Male Sword Needs Help

[Dulceman]

Hello fellow members,

I just found my male sword (red wag) floating and struggling to swim. It also appears that he's losing color (or scales). He's in a 30 gallon tank with 2 other females and a Rainbow Shark. Last week I did have a problem with heater and water got to 91 degrees. Was probably like that for a few days until I took heater out and replaced it. I did let water cool down to room temp on it's own and never added water to help. I put heater in and left for 1/2 a day before turning it on and is now set to 79 degrees (Fahrenheit). Any ideas??

2 days ago water was tested and was slightly high on Nitrite. Tank has been running for about 1.5 months. Fish have been in for about 4 weeks.

Ok.....nevermind. The fish has now left the building to go to his Maker. Thanks for the help though. I will be getting a tester as of right now.

 

[KittyKat]

Please give exact tank water readings in numbers. What are your tap water ammonia after dechlorination and nitrite before dechlorination?

It could be the shark, they are aggressive and become more so with age, especially in a tank that size.

 

[Dulceman]

Unfortunately, I don't have a tester right now When I did get it tested my ph was 7. Nitrite was "trace of it". I do know that when I was topping off......I didn't dechlorinate my water. It was after the fact that I learned even topping off needed to be dechlorinated.

 

[KittyKat]

You need to go have your water tested with a liquid test kit or buy one. I suspect that the problem is water quality related as nitrite should be 0 ppm and if there is nitrite, ammonia is usually there as well. The readings that we need to know are ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

Test strips are not accurate enough to give a useful reading.

 

[Dulceman]

I did have the liquid test 2 days ago. According to the tester my water was fine, except a trace of nitrite. But 1st thing on my agenda is to buy 1 for myself. Thanks anyways

 

[KittyKat]

Any nitrite is not "fine", which means that your water is not "fine". I guess you didn't write down the results? It is generally a good idea to keep a written record of the results, especially if they aren't double 0s for ammonia and nitrite.