Sick Archer Fish

[jbdecker]

Hello everyone. Newbie here.

I've had a archer fish for almost two years now and has been thriving the entire time until this week. I noticed he was not going for his crickets or anything I placed on the glass that he would normally shoot at.

Now for the last two days he's bumping in to everything in the tank and hanging out on the bottom half of the tank the entire time. Normally he's on the upper half. He's trying to go for his food but it's almost as if he's lost energy and can't open his mouth and get the food.

Actually, it's like he has brain damage. He can't coordinate his movements anymore.

PH, Ammonia and Nitrates are all fine. And normal water changes have always been done. He's also kept in a 1.014 salinity as well.

Any ideas what could be going on?

Thanks for any help.. I don't want to loose him.

 

[nmonks]

This doesn't sound good. In my experience, fish only recover from a certain set of problems. External damage, like fin damage, even deep cuts, heal very well. But internal problems seem to be more or less untreatable.

That said, I've brought back fish from the brink of death. A while back I had a baby halfbeak that had managed to damage itself severly, to the point where it couldn't swim and was on its back. It's muscles had started to turn white, always a bad sign in fish. But a few days later it was fine.

All you can do is optimise conditions. Maximise the oxygen level in the tank by making lots of splashing and bubbles. Turn the heater up (archers like it warm: 26-28 C is ideal). Lower the salinity, because archers don't like very salty water. Go for 1.010 now, and possibly 1.005 later. Caution: changing the salinity rapidly will stress the filter bacteria. Going from 1.014 to 1.010 is fine in one water change, but 1.010 to 1.005 should be done in stages, ideally over a month.

Are you in the Americas or Europe? Apparently, the commonest archer in the Americas is Toxotes microlepis, a species that prefers low salinity brackish water, and arguably wants freshwater conditions over the long term. I have some pictures here that might help ID your fish. If your fish is T. microlepis, it is entirely possible your fish is stressed because the salinity is too high.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[jbdecker]

Thank you for the help. I THINK HE'S MAKING IT! After almost five days with him sitting on the bottom and not eating and floating sideways he finally pulled through.

I changed about 20% of the water twice and changed the filter, raised the temp and didn't add any more salt. I didn't even know there were different types of archers that liked lower salinity. You were right about the one I had.

He is shooting at shrimp I placed on the glass and can swim almost 100%. Amazing. Thanks again.