Apistogramma clamped fins, hiding

[Lina00]

Hi all,

sorry if this is not the right place to post it..

I have apistogramma sp. aff viejita, probably Macmasteri, bred in tank, around 4 years old, big nice male.
Yesterday when I was feeding with dry brine shrimp eggs he sat in cave all the time, when I lifted the cave, he went out, had few bites and then quickly swum to the other side of the tank, stayed vertical next to water surface for a moment, then went back to another side where filter outlet is, stayed right on the outlet for a moment, then went under tall bogwood and sits there now with clamped fins.
this morning he was hiding in a cave.
Its 30g (125L) planted tank, Amm & Ni 0, Na ~5, temp 26C, ph 6.8-7
In tank: 5 kuhli loaches, 2 dwarf chain loaches, 1 blue Gourami, 1 rainbow shark, 3 amano shrimps, some cherries,
recently added 3 plecos(bristle and bulldog) (around 6cm) and 6 Minnows.
In shop recommended to do anti internal bacteria treatment when adding new fish, so done two days half dose of NT Labs medication. No meds yesterday & today, just added Stress coat.
Year ago done treatment for worms as two Dwarf chain loaches showed signs, were very slim, but still very active. Used Fluke-solve powder praziquantel based.
Any ideas what's wrong with him?
thank you.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Why are you feeding the fish dry brineshrimp eggs?
You don't feed the dry eggs to fish. You hatch the eggs in salt water and feed the newly hatched baby brineshrimp to the fish.

-------------------------
Does your local pet shop suggest using half strength internal anti-bacterial medication when you add new fish to your tank?
If yes, you might want to find a new pet shop.

You never use medications unless the fish have a specific disease.
You never use anti-biotics unless the fish have a known bacterial infection that has not responded to normal fish medications.
You never use medications at half strength unless the directions state that for treating certain fishes (usually catfish, eels & loaches).

-------------------------
I would do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for the next week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Wipe the inside of the glass down before doing the water change.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter materials in a bucket of tank water.

 

[Lina00]

Hi, and thank you for reply.
I fed decapsulated eggs, which is non hatching. It's only occasionally I feed fish with that.
I used half dose, because some medds say, use half dose for sensitive species, I've got loaches and shrimps so didn't want to overdose..
And yes, my local fish shop suggested use medds when introducing new fish.

I was doing 25% water changes with substrate cleaning for the last two days as my tank water PH at the shop showed 5.8, just in case their test is correct (JBL) and mine is not (API). Thought, that I lifted something up bad with that substrate, it is JBL stratum and very messy.
Ordered NT labs ph kit to find out which ones was right.
Last time I done my external 16W filter a clean was few months ago, I'll do this then.
would you not recommend to do any deworming yet? Dont want to loose my lovely Apisto or new fish either..

 

[Lina00]

PS. That anti bacterial medds contain chloramine. It's even worse than chlorine. what if lost loads of my good bacteria? Do I still need to clean filter?

 

[Lina00]

fish sits next to the filter outlet now, breathing more intense, I think it is his last day...

 

[Lina00]

I am just thinking should I not treat that with praziquantel? as it was a problem with few fishes in the past. How bad would that be to use that med just in case?

 

[Colin_T]

Praziquantel is a very safe medication used to treat animals for tapeworm and fish for tapeworm and gill flukes. You can use it if you like but the most common cause of fish suddenly breathing heavily is something is in the water. A big water change using dechlorinated water, gravel cleaning the substrate, cleaning the filter, and increasing aeration usually fixes the problem within a few hours.

--------------------
This issue started just after you added medication so I would do water changes to try and dilute anything in the water.

If the fish suddenly bloated up, did stringy white poop and was breathing heavily by a filter outlet I would say euthanise it because it has an internal bacterial infection but the fish in the picture doesn't look fat so it's unlikely to be bacterial.

--------------------
If you ever have to treat fish use the following information.

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[Lina00]

done 50% water change yesterday with dechlorinated water (used Api stress coat) dwarf chain loaches started flashing, maybe that dechlorinator not good enough?
other fish acts normal apart Apisto, just thinking, that too major water changes stresses him even more, because of PH fluctations.
And carbon was never in a tank, if I don't give any meds, should I place one in then?
thank you.