Fish lying down - is he sleeping?

D

debi999

AC Members
Jan 8, 2006
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Hi,
I got 4 fancy guppies yesterday for my 5 gallon eclipse hex tank.. I had cycled the tank, before adding them, changed the water, got two real plants. Now, when I check, the ammonia is in safe levels, three of the fish are active. but one is lying down in a corner, moving his fins, and I see him opening his mouth. Could something be wrong?
 
You might have just gotten an ill one, keep an eye...if it goes, you should have a guarantee, just put it in a ziploc with some water and maybe bring another ziploc with just water...they'll test it and give you a new one...
 
Thank for the reply. He has moved around a little, but is in his corner most of the time. Not eating anything. I just took him out and saw that the tip of his tail has a red line like blood. Is this some kind of disease or was it hurt somehow? Any tips on possible remedies?

Thanks in advance,
Debi
 
few fish (clown loaches excepted) "lie down" when sleeping. your fish's behaviour indicates a disease process ... from the description (red line in the tail) i'd suspect Haemorrhagic septicaemia.

this is caused by one or more of the bacterial class of Aeromonas, Pseudomonas or Vibrio. these bacterial species are common in many apparently "healthy" aquaria as latent infection waiting to happen. happen it does when fish are in poor and/or stressed condition for some reason, which can include overcrowding, moving, rough handling, inadequate/innapropriate diet, temperature fluctuation, wrong pH or pH fluctuation, build up of dissolved organic compounds --- the list is practically endless.

the red streaking you observe on the fins is the result of haemorrhaging of internal organs and accumulation of released blood in more external tissues of the body such as fins. other symptoms which may occur as the disease progresses include ulcers.

treatment:

Furizolidone at 20mg/litre as a continuous bath for 7 days. complete water change -- 48 hour rest period. repeat treatment.

Nifurpirinol at 0.2mg/litre as per above. Oxytetracycline at 75mg per kilogram of fish (yes, you have to weigh your fish) with food.
 
Can you post your water parameters? Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate.
 
Last edited:
liv2padl said:
Nifurpirinol at 0.2mg/litre as per above. Oxytetracycline at 75mg per kilogram of fish (yes, you have to weigh your fish) with food.
Click to expand...

Per kilogram?!? That's 2.2 pounds! How can you convert that for a 1 gram (soaking wet - sic) guppy?

Out of sheer curiosity, would my LFS be likely to have this stuff?
 
I dont even think it would be worth buying it over a guppy, I have noticed that most medications cost more then the fish themself.

If it was say a $50+ fish , then i would get it, but for a guppy prolly not.
 
Hi,
Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the delay in replying - I had a very bad shock in the afternoon. Since I was not seeing completely zero ammonia levels, I decided to go to the petstore for testing my water. I was under the assumption that they had some detailed procedure for testing - I saw them using the same test strip that I am using.
Anyway as the associate checked I saw ammonia strip turning green, I didnt see the nitrite strip. He asked me a few questions on when I had set up the tank, and when I had added the fish. And then told me that "your tank has just started cycling, there is ammonia in it and no nitrites or nitrates. so you might lose some fish. Don't add any more fish for six weeks." After all the pain I had taken to do a fishless cycling.
I was depressed, crestfallen - got SeaChem Ammonia to keep a closer watch; thought I had done everything wrong; had an argument with hubby over what he thinks is more money being spent on what seems to be a failure - he was the enthusiastic fish buyer yesterday - installed the seachem in the tank, moved the sick fish to a small bowl, as I don't want other fish to get sick, and then brooded over it for a long time. Then I thought I will check ammonia with my test strip once more, I checked and as in the morning it showed just a slight greenish tinge, nitrites were zero, nitrates slightly higher, seachem backs this.
Now, I am exhilarated, all is not lost...I dont know why the petstore showed higher ammonia, I had taken the water immediately after a feeding, maybe because of that. I have posted the pics of the fish and my test strips on this link. http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/debi_012/album?.dir=9addscd
I hope the experts here can give me a second opinion.

Thanks a lot,
Debi
 
Ditch the strips, if you have a petsmart near buy, print out this page
http://www.petsmart.com/global/prod...1147591616237&itemNo=2&In=Fish&N=2030068&Ne=2

And go to the petsmart, grab this off the shelf and when you go to pay, hand them the paper.
It should save you quite a bit of money, and it is much better then the strips.
Remember, dont kick yourself to hard, some times things happen even to the best of us.
 
I once (just for kicks) took some water to Petsmart for their strip tests and then went to a LFS where they use some good drip tests. Petsmart told me the following:

Ammonia: 3.0mg/L
pH: 5.2 (the strips don't even go that low, the guy "estimated" based on the color compared to the chart)
Alkalinity: 0 (again, the strips bottom out at 100, I don't know where he got the number)
Nitrates and Nitrites: something equally nonsensical, I don't remember exactly

The LFS told me my water was basically tap water (made sense because I had just changed out my gravel and done a 50% water change [long story]) As an amusing side story, the specialty manager at Petsmart who had done the tests saw me the next time I was in the store and asked me about my tank. I told him about the tests from the LFS (and how the owner of the LFS had said that strip tests were terrible), and he got very irritable and began to tell me about his degree in biology and how he knew for a fact that dip tests were better than drip (his reasoning was that drip tests are hard because you need an exact volume of water and that's easy to screw up).

I suppose none of that really addressed the question at hand other than to provide good evidence that you need to stay away from strips and stay away from Petsmart for anything other than cheap supplies. I use the AP kit that is reccommended above now, and I have a clear tank with healthy fish based on it.
 
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