na, 7.6 pH.
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Re: HELP - Near Paralysis?

Post by Pufferpunk »

He'll warm up to you. Is the tank heavily decorated?
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!"
Headstrng
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Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2014 9:54 am
Location (country): USA

Re: HELP - Near Paralysis?

Post by Headstrng »

Pufferpunk wrote:He'll warm up to you. Is the tank heavily decorated?
Yep. 3 large coral pieces (all petsmart) with lots of holes, tunnels. I got 2 plastic plants and a fake jelly. Circulation pump And air bubble disc. And he utilizes it all. He's gotten more timid as days pass...just looking somewhat lethargic and skinny yesterday am until now...which I perceive to be ips. Lumpy stomach. Randomly belly goes grey. Doing Prazipro bloodworm soaks. He's eating it...reluctantly.
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