Any Ideas?
Posted: Mon May 24, 2010 7:03 pm
Hi everyone, new to the forum, thanks in advance for your help. I have had a GSP for 2+ months that has been a constant struggle. We thought he would die early on, as our newbie mistake was not cycling the tank before putting him in. He lived and looked a lot better for awhile, in regards to not having the sickly dark underbelly and skinny body. Here recently, however, he appears extremely thin and almost disfigured in the rear, with the black mark that goes from his mouth to his end. We know its the ammonia, as its about at 2.0 right now, and it has pretty much been about that high since the beginning, regardless of whatever we do. Ive also read that a thin rear of the fish might be caused by salinity, which always seems low at <.25. We had been trying to slowly add aquarium salt, but could not get salinity to rise. For the last couple days, we have been slowly adding water that is usually used for our saltwater tank. He was worse today than before, but he was definitely sick before we started adding any saltwater, however. When I walked in today he was balled up floating around the tank, and seemed very lethargic. I know they sleep, but he is definitely sick. Any advice on what to do to help him and how to combat the ammonia and salinity. In regards to the questions above:
1.8 pH, 2.0 ammonia, nitrites about 0, nitrates at about 2, salinity about .25
2. 10 g, but our green spotted puffer is the only fish. Is this just too small? We have a couple fake plants and a fake coral piece, he does not seem to be bored. He always seems to be "asking" for food.
3. Lately, went from one feeding a day of unfrozen brine shrimp to at the most once every other day in order to help with ammonia. The fish store people believe that the tank is still cycling, so they recommended avoiding water cleaning for as long as possible, so we were doing a 30-40 percent change once a week for a couple of weeks. Before that, twice a week. In the past two days, we have done two 30% changes as hes been so sick. Weve been using AquaSafe for the water and StressZyme for the ammonia. Too, weve put an ammonia filter pad in the filter.
4and5. Addressed in first paragraph.
1.8 pH, 2.0 ammonia, nitrites about 0, nitrates at about 2, salinity about .25
2. 10 g, but our green spotted puffer is the only fish. Is this just too small? We have a couple fake plants and a fake coral piece, he does not seem to be bored. He always seems to be "asking" for food.
3. Lately, went from one feeding a day of unfrozen brine shrimp to at the most once every other day in order to help with ammonia. The fish store people believe that the tank is still cycling, so they recommended avoiding water cleaning for as long as possible, so we were doing a 30-40 percent change once a week for a couple of weeks. Before that, twice a week. In the past two days, we have done two 30% changes as hes been so sick. Weve been using AquaSafe for the water and StressZyme for the ammonia. Too, weve put an ammonia filter pad in the filter.
4and5. Addressed in first paragraph.