shaking head.not eating.rubbing...HELP!!

feylind

feylind

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Oct 24, 2003
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Does anyone know what is wrong with my blue acara?
His been off his food, shaking his head from side to side, ocassionally rubbing himself against the gravel, flicking his fins, and shimmying. Ive also noticed three tiny pinhead sized black dots that were not there before on his anal and caudal fins. His only other tank mate is a weather loach who he usually ignores so his not posturing to other fish or anything like that. I havent introduced anything new into the tank for about 1/2 a year. Ive also put a mild dose of salt into the tank.
Please help! I dont know what to do! What is wrong with him!?
 
rubbing aka flashing on the gravel..usually some sort of irritant.

do you have any pictures?
the not eating can be any number of problems including bacterial infection and parasites.

any change in normal maintenance?
new chemicals?
what are the parameters?
 
outwardly he looks fine its just his behaviour thats changed, i just coaxed him to eat a pea and a little chicken so maybe he was just being fussy....tho he is not wofling it down like he usually does when he eats. I havent changed anything about the maintenance the only thing i can think of is i got a new bucket for water changes but i scrubed that before i used it. no new chemicals. My tank is 2ft, around 24 degrees celcius with a neutral ph. i dont know the nitrate/nitrite/ammonia levels cause i never bought the kits.....i know i know i really should have them but ive kept fish fine for years without them and im a student so i dont have that much spare money. the salt i only added because i thought he might have some parasites or something but as far as i can see i cant really see anything and those tiny black dots could be just odd colouring but im not sure, they werent there before.
 
can you take some water from the tank to a fish store and have them test it for you?

a 2' tank? that might be a wee bit small for a Blue Acara but atm I am more concerned about water parameters.

it could very well be the water is off and this is irritating the fish(usually the gills) as for the black spots..not sure a pic would help.
 
on top of him being sick my 2ft started leaking so i bought him a 4ft and transfered the gravel and the main filter over so there is good bacteria in the new system. He only ate 1/2 a pea yesterday and im scared his going to starve himself. his really really really skinny!!!
i finally got to the lfs and my water parameters are

ph:6.5
ammonia:0mg
nitrate:10mg
nitrite:0mg

the dude their said it was most likely worms so i bought some sterazin and admistered day 1 of it today.

query: i thought if a fish had worms he would be really skinny and really hungry?
 
it almost sounds like an internal parasite, i had the same problem you might wanna try some parasite clear. good luck
 
his gained his interest in food again but i dont think his actually eating his back to the gobble spit stage again, though this is much better than the ignoring stage
 
bump up to 82 degrees, add some salt and do a big water change. But you probably already knew that.
 
changing fish tanks was a pretty big water change and ive got salt in there already and i dont really want to bump up the temp too much cause ive got a weather loach in there who likes cold to low tropical temps. thanx for your concern tho.

ive finally got a picture of him (got him when he was napping)
DSCN0057.jpg
 
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