Max Action
Fish Fanatic
So I have 11 tiger barbs in a cycling 75 Gallon tank.
They were kinda sickly right from the LFS, I now realize (having seen Tigers at other stores since buying them), but they're active and personable and I like them a lot.
So I don't want any to die.
After a couple of days, I got a nagging suspicion that some of the behavior I was seeing was not just boisterous tiger barb play, but something bad. They were occasionally doing wriggling headstands in the mid water, seemed to have to work to swim downward. Partial water changes reinvigorated them for awhile, but them they'd start up again with the vertical shimmying.
Then I found out that the reason that most of them did not have their dorsal and ventral fins extended had nothing to do with dominance, but was a sign of illness (fin clamping). Also, occasionally one would dart to the surface and grab a mouthful of air. Finally, I increasingly saw them glancing quickly off the rocks and decor, and were looking paler.
So last night, after realizing that all this erratic behavior spelled some kind of illness, I looked reeeeeally closely and also saw that two barbs each had a single white spot on them (one on a fin, one at the base of a fin), and some of their fins were looking kinda ragged.
So did another 10% water change, upped the heat to 80, and added about 20 tablespoons of non-iodized table salt (half late last night, half this AM before work).
Immediately after adding the salt, the shimmying, descent trouble, and fin clamping stopped, but the two little white spots are still there and I still saw some flashing behavior this AM.
What now? Advice? Thoughts?
I'll post water quality results as soon as I can get home to test (just got the kit in mail this AM) ...
They were kinda sickly right from the LFS, I now realize (having seen Tigers at other stores since buying them), but they're active and personable and I like them a lot.
So I don't want any to die.
After a couple of days, I got a nagging suspicion that some of the behavior I was seeing was not just boisterous tiger barb play, but something bad. They were occasionally doing wriggling headstands in the mid water, seemed to have to work to swim downward. Partial water changes reinvigorated them for awhile, but them they'd start up again with the vertical shimmying.
Then I found out that the reason that most of them did not have their dorsal and ventral fins extended had nothing to do with dominance, but was a sign of illness (fin clamping). Also, occasionally one would dart to the surface and grab a mouthful of air. Finally, I increasingly saw them glancing quickly off the rocks and decor, and were looking paler.
So last night, after realizing that all this erratic behavior spelled some kind of illness, I looked reeeeeally closely and also saw that two barbs each had a single white spot on them (one on a fin, one at the base of a fin), and some of their fins were looking kinda ragged.
So did another 10% water change, upped the heat to 80, and added about 20 tablespoons of non-iodized table salt (half late last night, half this AM before work).
Immediately after adding the salt, the shimmying, descent trouble, and fin clamping stopped, but the two little white spots are still there and I still saw some flashing behavior this AM.
What now? Advice? Thoughts?
I'll post water quality results as soon as I can get home to test (just got the kit in mail this AM) ...
