Goldhead In Need Of Serious Help

[Styx]

I have a pair of goldhead comps, I’ve had them for a while. One is larger one is smaller, I call the smaller one a her.

So, the “female†one (the smaller) I noticed the other night was laying in the sand, panting. It was at very late at night that I noticed, so I looked her over, she looked fine, and so I went to sleep thinking maybe she’d snap out of it. Today she’s a lot worse so I pulled her out and placed her in a little container with a bubbler. She’s having trouble swimming and she panting heavily. Physically nothing is wrong with her, I’ve looked her up and down and she looks normal, if a bit skinny. She swims in circles on the bottom when she tries now. I haven’t done a WC in a week (I do them on the weekends or Friday), the tank is completely cycled; all the tests came back with zilch readings for ammonia and such. So, it isn’t ammonia or another type of spike, it isn’t shock from a WC…

What has she got? Is there anything I can do for her? She’s my favorite out of all my calvus and my other comp; she’s the most intelligent with the brightest personality. I really want to help her.

 

[WILDER]

How skinny is the fish, does she swim in circles fast like she chasing her tale, don't like the sound of the laboured breathing, any flicking and rubbing on objects to rule out parasites, as it bacterial to parasites.

 

[Styx]

She actually died a few minutes after I made that post. But I still want to know what killed her. She had started to gasp worse than before, like she couldn't breathe. I almost though she might have gotten something stuck in her gills, but no. The gills were normal red, not BRIGHT red or bloody, not mottled or discolored. Nothing I could see on them or anything lodged in her throat.

She was just a little thin, like she hadn't eaten in a couple days, not sunken or anything. She didn't flick or rub or jerk. She didn't swim in a fast circle, more like slow circles, sometimes a little quicker; it was like she just could not swim correctly anymore.

All the other fish are fine. I'm just... at a loss because I could not find anything on her body.

The only other symptom was her color. Normally the fish are rather pale because I have them over white sand, they've been pale ever since I bought them months and months ago. But when I noticed her acting oddly, she was DARK with her gold mask, which she had not previously had.

 

[WILDER]

Was the fish still eating as going thin can be internal parasites to fish tb.
They can labour breath with parasites and bacterial infection, she didn't sound right.
R.I.P. bless her

 

[Styx]

I don't think she was. I don't sit there and watch them because if I do, they get nervous and don't eat. But judging by how she was behaving, she at least did not eat anything for two days, maybe one more. Which was about how thin she was.

 

[WILDER]

Ok bless her, just keep a close eye on the other fish, good luck.

 

[Styx]

I will. Thanks for all your help.