Fish Behaviour

[stue0]

Request Help

Tank size: trigon 350
pH: 7.2
ammonia:0
nitrite:0
nitrate:up quite high
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 25 c

Fish Symptoms:
recently tested my water an noticed that my nitrates were considberly high for some reason? did 10% water change fish seemed to be ok for a while? then couple of them started to rest on bottom? next day changed 10% again, did a little research, an then noticed few air pockets in my sand, spoke to lfs about symptoms an reseach i'd done, out come was to poss introduce malasian snails to turn sand to help dispers air pockets, now fish have started to flick against things? treated tank with stress coat while i'm awaiting my snails, also have just got new ex filter, but needing filter media (next couple of days), would could have poss caused this? an can i do any thing else?


Tank inhabitants:
3 bristle nose plecs 2 other plecs (i know too many waiting to send couple to friend), 2 orange finned loaches, 3 fish not sure wat(poss gouramis), 2 jewel cichlids
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration):
2 jewel cichlids
Exposure to chemicals:
none

 

[WILDER]

Are they flicking after a water change as fish sometimes do, plus it could be that you are altering the stats to quick, best to do it gradually as altering stats to fast can cause stress.
Just check over the fish to see if you can see anything on them.

 

[stue0]

hi checked them over theirs nothing actually on the fish that i can see, they were actually flicking before i did water change?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sounds like white spot/ich to me, you need to treat asap, there's a good pinned topic at the top of this forum. You need to be very careful though as loaches and plecs will be sensitive to the treatment, it can even kill them Use half doses and keep a very very close eye on the loaches and plecs, maybe even posting in the loaches section (don't know what they come under) and asking if anyone else has had experience of treating ich with them in the tank, maybe they can recommend a safe med or soemthing. I don't keep loaches so can't really help I just know you have to be careful.

However even doing this is just treating the symptoms not the cause which sounds like poor water conditions. If your sand hasn't been stirred up enough then this could create anerobic pockets, when these are broken up they can release all sorts of pollutants into the water which are also potentially lethal. If I was you, I would move all the fish to a hospital/quarantine tank and start treating for whitespot, then do a very thorough gravel vac in your tank, when you've got every last bit of poop, stir your sand up, you should have taken a decent amount of water out doing your gravel vac but I would recommend making sure you've changed something like 75% of your water. Then do some tests on your water and make sure everythings fine, keep adding amonia to your tank as you would when fishless cycling to make sure it stays mature while your fish aren't in there. Don't move the fish back until they have completely recovered and finished they're treatment as this could cause them more stress and the condition could worsen.

Get the new filter on the tank asap, best to do it when the fish are in the quarantine tank, run it alongside the existing filter then hopefully it will cycle without the fish being there at all and not harm anyone.

Then when everythings back to normal you need to have a look at your maintenance routine. Just adding mts to your sand will help, but they won't do all the work for you. You need to make sure your gavving each week, then I would advise once a month doing an extra thorough vac, then stirring up the sand, this combined with the extra filtration should stop the problem developing again.

Good luck

 

[d3tained]

Whitespots IMO should only be treated when you can see whitespots on the fish.Flicking can be caused by allot of things even To high or low PH.

In my case fist tim ei notice fish flicking it was infact whitespots and the oteher day they started again and it was the PH.They where running fine for 2 months untill i got new fish after my accident and started to flick for a while again but not seeing any spots yet after 3 days.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i've found with white spot that once you can actually see the spots it's too far gone to really be able to do anything about it. I do appreciate flicking can be caused by other things than white spot but if there's nothing on the fish, they're showing signs of ill health (lying on the bottom) and there are factors that could lead to poor water conditions which is one of the main triggers or white spot, unfortunately I reckon there's a fair chance it's that. If it was my tank, with those factors I would be treating for it, just my opinion and experiences though, I'll happily stand corrected if others think I'm wrong. I never proclaim to be an expert

 

[d3tained]

HEHEHE i did not meen it in a bad way was just MO.When I had whitespots I actually treated for gill flukes untill I started seeing the spots.My poor Neons was covered all over with them but luckely I only lost 1 shark all pulled through.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

HEHEHE i did not meen it in a bad way was just MO.When I had whitespots I actually treated for gill flukes untill I started seeing the spots.My poor Neons was covered all over with them but luckely I only lost 1 shark all pulled through.

nah not a problem I always think it's best when a few people offer their advice and assistance, then whoever's asking has much more info to make an informed descision from.

 

[stue0]

many thanks for your help i popped up to see my lfs today an he did suggest that its possibly my nitrates which are causing them to flick an rest on bottom as my nitrates are up as high as 100 this is not due to maintence as i change 25% every sunday religiously, as i do my other tank too! also vac all poop up that i can see, but have to agree with miss giggles that white spot seems proberble? i think ill keep my eye on them?