Mike
December 18th 03, 07:21 AM
Hi all,
Time for my nightly post! Seems like every night I have a question
that I can't find answered. I totally appreciate the help you all have
given me, this seems like one of those rare newsgroups where everyone
is actually friendly and willing to help!!
First off, I had posted about my betta. He was originally in a 55G
tank shared with some comets and a fantail, but developed fin rot. I
put him in a 1/2G tank (no decorations, just an empty bowl), and so
far he seems to be doing really good! Just moving him to a new tank
seemed to help; all of the "dead fin" has fallen off, and except for
the choppy areas remaining, you wouldn't know that he was ever sick. I
found BettaFix at PetSmart today and figured it's best to medicate him
for a week, anyway, and so far so good. He even ate pretty
aggressively, so I feel good about him. Finally, a fish that's not
dying on me!
But, of course it wouldn't be night time without some problem or
another.
I had 2 small comets (1-2") in the 55G tank, and a fantail (4" or so).
I've had a lot of deaths in the tank (3 small comets and a larger
black moor), but I really thought that it was all OK now. For a week
now, except for the betta, everyone seemed to be doing OK, with the
exception that the comets didn't seem all that hungry. Active and
eating, but not excitedly.
Well, today I found one of the comets just laying on the bottom of the
tank. I thought he might be sleeping, but when I fed them he didn't
move at all; just lay there, sort of gasping.
I took him out and put him in the 10G tank (the one that doesn't have
any type of filter on it) with fresh, clean tap (well) water and no
gravel, treated with AquaSafe (just to make sure any metals were
neutralized). He moved around a little bit, but settled down pretty
quickly. I tried to feed him by himself (flakes), but had no reaction.
I left him there for a few hours, hoping that new water would help,
but he never acted better.
After several hours, I was afraid to leave him in the tank with no
filter (how long can I can get away with that?), so I put him back in
the 55G. He pretty much sank to the bottom and gasped, like he was
doing before. No real movement.
My other comet is pretty active, but I noticed that when I fed him
today, he didn't eat. He swam around acting frantic like he WANTED to
eat, but didn't eat anything (except for the occassional suck in /
spit out). The fantail is gobbling it up like usual, though. This
non-eating thing is how all of my other fish started acting before
they died, including the larger black moor.
For the water parameters, I've been trying to find an ammonia test
kit, but the only thing I found was a round "meter" that you stick in
the tank by suction cup at PetSmart. In my 55G tank, the meter is in
the "safe" zone, but I don't know the exact reading. My pH is at
around 7.2, and the water temperature is at about 72. I've been doing
25% changes every other day since the black moor died, since I
suspected high ammonia levels, but I'm really just guessing. What else
should I test for?
Any thoughts on my comets? I daresay there's not much I can do for the
one that's not moving, but is my other a goner, too? I tried to give
him a physical, and he looked fine to me, but I'm a total newbie so I
could be wrong. My big fear is that there's a disease going across the
tank (I bought all of the fish at the same time from Wal-Mart, maybe a
month ago), but it's more likely something that I'm doing wrong.
TIA,
Mike
PS, this might be totally unrelated, but I noticed that the healthier
comet had some dull, gray scales today. The rest of him is silver with
an orange head, and although he may have always had a few dull scales,
I never noticed them before today. They felt the same as the others,
though.
Time for my nightly post! Seems like every night I have a question
that I can't find answered. I totally appreciate the help you all have
given me, this seems like one of those rare newsgroups where everyone
is actually friendly and willing to help!!
First off, I had posted about my betta. He was originally in a 55G
tank shared with some comets and a fantail, but developed fin rot. I
put him in a 1/2G tank (no decorations, just an empty bowl), and so
far he seems to be doing really good! Just moving him to a new tank
seemed to help; all of the "dead fin" has fallen off, and except for
the choppy areas remaining, you wouldn't know that he was ever sick. I
found BettaFix at PetSmart today and figured it's best to medicate him
for a week, anyway, and so far so good. He even ate pretty
aggressively, so I feel good about him. Finally, a fish that's not
dying on me!
But, of course it wouldn't be night time without some problem or
another.
I had 2 small comets (1-2") in the 55G tank, and a fantail (4" or so).
I've had a lot of deaths in the tank (3 small comets and a larger
black moor), but I really thought that it was all OK now. For a week
now, except for the betta, everyone seemed to be doing OK, with the
exception that the comets didn't seem all that hungry. Active and
eating, but not excitedly.
Well, today I found one of the comets just laying on the bottom of the
tank. I thought he might be sleeping, but when I fed them he didn't
move at all; just lay there, sort of gasping.
I took him out and put him in the 10G tank (the one that doesn't have
any type of filter on it) with fresh, clean tap (well) water and no
gravel, treated with AquaSafe (just to make sure any metals were
neutralized). He moved around a little bit, but settled down pretty
quickly. I tried to feed him by himself (flakes), but had no reaction.
I left him there for a few hours, hoping that new water would help,
but he never acted better.
After several hours, I was afraid to leave him in the tank with no
filter (how long can I can get away with that?), so I put him back in
the 55G. He pretty much sank to the bottom and gasped, like he was
doing before. No real movement.
My other comet is pretty active, but I noticed that when I fed him
today, he didn't eat. He swam around acting frantic like he WANTED to
eat, but didn't eat anything (except for the occassional suck in /
spit out). The fantail is gobbling it up like usual, though. This
non-eating thing is how all of my other fish started acting before
they died, including the larger black moor.
For the water parameters, I've been trying to find an ammonia test
kit, but the only thing I found was a round "meter" that you stick in
the tank by suction cup at PetSmart. In my 55G tank, the meter is in
the "safe" zone, but I don't know the exact reading. My pH is at
around 7.2, and the water temperature is at about 72. I've been doing
25% changes every other day since the black moor died, since I
suspected high ammonia levels, but I'm really just guessing. What else
should I test for?
Any thoughts on my comets? I daresay there's not much I can do for the
one that's not moving, but is my other a goner, too? I tried to give
him a physical, and he looked fine to me, but I'm a total newbie so I
could be wrong. My big fear is that there's a disease going across the
tank (I bought all of the fish at the same time from Wal-Mart, maybe a
month ago), but it's more likely something that I'm doing wrong.
TIA,
Mike
PS, this might be totally unrelated, but I noticed that the healthier
comet had some dull, gray scales today. The rest of him is silver with
an orange head, and although he may have always had a few dull scales,
I never noticed them before today. They felt the same as the others,
though.