Major Problems In My Main Tank

[Mikaila31]

Strange things have been happening in my 55gal main tank .

1. I noticed one of my rummies losing balance slightly when ever he would swim in one place. His tail would go up until he was almost vertical then he would right him self again. If he was moving he swam fine and stuck with the school. I was guessing it was a slight internal bacterial infection. So I added garlic to their food to see if it would do anything. I don't know which rummy it is, but I haven't seen any losing balance for at least 3 days now.

2. I was doing a water change and gravel vac yesterday evening. I change about 50% every week. I was almost done taking water out when a rummy started freaking out. It was swimming into the glass and jumping out of the water, eventually it landed on the turtle dock I have for my eels. I quickly put it back in the water and it continued to freak out. It also looked like it was having trouble swimming. It eventually got stuck again I caught it and gently held it in my hand underwater for about 5 min. When I released it, it joined the school. It was breathing hard, but other than that nothing looked wrong with it. I don't know which one it was but they are all acting normal again.

3. I am really worried about this. Today when I got home I noticed one of my boeseami rainbows was acting weird. His back is defiantly bent. I always think of TB when I come across a fish with a bent spine , but he was fine yesterday when I was doing the water change and later that night. Is it possible for TB to cause a fish to become bent in 17 hours? I thought it was slow. He almost seems able to unbend at times and others he becomes really bent. Other than this I can't find anything wrong with him. I will post pics of him ASAP.

Nothing has been added to this tank for 3 months, ammonia and nitrite are both 0.
Please help me figure out what is going on.

Many thanks,
Mikaila31

 

[Mikaila31]

Ok I got some pictures of the rainbow.

He is the one on top, this is the straightest he can get. He seems to be bent at his abdomen

This is the worst it can get, he seems to get stuck like that, but he can eventually straighten out like the pic above

 

[Spooky76]

Im not 100% sure about how long TB symptoms take to get to that point...so I wont comment. But it sounds like it could be that. Does it stay bent all the time ?

I wouldnt be doing 50% water changes though, its too much. 25% is as much as you should take a week.

What are you using to check your water ?
Can you QT the rummie and rainbow ?

 

[Mikaila31]

If he stays in one spot he looks like the middle picture, but if he starts swimming he suddenly gets really bent like the bottom picture. He has been staying near the top of the tank.

I've been doing 50% water changes on this tank for a couple years now. This rainbow has been in this tank for about a year and the other two rainbows have been in their longer. My nitrate out of my tap is 20ppm, I have two rubber eels in the tank that are messy. So I do large water changes to keep the nitrates down.

I am using a API master test kit

I'm really upset. I haven't had any problems for months. Two weeks ago my planted tank got hit with ich and I moved all the fish to the QT tank and now this . I don't have any other spare tanks, there are already too many fish in the QT tank. On top of that I don't know which rummy it was or if it was two different rummies. All of the rummies have been acting normal lately.

 

[Mikaila31]

Anyone?

 

[WILDER]

Have you ever lost any other fish to a bent spine.
Bent spines can mean a number of things, old age, fish tb, to internal parasites.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Check the anus of all your fish to see if there red inflamed, or enlarged.
Has the fish bloated up, or bulging eyes.
Any colour loss like going pale, or darker in colour.
Any finrot in the tank.

 

[Mikaila31]

I might of lost one fish in this tank to TB. It was a long time ago and I was still learning so i'm not sure if it was truly TB. The fish was a 2 year old zebra daino that I had gone through the cycle. I did remove my German blue ram from this tank and treat him for internal parasites a couple months ago, he was really skinny, he is now better and living in a different tank. The rainbow doesn't look skinny at all.

I vary rarely see these fish go to the toilet, but nothing looks wrong with his anus. No bloating or bulging eyes, his color is the same as it always is,their is no finrot in the tank, and he is still eating.

He doesn't swim around like he normally does, he just hangs out in one spot generally in the open. Would it help if I uploaded a video, he still has problems when he starts swimming around.

 

[WILDER]

Read the tb link first and see what you think.
http/www.4qd.org/Aqua/disease/tb.html