What's Wrong With My Paradise Fish

[saeckao]

My paradise fish, who is usually swimming around everywhere non-stop, has been hiding in a back corner of the tank all day. He is listless until I go and touch the glass near him. I have found him just sitting on the gravel and leaning to one side a little bit also. He looks fine, no external parasites or signs of external pain. One thing to mention though, I had just finished treating the whole tank (55 gallon) for ich today. Everyone else in the tank seems to be doing fine except him. What could be the problem?

 

[black angel]

He may have picked up a secondary internal bacteria infection as ich may have weakened him. Can you isolate him at all ?
Does he still eat and if so what is he eating?

 

[saeckao]

Yeah I can isolate him into a smaller tank where I have my female paradise fish by herself, but I can switch places and put her into my main tank. I haven't seen him eat yet since I found him acting like this. What do you purpose I try to treat him for now? I have a gel-based tetracycline, should I medicate him with that? Thank you for your help.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

how big are your kribs? once mine reached the same size as my paradise fish, they nearly killed him during their courtship.

 

[saeckao]

My kribs are both around 2.5 inches. My paradise fish is around 3 inches, but he is usually the boss of the tank until he got sick. He's in a separate tank right now by himself and looking a lot better, almost ready to go back into the main tank. I think he did pick up a secondary internal bacteria and the tetracycline helped.

During their last breeding attempt, I found that my kribs were very protective of their territory so the only fish that went near their cave was my 6 inch pleco. They chased him away each time and did some damage to his tail.