I'm worried!

[juliethegr8t]

Well I posted in chit-chat about some sort of weird behavior in my male cherry barb that I noticed this morning. Now it seems to be much worse. He is constantly swimming at a 45 degree angle with his head down. He doesn't move a whole lot, just sort of floats with the current and does a little steering. I actually found him on the bottom of the tank not moving besides breathing. I was worried he might get harrassed, so he's now in my breeding net in the same tank. As I said in my other post, ammonia and nitrites are 0 and nitrates are in the safe zone. The other cherry barb seems to be doing fine. Is there anything I can do for this fishy? I'm pretty sure he'll be dead within 24 hours... I just don't know what happened, or what's even wrong. Any help or ideas are appreciated, thank you.

Edit: I just checked on him, and within 10 minutes or so he's now on the verge. He's gonna be dead within 5 minutes if I know anything. He's either floating at the top, or sitting on the bottom of the netting, usually head down. He has lost all control - even floats belly up... he's still breathing but not much. I have learned to deal with my fish death, but this one is really upsetting to me. I don't know what happened!! And now I'm worried because I put my gourami into the tank today... I don't want him to die too! Should I move him back?! I don't know what to do. And I don't know if I should go out and replace this male cherry asap or not... of course I want another, but should I be worried about something being wrong in my tank?? Help.

 

[Alien Anna]

I'm so sorry! He must have an infection or something, or maybe your pH is radically different from the LFS? I'm sure it's nothing you've done - I know how careful you've been.

Still, very good argument for quarantine

 

[juliethegr8t]

Update: The wittle guy is gone. I don't think the pH is the problem... I bought my 2 gouramis, plus my pandas from this store and all of them have survived with no difficulty. *sigh* I just don't know what to do. Should I move the gourami back to the other tank? I am going to be gettin another male cherry barb, soon hopefully, and I don't want to infect my gourami if it's something contagious. However, the female I have left seems to be doing fine... so it makes me wonder.

 

[smb]

Update: The wittle guy is gone. I don't think the pH is the problem... I bought my 2 gouramis, plus my pandas from this store and all of them have survived with no difficulty. *sigh* I just don't know what to do. Should I move the gourami back to the other tank? I am going to be gettin another male cherry barb, soon hopefully, and I don't want to infect my gourami if it's something contagious. However, the female I have left seems to be doing fine... so it makes me wonder.

Quarantine any new fish you get for at least 2 weeks and preferably 4 weeks. If any fish has a disease it will show itself before then and you can treat it and not stress the fish in your show tank.

 

[fuman_chica]

Quarantine any new fish you get for at least 2 weeks and preferably 4 weeks.

I thought it was just one. My bad. I guess I have a while to wait to put the babies in my smaller tank. They'll probably be almost too big by then.

 

[smb]

Quarantine any new fish you get for at least 2 weeks and preferably 4 weeks.

I thought it was just one. My bad. I guess I have a while to wait to put the babies in my smaller tank. They'll probably be almost too big by then.

I always do it for 2 weeks but when I give advice to others here I tend to go a bit overboard on the cautios side and try to be safe to protect myself. There's a lot of times I post an answer but don't do it myself. I'll be tripped up soon I'm sure but I try to be more careful with other peoples fish if I give advice or try to help.