Apistogramma dying help!

[Aquarium guy person]

My Apistogramma Agassizii is aching lethargic not eating and he will lay on his side breathing heavy but whenever I come close he swims away and repeats. My ammonia is ~0 my nitrite is~0 and my nitrate is ~10ppm.he is in an 80 degree 20 gallon with lots of cover and artificial plants

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures and video of fish?

How long has tank been set up for?
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
How often do you clean the filter and how do you clean it?

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Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

The tank was set up 2 months before I put him in and the tank was filled with his original tank water. I clean the filter every 2 weeks by taking out the cartridge and I rinse the whole filter every month. I have sand. And I do cleanings almost every day to get all the extra food off the bottom. 20%water changes every day normally. This is the 3rd day he has done this but he is still hanging on

 

[Barry Tetra]

Can you post a video of your fish?

 

[Aquarium guy person]

How do I post vids on here

 

[Colin_T]

upload the video to YouTube and then copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube.

try to post a few pictures of the fish too.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

It’s hard to take a vid because he swims away normal when I come near. Whenever I wake up I can see him upside down or on his side on the sand but when I come near he goes up normal

 

[Colin_T]

set up a camera and film the tank, then walk away for 5 minutes. Check after that and see if there is anything unusual.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

He died

 

[JuiceBox52]

He died

Oh no! I am so sorry!

 

[Aquarium guy person]

Went back to my lfs I got it from and all the rest were dead. When I got him he was with about30 females but they said all had died for some unexpected reason. I still dont feel good about it, it has destroyed my confidence just because I did so much research I gave meds and did as you said but still failed.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Went back to my lfs I got it from and all the rest were dead. When I got him he was with about30 females but they said all had died for some unexpected reason. I still dont feel good about it, it has destroyed my confidence just because I did so much research I gave meds and did as you said but still failed.

Is this a fish store that usually has good fish? Dont blame yourself. Even if the fish was healthy to begin with (it was not) mistakes happen

 

[Munroco]

That's a real shame, but it sounds like there was nothing more you could do.

 

[Aquarium guy person]

The fish store is very knowledgeable and have very healthy fish normally they even keep bettas in tanks and the tanks have very good filtration. Also the tanks have fish that won’t destroy eachother and they ask what fish you already have in the tank and if it’s cycled. They have their own specialized freshwater plant section and coral section.

 

[Colin_T]

Take the body back to the shop and get a refund or credit for the dead fish.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. This will reduce the number of disease organisms that might be in the water from that fish.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media.