gold white cloud acting strange...plays dead?

[gnahc79]

I got 6 gold white clouds on Monday and 5 of them seem perfectly fine in my Eclipse 6 (running it since March). The water parameters are perfect and stable. Every once in a while this white cloud 'plays dead' and sinks to the bottom of the tank. It's still breathing, but it lays there for a few minutes and then just decides to get up and swim around. Kinda freaky. The tail end on this white cloud is sort of drooping, everything else seems normal. Any ideas? Oh, the water temp it 80F...I can't have it more cool due to no A/C and summer time.

 

[OrionGirl]

The high temp could be contributing. If possible, set a fan to blow across the surface of the water--this will increase evaporation, so plan on doing more water changes and topping off daily. Otherwise--could just be a weak fish, if the rest of them are in good health. I'd probably isolate this one, and see if it improves.

 

[TKOS]

The fan is a good idea. I am not sure how the water return works on an eclipse system but if possible drop the water level so that the return splashes. This will create more surface air exchange. White Clouds (like all cool water fish) like high oxygen content in their water and warmer water does not provide that. Generally white clouds can survive okay in warmer water but if this one is weak then it might be a bit more of a strain on it.

 

[gnahc79]

thanks for the help! I'm off to do a water change and keep the lid open

 

[gnahc79]

I just did a quick water change, ~1 gallon, and propped the lid open with a plastic cup cut in half. I thought about freezing some of the water and putting it back in the tank, but the up and down change for the temp would mess with the fish, right? Also, how frequent should I change the water? Twice a week? Three times?

 

[OrionGirl]

If you can put a bottle or jar of frozen water in the filter compartment so the water flows around it, cools, and is then mixed into the tank water, it will work.

As for water changes--more is better. The fish will not complain about getting clean water every day, so do what's practical. Testing for nitrates in an unplanted tank can be used as a guideline--water changes adequate for keeping nitrates below 20 is sufficient for survival and health, but more frequent changes will be much better than less frequent.

 

[gnahc79]

update if anyone wants to know:
We ended up losing a total of 3 of these fish . The remaining 3 are ok in the 80F water. I did water changes nearly every day for a week and am back to the weekly water changes now (1 week so far). The fish are ok, not super active, but fairly healthy despite the water temp. I *might* get 3 gold white clouds this week now that the weather has cooled down some.

 

[TKOS]

Sorry to hear that some more died, but hopefully the rest will be nice and healthy. Perhaps adding some easy to grow live plants will also help. Java Fern, java moss are good starter plants.