Sick Siamese Fighter, Any Ideas?

[Dickienibbles]

Hello all, an appeal for help..

Some background, recently aquired babybiorb from a friend with resident upsidedown catfish, i know next to nothing about fishkeeping but agreed to look after him while friend away for three years. After checking water quality etc I added a Siamese Fighter (she had one with the catfish before). All seemed ok for about a week when I noticed ulcer/wound on catfish side, I sought advice and after testing water again added some petrsmart disease solution and some stresscoat.

The catfish went rapidly downhill, within space of four hours yesterday he went from swimming about (albeit a little lethargicly), to death with seemingly most of his skin detached! I have removed him from tank and been keeping close eye on fighter.

My problen now is the fighter seems to be unable to come down from surface, he struggles for a bit to swim but soon as he stops he shoots straight to surface, he almost seems so bouyant he cant get away from top and is stuck against side of biorb at the waterline. I have no clue waht to do but would hate to lose two fish in quick successichion!

Last water test showed very slight trace of ammonia (been struggling to control it), but all else ok. Can anyone advise please?

Thanks in advance,

Rich

 

[Dickienibbles]

Ok, done some research and seems may be false alarm, ie swallowed some air, but could also be swim bladder disease? If the latter, is it something I should be talking to lfs about? only had him 10 days, or can it be caused by poor water etc?

Am hoping is air problem and will correct itself....

Rich

 

[rocknurworld2006]

wat are water stats?

if it is swim bladder then it cn be treated with interpet swim bladder treatment

 

[Colin_T]

The catfish probably died from too much medication. Catfish, loaches & eels are scaleless fishes, (they don't have scales over their body, only skin). Most fish medications are designed for use on fish with scales and if you use a full strength medication on a scaleless fish, you often kill it. Most medications recommend using half strength for catfish, etc.

The detached skin was probably excess mucous the catfish produced in response to the chemicals (medication) in the water. Fish have a thin mucous coating over their body. When they are stressed they produce more mucous and this can appear as a cream or white film over the body or parts of the body. Sometimes the mucous flakes/ lifts off and looks like the skin is peeling off.

Swim bladder problems are uncommon and most situations involving fish floating around and having trouble swimming, are associated with too much air being ingested during feeding. When the air is passed out (farting, yes fish farts) the fish can usually swim normally again. Feeding frozen or live foods can help prevent a lot of these problems.
The other reason fish float around and have trouble swimming is from an internal infection, (usually bacterial). These can be hard to treat but if the fish is still eating, and it didn't suddenly blow up (get fat) overnight, then it is unlikely to be an infection.

The ammonia problem could be caused by the medication you added to the tank. Many medications will kill off the good filter bacteria that normally keeps the water clean and free of ammonia and nitrite.
The easiest way to reduce ammonia (or any other water quality issue) is to do 50-75% daily water changes and gravel cleans. Continue with the water changes until the problem is resolved. Make sure any new water going into the tank is free of chlorine and has a similar temperature to the tank.
Also cut back on feeding. The less food going into the tank, the clean the water will be.
Quite often cleaning up the tank (doing daily water changes, gravel cleans and filter maintenance) will cure most fish health problems.

If you haven't cleaned the filter in the last month then do that too. Make sure you wash out the filter materials in a bucket of tank water. When the materials are clean put them back in the tank and tip the bucket of dirty water out onto the garden. Washing the filter materials under the tap can cause an ammonia problem so it is best not to do that. However, the filter case and motor should be washed under tap water to clean them.

 

[Dickienibbles]

Thanks for your reply Colin, very helpful and informative. Was saddened to learn that it was my attempt to save the catfish is what killed him!

The good news is that my fighter seems to have eased his wind problem, lol. He's now able to reach the bottom and is now swimming about, still floats back to surface when he stops, but certainly looks happier than he did yesterday. Will do a series of partial water changes over next few days.

With regard to filter cleaning, I understand that biorbs work differently to normal set-ups. I planned to get a service kit but as I became another casualty of the credit crunch the week before xmas funds have been too tight! Am working again so will be in a better position in a few weeks! I'm thinking I might remove the fish and completely clean the entire tank, it doesn't look like has been done for a long time, do you have any advice here? Obviously will wait until fighter is happier and settled before doin anything major.

Thanks again and kind regards,

Rich.

 

[Colin_T]

there should be no need to completely drain and clean a tank. You can get a gravel cleaner and use that to clean the gunk out of the gravel. Combine that with regular water changes, and you can leave tanks set up for years and never have to do any major work on them.

I think the Bio-orb (Biorb) has an undergravel filter. This is a plastic plate that sits under the gravel. It has a plastic tube coming out of it that blows bubbles. If so then you use a gravel cleaner to clean the filter media (the gravel). There is no need to take the tank/ filter apart ot clean if you use a gravel cleaner.