Help Pacu Really Sick

Ok let me start with the basics... 55 g tank fish was bought the size of a nikel now he is way too big for the tank but he is semi happy it seems and has lived so far for 5+ years. nothing has changed in the tank in along time only just got him some gold fish and yeah he eats them since he was little lol. All of a sudden though he is laying on his side now for 3 days and i have no idea why. Everything in the tank tests ok ph nitrate ammonia etc and i did a 20% water change since and put in some medicine that supposedly fights many common diseases and bacteria. I noticed he hasnt been eatting the pellets or anything over the last couple weeks but everything else is the same.. he is putting up a great fight, he has been on his side with no noticable ick/cloudy eyes/ anything now he has bruises and cuts from laying on the rocks and sometimes he tries to swim but its more like a drunken float then swim. He is gulping pretty hard for breathes up to like 100+ times a minute although im not sure what is normal. Now the medicine stuff says to not run your filter and all and now in just like 2 days the tank has like alleage all over the glass which is odd cause i never had that problem so im guessing its from all the stuff i recently put in. any help would be great, thanks in advance, [email protected]


55 gallon tank
nitrate ph and ammonia all good nothing abnormal at all.
only new fish added were goldfish for food.

i thought pacu were mostly vegetarian?

is it a piranha you have? if so then goldies are the last thing it should be eating.

Sounds like a gill infection, if the gills are infected them this stops the fish absorbing oxygen from the water, you need a good treatment, formalin based, to flush the gills, and you need as much aeration in the water as possible to all the pacu to breath easier.

Pacu may eat small fish as all vegetarian's now and then... However you should avoid them rearly as this is a possible source of desiease entry.

Helter

helterskelter said:

Sounds like a gill infection, if the gills are infected them this stops the fish absorbing oxygen from the water, you need a good treatment, formalin based, to flush the gills, and you need as much aeration in the water as possible to all the pacu to breath easier.

Pacu may eat small fish as all vegetarian's now and then... However you should avoid them rearly as this is a possible source of desiease entry.

Helter

Click to expand...

ty for your help this fish has been threw alot and is about 7 years old and he is fighting harder then any animal ive ever seen lol.
As for the food i had feed other fish in the tank the goldfish but since he is the only fish in there i only feed him them once every 3 weeks or so and then feed him pellets and carrots and etc most of the time. I am using lifeguard all in one treatment. is this something that i should be using? now his scales look kinda red and bruised but i think its from laying on the gravel / rocks for 4 days. one of his gills look kind of like its infected but again it could be red and puffed out because he is laying on the gravel. he is looking worse but i really want to try everything for him. any more help would be great. i noticed the kh is really high now as it was never a issue but im guessing its cause i have the filter running with only the bio wheels in and all the stuff i put in the tank. im working on pictures but its hard cause he has torn the tank up when he does his drunken roll over and moves to the other side of the tank and its cloudy and has alage in the tank now which has always been perfectly clear.

here is the best i could really get cause i have no lights on and the tank is semi clody although it looks alot better in person then in this pic. The redness has been over the last day or so and i think its cause of him laying on the rocks/ gravel because you can see some cuts on his scales in person but i dunno... look at his gills and checkout and see if you see anything... ive noticed them being really puffy..

i took out any rocks that were on the ground... i also have crushed coral in there as recomended from another guru that would help with the earlier problems i had and i kept them cause it seemed to help.....

ok that is the side he has spent the most time on the rocks before i noticed the rocks were hurting him badly so here is the other side which he was on rocks but not nearly as much i fell so bad for him he is like family!


now the bad spot on his gill was surely on the rock and he was breathing hard so let me know what anyone can come up with... im desperate ...

hes got severe fin rot, septiceamia and what looks like a hollow belly?

how much in water changes a week are you doing as the tank looks really too small for him. It doesnt look hopeful im afraid. I would start with huge water changes doing 50% every day for two weeks with gravel vacs. take the goldfish out as they are contributing to the fish and they probably brought disease in with them.

how big is he?

For one get the goldfish out and put them in something else they won't help recovery. Also, as soon as he is done getting treated, get him a larger tank. This will lower stress.

I cant really get a bigger tank as where i live at the moment is in a partment and the floor prob wont support to much. i know he is way to big and if he lives somehow i will make sure he gets a larger tank lol. its not $$$ its just the space i have to deal with . plus he has always been fine it just happened a couple days after i got the gold fish.... he has been this big for a few years about and he is in need of a larger tank i even thought of donating him.... i already took out the gold fish and have done 2 water changes but what about the medicine it says not to do water chan ges or have the carbon in the filer.... its life guard... with these pictures will this help or should i get something else or ?? thanks again guys

i never expected him to get this big as none of my other fish/pacus have and they were in bigger tanks before i moved. ..i do normal water changes 1/ week or two weeks or so, water is always clear and tests pretty decent with the exception of low ph but these fish like the low ph meaning less then 7.0 and like i said never have had problems with him getting sick ....

If your on the ground floor with no basement you should be fine with a bigger tank. Otherwise, ask a friend who has a house if you could set up a larger tank in there for awhile, they might let you.

I live on the second floor .
yeah but how in the world could i transport or even get him out of the tank lol.. the last pacu i had died trying to get him out/back in another tank and he was less then half his size... ok heres another picture of something that i just noticed that may help with you gurus , and btw thanks for the input as its helping and giving the fish a fighting chance even though its slim.

What could be causing this? if its the same as mentioned above what is the complete best method of care cause everyone has diff opinions... no filter/ medication/ or water changes and etc.

I have like 4 air stones in the water now and have done 2 water changes in the last 4 days so heres the pic. He is moving around alittle more now in the last few hours... the ammonia is starting to go up now as well.

Ask a friend to let you build a plywood tank in his house! lol! I would say, get a rubbermaid and a garbage back, double bagg the rubbermaid (so the garbage bags line the inside and fill the garbage bags with water and put him in and tie it closed and ride slowly to your friends house with him in there, might work...

the fins are damaged due to bacterial finrot and septiceamia is bacterial as well. even though the water tested good for ammonia etc the bad bacteria has been allowed to build up due to not enough water changes and overcrowding - basically, poor living conditions. your fish may only have a few days left.

you need to do lots of gravel vacs and waterchanging every day of at least 50% to get the bacterial load down. try and get some medicated food that fights internal infections as this is really the only way you can even try to save it and add an anti bacterial med to the water. dont worry about not changing the water, with doing water changes each day at 50% aadd half the med dose back ina gain to bring it back to full strength.
clean the filter out in old tank water and get rid of carbon if you have any.

Yeah im doing another water change now. Only problem is he isnt eatting so getting anything in him is almost impossible.... thanks for the help and he is still fighting actually he is moving more but i know that its a small like .01% chance he has of living..