Sick Krib?

[WogdenAB]

We have had our pair of Kribs for just over a week now. We noticed that one was hiding a lot compared to the other at the back of the tank. When I’ve looked more closely it is breathing very fast and looks like it’s struggling to stay upright. OH has also seen it at the top of the tank and then floating back down like it has no energy. Does anyone know whats wrong? Can we make it better? Are the other fish in trouble? We currently have 4 swordtails, 5 guppies and 6 neon tetras. We did a small water change on Saturday as the sand was getting a bit dirty but all the water levels are fine
TIA

 

[WogdenAB]

Photo of it just resting on the temperature gage

 

[Colin_T]

BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post the results in numbers here.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post clear pictures of the fish under normal white light.

Provide some information about how long the tank has been set up for, what sort of filter is on the tank, how often you clean the tank, gravel and filter, what new fish have been added around the time this started, etc.

 

[GaryE]

The looks like it may be a female, although the body is mostly hidden. The gravel is large, which a krib will hate. It needs sand and caves so it can dig, and sift for food. With no caves, the female may be under attack from a male, or from a stronger territorial female, and be unable to establish a home base. They like their caves,

Scenario number two is that your are in the QT period - the danger zone for fish health when they have just arrived from the very unhealthy environment of shipping, warehousing and stores. A lot of fish arrive ill, and we dutifully pull out the kits and accept we're at fault. It's often untrue. If you've checked, and you have, you know your water's not the issue. Now you have to give her hiding places, several of them, with small entries. And you have to watch her to see if the store conditions have caused an infection somewhere. Sadly, a certain percentage of newly arrived fish don't survive.