Archer fish upside down!

[Sriram1310]

Hi, I have 3 archer fish in a 55 gallon community tank. I've had them for a little over a year now and never had any problems till date. Around 4 days back all my archers stopped eating. Today morning I found one upside down at the bottom of my tank. It is still breathing. (The remaining 2 are fine but they're still not eating) Is this swim bladder? Can I somehow save it?

Btw, they are of the species Toxotes Blythii (Clouded Archer)

 

[JuiceBox52]

Do a 75% water change

 

[Colin_T]

It sounds like poor water quality.

Check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph and GH of the water.

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 2 weeks.
make sure nay 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. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Post pictures of the fish.

----------------
The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Sriram1310]

Do a 75% water change

I have been doing 50% water changes every alternate day since they stopped eating

 

[Sriram1310]

It sounds like poor water quality.

Check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph and GH of the water.

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 2 weeks.
make sure nay 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. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Post pictures of the fish.

----------------
The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

Only yesterday after the incident, I cleaned my filter and the media. I will do a 50% water change again today. The glass is cleant once every week. If there is anything more that I should do please let me know. I shall definitely go through the link shared. Thanks a lot!

 

[Guest14017]

Again - you need to actually check your water quality with a TEST. Something seems off. If tests show nothing out of the ordinary - check your local city water to see if they've been adding anything new to the water. You may have to call them. A friend of mine had a water main break and her city begun to add 3x the normal amount of chloramines and her fish begun getting ill and dying and it took her a while to figure out why. Once she begun to triple her doses of Prime, the deaths ceased and many of the sick ones reccovered.

 

[Sriram1310]

It sounds like poor water quality.

Check the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph and GH of the water.

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 2 weeks.
make sure nay 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. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Post pictures of the fish.

----------------
The following link has information about what to do if your fish get sick. It's long and boring but worth a read when you have some spare time.

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

www.fishforums.net

This is the current state of the fish.

 

[Barry Tetra]

We need water parameters, is your tank cycled? if not water parameters might be the problem, do 75% water changes as other members said.

 

[Sriram1310]

Again - you need to actually check your water quality with a TEST. Something seems off. If tests show nothing out of the ordinary - check your local city water to see if they've been adding anything new to the water. You may have to call them. A friend of mine had a water main break and her city begun to add 3x the normal amount of chloramines and her fish begun getting ill and dying and it took her a while to figure out why. Once she begun to triple her doses of Prime, the deaths ceased and many of the sick ones reccovered.

Oh. Sure, I'll check the parameters and post them here in a while, Thanks BTW, ever since I bought them I've always used only RO water. Never tap water

 

[Sriram1310]

We need water parameters, is your tank cycled? if not water parameters might be the problem, do 75% water changes as other members said.

Sure thanks. I will post the parameters in a while.

 

[Colin_T]

archerfish come from hard water with lots of minerals, they don't do well in soft water like R/O water.

 

[Sriram1310]

archerfish come from hard water with lots of minerals, they don't do well in soft water like R/O water.

But it is more than a year now that I've kept them in RO water. The store that I bought these from had also kept them in RO water.

 

[Guest14017]

But it is more than a year now that I've kept them in RO water. The store that I bought these from had also kept them in RO water.

If I had a fish that looked like the one you showed and was SERIOUS about trying to save him - I would not be arguing about whether RO water was good for them or not. I would immediately be going to test my water so people could maybe help me save my fish. You decided not to do this in a timely manner. Good luck with the fish.

 

[Sriram1310]

If I had a fish that looked like the one you showed and was SERIOUS about trying to save him - I would not be arguing about whether RO water was good for them or not. I would immediately be going to test my water so people could maybe help me save my fish. You decided not to do this in a timely manner. Good luck with the fish.

I have already done the test and all the parameters seem perfectly fine. I was doing a full gravel and tank clean which took some while. And if I was a forum member trying to be of help to somebody I would not try to be sarcastic when someone is in need of help and actually be more informative. You decided to do this. And thanks, I'll save my fish!

 

[Aussie_Bristle]

What are your actual parameters so ppl can get a better idea hun? Colin as well others on here are very knowledgeable and are just stating what the recommendations that’s all