Help With a Veiltail Cherry Barb

[Kyle E.]

I have a 30 gallon tank with a dwarf gourami and 4 guppies. I got 5 veiltail cherry barbs yesterday. 4 of them are just fine and all of the fish are healthy. But the 5th cherry barb is just floating mid tank in my Amazon Sword plant. It is opening and closing it's mouth rapidly. It can swim around and it has once or twice but 90% of the time it sits there. All of what I have read says that the rapid mouth movements means low oxygen but the rest of the fish are fine and I am certain there is enough oxygen. It looks like its tail is slightly tattered. When I fed my tank it kind of swam around but it never ate anything. I am not sure if it was trying to eat or not as the other fish kept eating everything. It can't be water quality or oxygen as the other fish are fine. That makes me think it is a disease it has but I don't see anything wrong with its appearance besides the tail. I wondered if maybe it was bullied in it's previous tank but this seems a little to extreme for that.

Help?

 

[AtomicFish]

hmm I have Cherry Barbs myself but I have never seen a veiltail one. its possible that one of your other fish were picking on it unless its tail was tattered when you got it.

 

[Kyle E.]

It's tail was torn when I got it. I think there were too many fish in the tank it was in at the store.

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture and short 30 second video of the fish?
If the pictures are too big for the website, set the camera's resolution to its lowest setting and take some more. The lower resolution will make the images smaller and they should fit on this website. Check the pictures on your pc and find a couple that are clear and show the problem, and post them here. Make sure you turn the camera's resolution back up after you have taken the pics otherwise all your pictures will be small.

If the video is too big for this website, post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can view it at YouTube. If you are using a mobile phone to take the video, have the phone horizontal so the video takes up the entire screen. If you have the phone vertical, you get video in the middle and black on either side.

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Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Kyle E.]

Sorry for the bad quality. My camera does not like to focus on the fish. Because of that the picture probably won't be much help. The video link should work and even though it is the same quality you should be able to see it's odd swimming behavior.

Tell me if it doesn't work.

 

[Fishiemang]

You may have just gotten a sick one.

Sometimes that happens. Did you float them for a while before adding them to the tank? Sometimes fish don't.adjust well to the shift, as I have found a lot of folks just float and add without doing a gradual quarantine and adding tank water in with the bag of fish.

Since the others are ok, it leads me to think that one might just be that way. Had a hard time adjusting to your tank. The shock of change, plus handling, sadly gets to some.fish and they just don't do well.

 

[Kyle E.]

I did float them before adding them. I didn't do a super gradual one but I let the bag float for a while and then added some tank water, floated it some more and then added them in.

I hope the fish makes it but if it doesn't I do hope that it is like you said and it is nothing that will affect the rest of the fish.

 

[Colin_T]

Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Add some salt, (see directions below).
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

 

[Kyle E.]

Ok I will try this. May I ask what the salt is doing to help?

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Ok I will try this. May I ask what the salt is doing to help?

Salt has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and even anti-parasitic qualities

 

[AtomicFish]

In my humble opinion salt has no place in a freshwater aquarium. Although supposidly it does help with some things. By the way It should be aquarium salt not the kind of salt you eat. I never used it for any of the aquariums I have had in my life.

 

[Fishiemang]

It does help with some stuff. In freshwater, sometimes I have used a salt tank for dipping fish to treat some things. Dip them in for a few minutes, then return to a quarantine tank (unless the whole tank is affected). Treating the entire tank is a little more crazy....that being said...

Just like us, fish need electrolytes. These are provided with aquarium salt. Low doses shouldn't affect most fish (some like corys and other scaleless fish don't do so well) in a.freshwater setup. You don't want enough to turn your.fresh into marine.

Same thing goes for marine setups. Treating various issues and diseases, you remove the affected fish, dip them in a freshwater bath for a short time, then return them home. It works like a.charm. Timing is critical.

These salt treatments he discusses are short term. Salt kills pathogens. Even in our bodies. Salt has many uses. Ever used it to quell a sore throat? Gargling salt water is a great anti-septic. You can use small doses to add electrolytes to the water for the fish to have proper osmosis action. Treat and change out. It works. I use it rarely, but in some cases, it's safer to use than chemical treatments. Chemicals are a last resort in my mind.

 

[FishGuest5123]

Salt has anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and even anti-parasitic qualities

Aquarium salt helps regulate osmosis, reduce stress, and improve gill function also.

 

[itiwhetu]

What is the ph of your water

 

[Kyle E.]

I do not know what my water pH is but I am 100% certain that is not the problem as my 9 other fish are just fine.