Sitting At Bottom In Corner

[Faythee]

Sorry to keep bothering you all.

Noticed a few days ago Severum has white spot. Treated tank 2 days ago with Coppersafe. Yesterday treated tank with Maracyn2 as fins are deteriated as well. These two meds are meant to be used together.

He is not getting any better. Sitting at bottom in corner breathing but not moving. Only came out once so far today for a minute and is jerking and flicking.

Anybody have this happen before ? Is there a chance he may get better or does this sound bad.

I could take him out and put in hospital tank but afraid the stress will do him in.

Any suggestions ?

Thank you

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hiya Faythee,

sounds like you've posted about this problem before, not seen that post, so can you give some more backgroun and info on your tank, water stats, size, inhabitants etc etc

thanks

 

[Faythee]

thank you

75 gal. tank

1 large severum, 3 tinfoil barbs, 1 opaline gourmai, 1 pictus catfish

nitrite 0, nitrate approx 20, ammonia 0, ph 7.2, temp 80

I added the Sev a little over 2 weeks ago. His fins were tattered but no spots. He settled in well and was happy. Then this happened suddenly starting a few days ago.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if he was a little tatty when you bought him he could also have been harbouring a disease but not showing any symptoms.

The white spot may be a secondary infection, when fish are poorly and not recovering well they do sometimes come out with something like white spot or fin rot as a secondary infection. was he looking lethargic or poorly prior to developing the white spot?

 

[Faythee]

No the white spot came first.

I just opened the lid to get a water sample and he came out. Apparantly he still wants to eat. Strange.

I had watched him at the LFS for 2 months. I was concerned about the fins. They didn't get any worse and he never appeared ill so I thought it was safe. His tail fin had started healing since I bought him but his side fins are still looking poor.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

while not deteriorating is obviously a good sign, nipped or torn fins should heal easily and quickly as long as the water quality is good so that's a bit of a warning sign if they aren't healing.

if he's coming out to eat then he's well enough to move to a hospital tank, he'll be more chilled out there and it's easier to keep water quality tip top for him. persevere with treating with bacterial and white spot meds, remember that giving him too strong meds may be doing good, but it probably won't be nice. You'll know yourself that sometimes human meds have side effects, it could well be that the combination of meds is just making him feel really grotty and unwell, but is actually doing him good.

 

[Faythee]

That is good to hear. I will set up hospital tank but will need to wait a day before putting him in there as I always get a mini cyle when doing it. I don't want the water to be off.

When I added him to the tank I didn't have a big enough bucket so some of the LFS water went in the tank. After that I got algae and planaria. I wil NEVER ever do that again. I think it is the culprit

 

[Miss Wiggle]

could well be

yeah absolutely make sure the water is spot on in the hospital tank, only make things worse if it isn't

 

[Faythee]

Is it common for them to have excess body slime with Ick ? When he comes up from out of the corner strings of slimy stuff fall off of him and there is white specks in it. Not sure if the white is the Ick or the sand he resting on.

He did come out for about 15 min.'s today looking for food. Good sign.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

if a fish is experiencing discomfort in any way they can excrete extra slime

we've had it just from moving fish from one tank to another before, just a change in conditions, anything irritaing the skin etc etc can do it.

so while it's not something you should expect to see everytime a fish gets ick, i don't think it's particularly unusual or anything to worry about.

i;ve no experience of slime and ick personally though, perhaps someone else has and can comment?

 

[Faythee]

Bubba is doing MUCH better ! He is back to trying to pull the decs ouf the gravel

Thank you Miss Wiggle !

 

[Miss Wiggle]

glad to hear he's doing better