bigjohn
New Member
OK, here goes.
Last week one of my golden fain tail's was laying on the bottom of the tank. Judging by it's gill movement's, it appeared to be "gasping".
Read up on what I had, to no avail, the only thing I found was about swim bladder problem's.
He eventually passed on to the great toilet pan in the sky
Anyway, all was well, and we (my partner and me) decided to invade france and belgium yesterday, to liberate some of those "oh so desparate" cheap booze and cig's.
This morning, a second fan tail is on the bottom of the tank - in a similar state. So initially I've hit the "test kit's" and checked ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH/KH.
The only thing(s) that have shown up, where that the pH was up to 8+, when I usually manage to keep it down to between 7 and 7.5, and that the GH/KH was sky high.
So, confused, I headed to the local fish place, along with a water sample, and asked them to test it to see if I had missed anything and also explained the fishs' condition.
The test's they conducted where pretty similar, though they said that the pH was actually between 7.5 and 8, so nothing to worry about there and that while the GH/KH level's were high, they shouldn't cause such symptoms.
They then tested for phosphates. The test showed a high level. So in an attempt to remedy this I got a couple of can's (25ltr) of reverse osmosis water and the only thing that they had to try and help with the high level test result was some water conditioner type stuff that is supposed to help stabilise GH/KH, help reduce phosphate level's and a couple of other thing's (with the usual reassurance that it'll help keep the tank water fresh for up to 6 month's - Honest).
So I've done the 25 ltr water change, and put enough of the conditioner in for about 100gallon's (the approximate tank content if I took out the 3 inches of gravel) and generally had a clean out.
Now the phosphate diagnosis sound's convincing, as I get a certain amount of greeny-brown algae on the glass over a period of about a week, which as I understand it, is indicative of that.
The fish is still in a pretty dire state, though I noted a little more movement in it after the change of water etc, but it's still laying on the bottom of the tank.
I don't suppose anyone knows what else I can do, if anything?
regards
John
p.s. the guy in the fish shop, did mention that Southern Water aren't that good at keeping the phosphate level's down - and yes, I do normally use treated tap water for tank changes
Last week one of my golden fain tail's was laying on the bottom of the tank. Judging by it's gill movement's, it appeared to be "gasping".
Read up on what I had, to no avail, the only thing I found was about swim bladder problem's.
He eventually passed on to the great toilet pan in the sky
Anyway, all was well, and we (my partner and me) decided to invade france and belgium yesterday, to liberate some of those "oh so desparate" cheap booze and cig's.
This morning, a second fan tail is on the bottom of the tank - in a similar state. So initially I've hit the "test kit's" and checked ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH/KH.
The only thing(s) that have shown up, where that the pH was up to 8+, when I usually manage to keep it down to between 7 and 7.5, and that the GH/KH was sky high.
So, confused, I headed to the local fish place, along with a water sample, and asked them to test it to see if I had missed anything and also explained the fishs' condition.
The test's they conducted where pretty similar, though they said that the pH was actually between 7.5 and 8, so nothing to worry about there and that while the GH/KH level's were high, they shouldn't cause such symptoms.
They then tested for phosphates. The test showed a high level. So in an attempt to remedy this I got a couple of can's (25ltr) of reverse osmosis water and the only thing that they had to try and help with the high level test result was some water conditioner type stuff that is supposed to help stabilise GH/KH, help reduce phosphate level's and a couple of other thing's (with the usual reassurance that it'll help keep the tank water fresh for up to 6 month's - Honest).
So I've done the 25 ltr water change, and put enough of the conditioner in for about 100gallon's (the approximate tank content if I took out the 3 inches of gravel) and generally had a clean out.
Now the phosphate diagnosis sound's convincing, as I get a certain amount of greeny-brown algae on the glass over a period of about a week, which as I understand it, is indicative of that.
The fish is still in a pretty dire state, though I noted a little more movement in it after the change of water etc, but it's still laying on the bottom of the tank.
I don't suppose anyone knows what else I can do, if anything?
regards
John
p.s. the guy in the fish shop, did mention that Southern Water aren't that good at keeping the phosphate level's down - and yes, I do normally use treated tap water for tank changes
