Zebra Danio Not Looking Well

[Razgriz]

Hello everyone, was looking for some reassurance as to the state of my fish and any possible action to take.


Tank size: 100 litres
pH:7.5
ammonia: 0.25
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 2
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 25'

I set my tank up, completed a fishless cycle, added 3 Zebra Danio in and left it for a month. Completed regular tests and water changes, everything was fine. Waited a month then added 4 more zebra Danio to it. The tank is 100 litres, it has a heater, filter, sevrla ornaments, 4 live plants and 2 plastic ones. There is a good mix of small/medium/big cover for the fish, plenty of holes to go into and hide. One of my ornaments is connected to an air pump and is on for about 5-6 hours a day. The filter makes plenty of surface disturbance as well.

Tank has been like this for 2 months, water tests were the same as they are above. Minimal ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Carried out a 30% water change every week. Fed them a mix between flakes and frozen food.

One of them suddenly died, I didnt notice anything wrong with him until I found him floating upside down one day. I got him out, carried out a water test and change, the water levels were all fine.

Today I have noticed another one of my 6 remaining Danios looking very... well, he seems tired. I've checked the list of fish disiese on the forum and done some googling, but I cant find anything that describes him fully. He is seperate from the other 5 Danio, while they are all swimming around fast all over the tank, he remains towards the middle, floating around slowly and looking a bit off. He looks as if he has a mix of clamped fins and gill fluke. He doesnt have his fins out like the other fish, instead he just seems to push him self along once then drift for a few seconds. His gills are also a much darker shade of red compared to the other fish.

To describe him I would say he looks tired, he doesnt go for food like the other fish do, doesnt go as fast as the other fish. Seems like he has no energy. Compared to the other Danio, he seems to have lost some weight. WHile the other fish have a visable belly, he seems to be almost holding his in. He looks a lot thinner than the other fish.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 30% on a weekly basis

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:Each time I do a water change I add Tetra Aqua Safe to the water to get ensure my tap water is fish friendly. I also add 10ml of plant nutrients to my tank for my living plants.

Tank inhabitants: 6 zebra danio and 2 assasin snails

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): one ornament which was purchased from LFS and washed/rinsed before putting it in.



Any advice would be great thank you

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Ideally your ammonia reading should be 0. So you might want to keep an eye on that and make sure that it doesn't rise any higher.
Although I doubt a reading of 0.25 will be the result of your fish seeming tired/no energy.

Does your Danio swim well or does he have problems with it?

 

[electropunk06]

Hi your ammonia level is a little high it should be zero.
Just do water changes until its zero.
Did you add your new danios recently because if you did when you added the new danios the bacteria in the filter need to catch up with the higher waste load in the tank.
Also the temperature is a little high for danios they are fine in quite low temperature 20-23 is fine.

He could have a gill infection in which case an anti bacterial medication should be used, on of mine had simalar but he didnt make it

Hope he gets better.

 

[Razgriz]

Thanks for the quick resposne.

The ammonia reading was done with the API test kit, the reading isn't quite the full yellow for a reading of 0 but it isn't the yellow/green of the 0.25 reading. It seems to be somehwere in the middle. I'll carry out a water change and get another reading but all my previous tests have been a distinctive yellow/reading of 0

I added the 2nd batch of Danios 4 weeks after the first lot, that was about 2 months ago now. Did all the water tests and there no immediate problems. Since the start of March everything seems to have bee fine. It is just recently where the first one died and now this one seems a little off, there have been no big changes/differences I can recall that would cause this.

Up until a few days ago they were all swimming around fine, but this one now seems to be a lot slower than the others and does not have his fins out in the same position as the others do. It looks like he is finding it a sturggle to swim as well as he used to.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Is he swimming at a slanted angle at all? If he isn't swimming as well as before and isn't eating, it could potentially be a problem with his swim bladder. That may explain his lack of eating too.

 

[Razgriz]

Swim Bladder was my first thought, but he is not leaning to one side, staying on the bottom or going to the surface. It just looks almost as if he can't be bothered

 

[Razgriz]

After watching him today, I think it may well be swim bladder. I have seen him floating sideways and also resting on the bottom, his mouth opening quickly as though gasping for air.

 

[Kelly-Jo]

Oh dear not much you can do for that to be honest. Nothing effective anyway... sorry