Gramazing
10-28-2009, 12:09 AM
:yellowcry: :yellowcry: :yellowcry:
I don't know why, I wish the bloody fishes could speak so they could tell me what was going on. This is the flame dwarf gourami that I wrote about a few days ago that had some marks on his body. I tended to think they were injuries, and indeed they seemed to lessen over the last few days.
But today I came home from work and he was alternating between flopped on the sand exhausted or spazzing out, splashing around in circles near the surface. He was obviously in great distress. I noticed the filter was hardly moving any water through so I though, great.... filter's died and I have an ammonia spike. It wasn't that though. I had a media bag over the intake of the filter (Whisper HOB) and it must have blocked up in the last few hours, and that was what was slowing it down. I took it off and started up the filter again and it was going fine. I checked my parameters: Ammonia was just a hair over 0.0, it usually tests yellow as you-know-what. This time there was a smidge of green in the yellow. Nitrite was zero, nitrate, the bane of my fish, was in the 40's. I did a 50 percent water change, and in the meantime I had put the gourami, still hanging on, into a hospital tank. I thought there must have been something wrong with the water so I made sure most of the hospital tank was fresh dechlorinated water.
But it was too late for him. He's either dead or nearly dead, he hasn't moved for half an hour. I will put some water in the freezer and if he hasn't when that chills I will drop him in there, but he's probably gone already.
Does anyone know what I could have done differently? This all happened when I got home form work and I went to work on it straight away. I should also say I have been giving them some anti-parasite food, the 4th week of a 4 week program. Jungle Labs Praziquantel. I started feeding them this because of my zebra danios, some of which were wasting away. I though they had a parasite and the LFS recommended this stuff. 3 days a week for 4 weeks. I can't imagine it was any harm to him though, even if it was no help either.
I don't know why, I wish the bloody fishes could speak so they could tell me what was going on. This is the flame dwarf gourami that I wrote about a few days ago that had some marks on his body. I tended to think they were injuries, and indeed they seemed to lessen over the last few days.
But today I came home from work and he was alternating between flopped on the sand exhausted or spazzing out, splashing around in circles near the surface. He was obviously in great distress. I noticed the filter was hardly moving any water through so I though, great.... filter's died and I have an ammonia spike. It wasn't that though. I had a media bag over the intake of the filter (Whisper HOB) and it must have blocked up in the last few hours, and that was what was slowing it down. I took it off and started up the filter again and it was going fine. I checked my parameters: Ammonia was just a hair over 0.0, it usually tests yellow as you-know-what. This time there was a smidge of green in the yellow. Nitrite was zero, nitrate, the bane of my fish, was in the 40's. I did a 50 percent water change, and in the meantime I had put the gourami, still hanging on, into a hospital tank. I thought there must have been something wrong with the water so I made sure most of the hospital tank was fresh dechlorinated water.
But it was too late for him. He's either dead or nearly dead, he hasn't moved for half an hour. I will put some water in the freezer and if he hasn't when that chills I will drop him in there, but he's probably gone already.
Does anyone know what I could have done differently? This all happened when I got home form work and I went to work on it straight away. I should also say I have been giving them some anti-parasite food, the 4th week of a 4 week program. Jungle Labs Praziquantel. I started feeding them this because of my zebra danios, some of which were wasting away. I though they had a parasite and the LFS recommended this stuff. 3 days a week for 4 weeks. I can't imagine it was any harm to him though, even if it was no help either.