Sick fish? I'm not sure what to do.

[tbirdie]

Hi guys, me again. One of my rasboras from my new (well, still new to me. Started it about 4 weeks old from my old established tank water, media, gravel, oto cats, and shrimp) planted aquarium looks like someone tried to rip one of her fins off. It's bleeding/red at the base and she's not using it. I've been keeping an eye on her. Today, I noticed another female that was just swimming slowly and then slooowly flipped over upside and then back up again, and then slowly upside and then swam off and was fine. She's not near a plant and no one is spawning at the moment, so I don't think that's it. She looked like, though I realize this is NOT what it is, she was falling asleep lol. Any ideas?

I did a water change yesterday and some trimming and maintenance.

Water levels today are consistent with every other test I've done :
77 degrees
ph: 6.6
kH: 2 dkh
gH: 11 dkh
nitrates: 0
nitrites: 0
ammonia: 0

Other tank info:
Planted, lo tech.
36 watts of T5 lighting, Coralife Aqualight
9 harlequin rasboras
1 bolivian ram
2 otto cats
shrimp

The rasboras have been spawning quite frequently. There seems to be some male agression due to this, so that's why I thought the first fish might have just gotten injured. Help? If treatments are suggested, I would appreciate brand/name suggestions as well so I can get the right thing.

UPDATE: One of my oto cats is dead. Just found him. Help please!
I know he was fine yesterday because he was cleaning up yesterday after I finished cleaning the tank. I got him out and disposed of him. His belly was pretty bloated and one side of it was a dark color, the other side, quite pale. I have had my oto cats for over a year.

The only medication I have here is LifeGuard, but I can go out and get anything, just need some help.

[tbirdie]

I don't know what's going on. I thought they were peaceful fish, but they are chasing each other ALL over the tank right now. Being very.. not peaceful lol.

[tbirdie]

Well, now the bleeding/red fin rasbora is dead. Could really use some help before I lose my whole tank. I added 1/2 the recommended dosage of aquarium salts the tank, hoping that might help.

[tbirdie]

The second rasbora is dead now. The one that had the bleeding/red fin. I wish I could get some help with this before I lose my whole tank. Anyone?

I added 1/2 the recommended dosage of aquarium salts the tank, hoping that might help or atleast slow things down.

the rasboras are still demonstrating aggressive behavior right now.

[cellodaisy]

I'm sorry for your losses.

I couldn't quite follow all the events... are the rasboras new or did you have them in the old tank? Could you maybe give us a timeline?

[tbirdie]

On 4/23 I moved my old tank and tank stock into the new tank. I moved over the old water, filter media, gravel, and fish. There were 2 oto cats, 2 amano shrimp, and 1 ghost shrimp.
A week later, I added the school of rasboras to my stock. They were a new purchase. There were 9 of them. They started spawning almost immediately. Everyone seemed to be getting along just fine. They were still spawning a week later, and suddenly the two smallest fish seemed to be staying away from the group and not looking so hot. I thought they might be sick and the LFS offered to exchange them. They gave me 2 more females, also small, and that's when I realized the rasboras were starting to pick on each other. The bleeding/red fin problem showed up on Friday, and I thought it was just a small injury. Then the other small fish started staying towards the back, and the rasbora aggression seemed worse and worse. They just wont leave each other alone today. The red/bleeding fin rasbora died today, and right before he did, so did one of my oto cats. That might just be a coincidence, but I don't know. Does this help?

[tbirdie]

The male is doing barrel rolls again. Got a feeling he's not going to make it through the night.

[fish-n-chips]

I'm not an expert on meds so i'll stay out of that part. the salt should help with any injury or illness. I would rearrange the tank and turn off the lights for now. Hopefully this will help reduce any aggression until you get more feedback.If you have more males than females may be if you can up your female count. Best of luck.

[tbirdie]

Thanks for the response. I have 3 males and 6 females. Well, now 5 females. I thought that was a pretty good mix?

[Jspigs]

I would try dosing both maracyn and maracyn 2.

[tbirdie]

I did find some Maracyn..

[tbirdie]

I haven't added any maracyn into the tank yet. Would love to hear some more opinions how what treatment approach to take. Thanks

[tbirdie]

They are still chasing each other this morning. Not sure what to do. I raised the temps to 78.5, but it will probably get up to 79.5 today because of teh temps outside anyways. Any additional thoughts?

[bradlgt21]

You should have posted this in the sickness and treatment section lower down. More help in there for illness. Including some self help, self diagnoses and treament suggestions.

[Star_Rider]

added new stock?
did you quarantine the stock?

I suspect the new stock may be the problem

is the red at the base of the fin?

[tbirdie]

The red was at the base of the side fin. She held the fin kind of down at her side. She's dead now though :(

I do not see this on any of the other fish.

I did not quarantine the fish because they were practically the only fish in the tank anyways.

[tbirdie]

I realized this and posted it there. I didn't realize that section existed until I had already posted this. Thanks.

[Jannika]

This must be agonizing, especially when your water quality is pristine! I have this copied in a file, it matches the symptoms pretty well.

Fin Rot - Rotting fins, loss of appetite and laying on the bottom of the tank. This is due to a bacteria that infects the fins of the fish. It is sometimes brought about by bullying from other fish and fin nipping.

There are medications available such as Tetracycline from Mardel Labs. Remove any carbon filtration before using medication because the carbon will absorb the medication. Before using medication though try increasing the quality of the foods you are feeding your fish, separate them from any fin nippers and step up your water change schedule.

[tbirdie]

Thanks Jannika, it is agonizing indeed! The thing is, the fish, even the one that occasionally seems to lose it's balance, are eating like crazy still. No one stays at the bottom, if anything, the one that didn't feel well stayed at the top. The fin didn't look like fin rot, or atleast what I know about it. :(

[Jannika]

Hmm, is the fish like "drunk swimming"? There must be a better term, but I had a guppy doing that. Although I didn't see anything wrong externally, the next morning it was face down in the gravel. The others were fine, though.

It's hard to know what it is, but I would treat the tank with the Jungle Lifeguard you have. I picked up some myself, since it says "you don't have to be a fish expert, there's no need to even diagnose the disease." At this point, I'm not sure it could hurt. Edit: it does say not for scaleless fish though. How's the Ram doing?

[tbirdie]

So far I haven't noticed any strange behavior with the ram. I <3 him so if I lose him, I'll be devastated. I haven't been at home today to monitor them, unlike the other days (work calls!). I watched them this morning while I was getting ready, and I didn't see any "drunken swimming" or unusual behavior outside of the school yard fights behind the rasboras. If they keep fighting permanently, I may have to reconsider my stocking. Fighting fish = not so relaxing.

My otos were very important to me... so I'd hate to put Lifeguard in there and kill off the other one. Having said that: I've already lost one and if this will help keep the other... I would definitely try it. But since it says not for scaleless fish, I don't know what to do.

[tbirdie]

Everyone seems to still be alive... I'm thinking about putting in the rest of the 1/2 dose of aquarium salts in tomorrow morning. Or should I just wait/

[tbirdie]

So, I lost another rasbora on Thursday. All the other ones are still being aggressive, nipping at each other, chasing each other etc. It's got me so stressed out watching them do all this but I don't know what to do about it. I can't add more females and see if its just the m/f ratio, until I figure out what is killing them in the first place. So, what am I suppose to do about the fighting until then? At this rate, they are going to kill each other regardless of whether or not there is some kind of sickness in the tank, so I'm feeling a little screwed either way.

I've dosed with aquarium salts and raised the temperatures.

[tbirdie]

Come to think of it, I think I'm down to 2 males and 5 females so... my ratio has changed on its own.

[Cerianthus]

Sorry to hear the losses of CB. Without a pic, this will be more of wild guess.

I believe you said base of either pectoral or pelvic fins were red, but unfortunately this is one of common symptoms for few/many different infections.

Is it possible to q/t just the barbs? If possible, try maracyn since you have the med but in Q/T. If have to set new Q/T, just use the water form main/display tank so Barbs in Q/T dont have suffer massive cycling process. Just follow the directions of meds.

Good Luck!

[BeavisMom62]

With ammo, NI and NA all zero, I wonder if your tank is cycled?

Im not sure, but is aquarium salt safe for otos? They are pretty sensitive fish.

[tbirdie]

The tank is cycled, my readings have always been like. Otos don't mind salt, as long as they are acclimated to it. I've never had issues in my previous tanks.