One day I noticed that one of my older cherry barbs was swimming upward, like he was struggling to stay afloat. I thought it was swim bladder disorder, and I did everything I could, but he died, I think from exhaustion. Then two of my younger barbs stared swimming like they were struggling up against a current too. I tired all sorts of medicine and parasite removers, but they still haven't recovered. I herd swim bladder disorder makes them struggle to stay down, not up, so what is this? Nitrate levels in my aquarium where high, but I got them down with some big water changes. I have 30 cherry barbs in a 20 gallon aquarium w/ plants (I know that's too many fish in one tank, I used to only have 3 cherry barbs, but they had a bunch of babies.)
Cherry Barbs Swiming Upwards, Dining For Exhaustion.
- Thread starter ratty16
- Start date
Have you tested ammonia & nitrites? What test kit are you using? How long has this been going on? What is your water change schedule? (How often & how much)
Sorry this is happening to you
And welcome to TFF!
Sorry this is happening to you
And welcome to TFF!I tested for Nitrites with API test strips and there are 0. Nitrates where high, but I brought them down with water changes. Every week I do a 10%-20% percent water change (thought I did 5% for a few weeks and that's why the nitrates where up.)
One of my older barbs appeared to catch this disease, but really I think she got Dropsy instead. She died and on the day that I added broad spectrum bacteria antibiotics to the tank I noticed another one of my fish got Dropsy. She died within 3 days. The one young fish still has the swimming upward disease. I have been doing alot of water changes and adding proper douses of antibiotics. What can I do to protect my fish?
First, stop adding antibiotics and other substances. Without knowing the exact issue, treatments will do more harm because each of these further adds to the fishes' stress, weakening them still further. And fry being so sensitive, this is even worse. I would do some water changes now to get these substances out. Clean fresh water is quite a good treatment in itself.
I am assuming you have had these fish a while, since you mention they spawned. The crowded condition is likely the culprit, and your water changes are no where near adequate to deal with so many developing fry.
High nitrates...what is the number?
Byron.
I am assuming you have had these fish a while, since you mention they spawned. The crowded condition is likely the culprit, and your water changes are no where near adequate to deal with so many developing fry.
High nitrates...what is the number?
Byron.
Hmm, how did you come to conclusion to add these medications and parasite treatments?
Just wonder if you can post the water parameters, this would help greatly, and also the ph, gh and kh if you have these tests.
And water temp may be of help.
In fact, any information you can give may be of help, no such thing as too much information when comes to tanks and symptoms.
And as Byron says, clean, dechlorinated fresh water is generally a very good treatment in itself alone. So, therefore your current 10 - 20% water changes is not really adequate to deal with the nitrates and any possible nasties in the tank water.
Especially with so many barbs in a 20 gal tank, I'd suggest upping the water changes to at least 50% weekly for the time being until you rehome some of these barbs to bring numbers down to a more suitable level for your tank.
Just wonder if you can post the water parameters, this would help greatly, and also the ph, gh and kh if you have these tests.
And water temp may be of help.
In fact, any information you can give may be of help, no such thing as too much information when comes to tanks and symptoms.
And as Byron says, clean, dechlorinated fresh water is generally a very good treatment in itself alone. So, therefore your current 10 - 20% water changes is not really adequate to deal with the nitrates and any possible nasties in the tank water.
Especially with so many barbs in a 20 gal tank, I'd suggest upping the water changes to at least 50% weekly for the time being until you rehome some of these barbs to bring numbers down to a more suitable level for your tank.
I added allot of treatments because my fish also had the red gill disease (which I'm sure is from how overcrowded they are), and I thought the swimming upward disease was swim batter disorder. None of them really helped the fish. The young fish that was swimming upward died today, and I think another fish got dropsy. I have been doing 20% water changes every three days, but the water is turning yellow.
Water temp is around 80 F, GH is 120, KH is around 10. PH is 6 or 6.5. Nitrites are at 1 PPM, Nitrates are almost 0.
The GH, KH , and PH are conditions that the fish thrived in for many years (thought KH seems to have increased slightly). The nitrite rise seems to have happened just recently, perhaps at the same time the water was turning yellow. I will do another water change today.
Water temp is around 80 F, GH is 120, KH is around 10. PH is 6 or 6.5. Nitrites are at 1 PPM, Nitrates are almost 0.
The GH, KH , and PH are conditions that the fish thrived in for many years (thought KH seems to have increased slightly). The nitrite rise seems to have happened just recently, perhaps at the same time the water was turning yellow. I will do another water change today.
Fish now have Ich. 6 fish died today, one after the water change. Most of them had no sighs of Ich. I did a 65% water change. Nirites are 0-.05. Should I add Ich medication or wait for bio filler to grow back?
My fish are dieing at a rapid rate. Some of them have Ich, but the ones who die don't show sights of it. They are all gasping at the surface or swimming irregularly. I did a 65% water change, but two fish have died since then. Should I add in the Ich cure? Keep doing water changes? What can I do to save my fish?
Can you get a picture of them to confirm it's ich? It looks like grains of sand or salt covering their body. I would stop adding medications until you are 100% sure of what they have. Keep up on the water changes.
When you get a chance I would also pick up a liquid test kit so that you can get more accurate readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
When you get a chance I would also pick up a liquid test kit so that you can get more accurate readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
Most of the dead fish appear to have died of drospy, or have no signs of illness. The "Ich" is white dots that eat away the fins, white clouding over the eyes, and even large white patches on the head. Ill fish gasp at the surface, slowly loose the ability to swim and stay near the bottom, then die. Water changes don't seem to slow down the rate of death.
ratty16 said:
I'm not going to suggest treatments since it would be guess work. But I see no indication of ich in this description, so I would certainly not start using something for that. I would suggest that a bacterial issue seems likely, internal and/or external. But there are undoubtedly members here with far more experience in fish disease and they will have solid advice.
And the water test results others have asked for really would help to sort this out. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH can all be indicative.
Byron.
Tongue_Flicker
Fish Herder
These rarely apply to all cases of ich even the severe ones. The symptoms in bold are very common symptoms of shock, nitrate poisoning and even chlorine poisoning than severe ichratty16 said:
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