Sick fish....remove them?

[Waverider]

So, I have a couple of fish that are not acting right. A couple of my Zebra's are swimming sideways and seem to have a hard time staying off the bottom. They are acting very strange....

Should you remove fish from your tank if you think they are sick or dying, or should you just wait until they finally die to take them out. Also my two Corydoras are acting like statues and not moving anymore.

I am under the impression that there is something in the water and I thought this morning of removing the sick fish to give the other ones a shot.

What do I do? Do I wait until nature is done, or go American on them and do a pre-emptive strike to remove the sick ones?

Thanks!

 

[IceH2O]

Go American on them? :laugh:

How big is the tank and what are the water parameters, also how often and how much do you change out?

Depending on the situation you might only need water changes to rectify the situation. Someone else might be able to chime in on possible diseases but sometimes you'll have to treat the entire tank and just removing the sick ones won't work.

 

[Genral72]

Really I think that it depends on the disease. Try to find out what kind of disease it is. However if you kill it make sure you do it quickly. dropping a cinder block on its head(Okay so they are not that big.) or simply puncturing its brain.

 

[Rosemary]

Ideally you should move the sick fish to a separate hospital tank for treatment.

 

[zbc_dogfood]

I would definatly take them out of the tank so the others wont get infected, but keep them in another substitute tank and see if they get better.

 

[kyazh]

If you decide to kill them, make sure its instant death. In the past, I have wrapped the fish in some paper and then used a hammer to the head. Sounds creul, but it gives them the least pain. :huh:

 

[Waverider]

Well, Lost one of the zebra's last night and the corydoras are still acting strange.

I think this is all from my period of high Ammonia along with a broken heater that I did not notice for about a week.... :duh:

I have a 20 gallon tank that I overstocked way to soon and have been having to correct that for a while now. My Ammonia is low but my Nitrates have been a little high for a while.

I do a 25% water change every day since my Ammonia scare and to control the Nitrates. I added Bio-Spria to combat the ammonia. I also use Amquel + as a water conditioner.

Anyone know much about Corydoras? What does it mean when they stop being so active?

 

[Star_Rider]

Has this tank cycled?

ammonia scare?? are you testing the water daily? what are the readings?

if the tank is cycled you should read 0 ammonia(unless you have chloramine in the water) then you may show a low ammonia reading.
what are the nitrite readings..and what do you consider high nitrates?

what has your wc schedule been?

I wanna hear more about the ammonia scare..what happened?
could your fish be sufferring from the fallout of that.

 

[Waverider]

Testing daily. I am personify the word Newbie when it comes to aquariums. I do not believe that my tank has cycled.

I got this tank to ease the pain of my daughter losing her cat tragically. We did not read into it much and were given bad advice from the LFS. They actually told us just to run the tank for a couple of days with no fish and we would be good to go :duh: So we overloaded the tank in about a week. I was changing the water with a Margarita pitcher for the first two weeks and only changed probably 5%-10% of the water every other day.

Well....It did not take long for the water to start to stink and smell to high hell. I went and got a full test kit to test the water. The first Ammonia test I got came back darker than 8.0 mg/L. And the Nitrates were pretty low.....Did the Bio-Spira thing..got on this forum and started reading..bought a gravel vac...and starting working the problem...

Then I learned I was an idiot for jumping into this assuming it would be a little more complicated than a goldfish bowl. Yea.....So I have been combating all of that. I am almost at the point were I am losing interest and hope they all bite the dust so I can start over from scratch with all the knowledge I have learned.

But, for some reason I felt a little sad flushing that fish down the toliet. Even though he was just a pretty minnow.

 

[mduros]

You need to get your water parameters into acceptable ranges. Daily or even twice daily water changes will help you do this. Chemical additives other than the chloramine/chloride drops can make it worse. I know this from experience. Water changes will not effect the growth of the beneficial bacteria in your bio-filter. Removing your sick fish in this case will not do a bit of good. In an established, cycled tank, removing sick fish is often a good idea.

Just remember, starting up a new tank, even if you know what you're doing can be very frustrating, but it is quite rewarding, especially when you look at those fish thriving months later.
Take care,
Mary.