Green Terror Lying On Bottom

[fish4962]

My lg green terrror lives alone in a 55 gal.  2 wks ago he sat swimming tail pointing down, head up and 2 days later was lying on his side on the bottom with labored breathing.  When approaching the tank, he darts around and returns to ly on the bottom.  The fish store sold me tetracyclene and did a week of that in a smaller hosp tank.  That did nothing.  The manager sold me coppersafe and now he's been in that for 4 days.  He has been lying on his side for 2 wks now without eating, but when approached or startled, he darts around and returns to lying on the bottom.  I always do water changes every 2 wks and before getting sick, he lived on live wigglers that I grow myself and just before he got sick he was eating mealworms from the fishstore.  Please help me save "Romeo"...     thanks,    fish4962

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Have you tested the water with liquid test kits recently?
 
How much water do you change every two weeks?

 

[fish4962]

waters ok, I remove 1/3 and clean the gravel every 2 wks.  The fish store sold me copperssafe and they said they regularly add it to all their tanks as a precaution.  (They thought my fish might have gill flukes.)  He's not happy for the last 2 wks and I hate to waste time "experimenting" with diff meds.  I put 2 lg minnows in the hosp tank 'cause he's got to be starving, but he won't eat.  I did do a water change and skimmed the frothy meds this morning and put in a pinch of aquarium salt.
Please help me cure my "Romeo"...  Thanks,  fish4962

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Have you tried doing a 75-95% water change during this crisis?
 
I did a ~75% change on my 6-footer earlier and rinsed the filter sponges/media in old tank water, the filters are working a lot better and the fish are looking more like their old selves (been acting/looking not quite right over the weekend).
 
I do ~50% water changes on each of my active tanks every week as standard, partly because my tap water comes with ~40ppm nitrate before the fish add to it through their waste, IMO you need to do more than @~33% every two weeks unless you are using RO or are very fortunate to have low nitrate tap water.

 

[fish4962]

The 1/3 water changes every 2 wks was before he got sick.  He's been in a hosp tank with fresher water and the meds for the last 2 wks with water changes in that every 3 days as per the directions.  What I'm looking for is someone to say, my fish did that and I used this for a cure.  I did the tetracyclyne for internal infection and now am using the coppersafe for the external possible problem.  I don't know what ailment I'm chasing, so how do I know what med to use?  2 wks w/out food isn't giving me much time to experiment. He does have spunk in his short bursts when he's startled.    Thanks, fish4962

 

[the_lock_man]

The point that Goat is trying to make is that it might not be a parasite or an infection that's the problem. There might not be the miracle cure that you are looking for, it might just need a bit harder work from you. A huge proportion of fish illnesses can be sorted out with good clean fresh water. I agree with him that 33% water change every two weeks is insufficient.