Bala Shark is Twitching & lower fins are fraying!!

[seanus]

More good advice coming from you, Wilder. Thank you so much for helping people out as you do (4488 posts!) - You are a good man! (and thanks to the other contributors as well )

That is it - his gills were looking just fine -but they are a little red this morning & the fast breathing can't be good.

I put him in an isolation bucket (no heater unfortunately) but I obviously used exclusively warm tank water & he has an airstone. I administered more parasite meds & let's keep our fingers crossed that he makes it. Such a sweet little being...

 

[WILDER]

Thanks, if the gills are red is sounds like gill flukes as they get heavy breathing with that, you don't have a high nitrite reading do you as that can cause the same problems,if you can get hold of a med like clout you might stand a chance of saving the fish.

 

[seanus]

It's not just his gills -- his mouth also looks red. Poor guy. It looks like it's from the rapid breathing. But now he is just sitting at the bottom & earlier he flipped upside down for a minute Not fun to watch.

I checked the water & everything looks great, except the pH is a little high. About 7.8-8.0 It was a little low for a few months & now it's shifting up. Any ideas?

 

[WILDER]

Does the mouth look inflamed is it inside and out of the mouth.

 

[seanus]

RIP Baja. He struggled in his isolation tank for two days & was still fighting upside down for most of the past 12 hours until he finally let go. Poor little guy

I don't know if fish ever react to changing tanks, but the Cichlid isn't eating as vigorously as he used to. He still eats, but just waits a while before crunching.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry for your loss. R.I.P.