I have read through a couple of the posts since my GSP became unwell and I'm worried he's been poisoned by H2S. About 5 days ago he darkened, started to hang around the substrate and stopped eating. Yesterday I thought he was dead he was floating upside down only moving his eyes. I immediately changed 80% of the water, added a little extra salt, I estimate the tank was 1.003 probably 1.004 now (GSP around 4" long) and added a little methyl blue. When I came home remarkably he was alive, very dark lying on the sand substrate (still alive today). Is there anything I can do to effect a recovery or at least speed it up if it's going to happen. The substrate is sand and when I've cleaned him out lately (I do 50% ever 5-7 days) there has been a vile smell, almost certainly H2S. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Kind regards, Dan.
Hydrogen sulphide poisoning! Advice required ASAP
Forum rules
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.
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.
No I haven't been stirring the sand up and that's a mistake I won't make again! I'll change the water as you suggest and leave the methyl blue out of it. Another thing I've noticed is the formation of bubbles on the surface of the water, again this is a reasonably recent thing, is that cause for concern?
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, it is much appreciated...
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, it is much appreciated...
Sorry to hear it.danzig wrote:He didn't make it. Looking at him I think it may actually have been constipation. He was a fighter all the way, it's a real shame, he had such a great temprament. Thanks for your support and good luck to you all with your fishkeeping.
Regards, Dan.
I'm convinced constipation is one of the biggest killers of pufferfish (in fact I think I lost one of my irrubesco to the same thing yesterday), and i've not known many treatments for it, or many that are frequently successful at least.
Please don't be put off by your experience, puffers are well worth the effort!
Sorry to hear it.
I'm convinced constipation is one of the biggest killers of pufferfish (in fact I think I lost one of my irrubesco to the same thing yesterday), and i've not known many treatments for it, or many that are frequently successful at least.
Please don't be put off by your experience, puffers are well worth the effort![/quote]
Thats interesting as I was going to write up something along the lines of constipation problems. I believe I have had a few go this way.
Fella, Can you remember what you fed your iirubesco prior to the problem?
I'm convinced constipation is one of the biggest killers of pufferfish (in fact I think I lost one of my irrubesco to the same thing yesterday), and i've not known many treatments for it, or many that are frequently successful at least.
Please don't be put off by your experience, puffers are well worth the effort![/quote]
Thats interesting as I was going to write up something along the lines of constipation problems. I believe I have had a few go this way.
Fella, Can you remember what you fed your iirubesco prior to the problem?
Some call it a product of a mis-spent youth, I call it Rock n Roll ! 
Thats interesting as I was going to write up something along the lines of constipation problems. I believe I have had a few go this way.Rocker wrote:Sorry to hear it.
I'm convinced constipation is one of the biggest killers of pufferfish (in fact I think I lost one of my irrubesco to the same thing yesterday), and i've not known many treatments for it, or many that are frequently successful at least.
Please don't be put off by your experience, puffers are well worth the effort!
Fella, Can you remember what you fed your iirubesco prior to the problem?[/quote]
Yeah, I fed Mussel, and it was a change in diet from their regular bloodworm...