Black Moor Problem, help please!

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Fitness each completely fine so does the red cap or Ronda, he hasn't been upside down since that one time I saw him I had

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I meant Bitner not fitness, sorry the baby pressed send...


I meant to write Bitner eats completely fine and so does the red cap oranda (Babs) He has not been upside down since that one time I saw him. I need to get a 20 gallon long tank cover at the moment I'm just covering it with a cardboard box. Only so my cats can't get in.( although they don't even ever look at the fish. Which is good trained them not to :) ) I had a light from my previous cover that I had to put on the side of the tank pretty bright they were, my boyfriend feels like because the black moor has such big eyes maybe after 6 months these lights are bothering him??
So yesterday I bought a more dimmer rainbow style light do you think that's a possibility??

I do have to get a premium food now for him, maybe that will help him better although he doesn't have a problem eating what he has now.

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Delapool...did you see the 3 photos I uploaded of bitner, you could see slightly how one or two scales are missing and how he constantly stays at the top with a little bit of his eyes and Finn sticking out, which that's where it's a little discolored when he's fully in the water..more like grey-ish.

No yesterday when I got home from Walmart I noticed on the top of his eye it looked like something was missing as if you scratched himself but as you could see I have nothing in my tank but a plant the rocks on the bottom and my filter which is rounded on the side. But I don't think that has anything to do with the way he's acting maybe he's just getting older and less playful? Lolol I don't know maybe I'm just thinking too much into it....

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After the pleco head hurt the black more I got rid of pleco... and (bitner) wind up getting better within a day or two literally the second pleco came out of the tank within minutes Blackmoor was swimming around fine for a good 2-3 weeks and since after few weeks he's kind of little slow swimming not happy go lucky that he used to be. Once I leave the tap water out for 24 hours and if it shows pH levels are above 7 or at 7 should I not even add Stress Coat?

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Is he still on the top of the water with his fin and eyes poking out?

I would still add stress coat for the moment as part of your water change. It won't do any harm and will help him.

Is it this product from API? I've used stress coat from API and thought it made a difference. It won't cause your ph to change at all.

http://www.apifishcare.com/product.php?id=652#.VD035e0azCQ

Do you have the rest of the readings off the cardboard strip I think you mentioned? It's late for me but post the other readings if you have them.
 
Delapool...did you see the 3 photos I uploaded of bitner, you could see slightly how one or two scales are missing and how he constantly stays at the top with a little bit of his eyes and Finn sticking out, which that's where it's a little discolored when he's fully in the water..more like grey-ish.

No yesterday when I got home from Walmart I noticed on the top of his eye it looked like something was missing as if you scratched himself but as you could see I have nothing in my tank but a plant the rocks on the bottom and my filter which is rounded on the side. But I don't think that has anything to do with the way he's acting maybe he's just getting older and less playful? Lolol I don't know maybe I'm just thinking too much into it....

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Sorry, posted at same time.

It was hard to tell from the photos. I did wonder if a little fat but may be over thinking it.

I would say he has a swim bladder problem. That's keeping him at the surface.

The stress coat will help protect his scales, etc but being out of the water as you know will lead to infections later on.

Also does he poop ok, not constipated? Not white or stringy?

Veggies will help him out - peas are usually suggested as they will help with any constipation that may be putting pressure on the swim bladder.
 
He's always had really long poops that I always would laugh about, sometimes I noticed him pooping clear as well as the Red Cap but mostly the black moor more often with the clear poops with some red inside like normal poop.

I'm at work right now so I can't test the water at the moment but when I get home I will gladly do it I only have the cardboard strips at the moment.


Yes the product is from API. I got it at Walmart. Bitner always had that big belly since the day I got him that's what made me want him . So it's hard to tell if it is belly bloading or just him

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When Bitner just sits at the top of the tank just resting his eyes and the top of his fin like in the photo pop out it hasn't done that since only the past 2 -3 weeks its been. I have the water as high as possible I could go about an inch below the filter which is recommended. I do try to give him peas without the skin like I read online a while ago, but because Blackmore's have such bad eyesight the peas float down to the bottom and he can't swim fast to get it. So he doesn't know where it is takes a long time to get a small piece if he does at all. Sometimes I hear the water splashing and I always catch in the corner of my eye, as if he jumped out and in of the water I don't know why??? Makes me think he's almost itchy.

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That sounds good news that the poop looks normal.

I'm not sure I'm catching this correctly but is he always on the surface now? Is the surface problem worse after feeding?

To stop him taking in air with his feeding you could try smaller meals more often. This would also help if he is eating too much and that is putting pressure on the swim bladder. Feed pre-soaked, sinking pellets so he isn't gulping any air. Use a clip on a plastic rod to hold other veggies under water.

You could also fast them for 48hrs and see if that helps.

A fish shop may test the water for you for free. Generally I'm in there to buy something at the same time so I ignore any other buying suggestions they have until I can research it.

Ph would be good to confirm against the test strips. I have the API test strips and find ph from memory ok'ish versus liquid test. Ammonia and nitrite should be 0 and nitrate 20 to 40ppm (ammonia is most important one to check).
 
Filter hob cartridges I rarely replace until swishing in old tank water doesn't get them clean. This preserves the good bacteria population. Hob filter cartridges I find are such a big part of the filter that I try and disturb them as little as possible and only clean one filter cartridge at a time to rotate through.

If you have a canister filter then generally these hold more filter media so this isn't so important. Just depends which filter setup you have, either is good.
 
Hard to tell but he is still on top of the tank at all times rarely swimming around on the bottom. That's a picture of my filter I changed the filter cartridge every week when I do my water change. I also wipe the inside of the filter cuz it feels good almost as germs do you think maybe I should start leaving it maybe its good bacteria? Those are the cartridges that I use for my filter change monthly but I read online because goldfish produce a lot of waste to change it more so like I said I change it every water change which is weekly

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Hero 3 photos that you could tell how bitner sticks his top fin out while resting on the top

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Does it say what is in the filter cartridge (e.g. filter wool, carbon, etc) or is it just filter wool. Is there any other filter media in the filter (e.g. foam) seperate to the filter cartridge?

Nitrifying good bacteria (converts fish waste ammonia to nitrIte to nitrAte) tends to like filters as there is a good oxygenated water flow but will live on any surface in the tank. You end up with a bio-film on tank and filter surfaces which is a sign of a healthy tank. They are delicate so drying out and cleaning will kill off the population. There is a risk this causes a mini-cycle where ammonia builds up until the nitrifying bacteria population can catch up. Too much ammonia in the tank causes problems.

Cleaning the filter and replacing the filter cartridge could well be a problem yes. My HOB filter has two filter cartridges so I can rotate cleaning.
 
Hard to tell but he is still on top of the tank at all times rarely swimming around on the bottom. That's a picture of my filter I changed the filter cartridge every week when I do my water change. I also wipe the inside of the filter cuz it feels good almost as germs do you think maybe I should start leaving it maybe its good bacteria? Those are the cartridges that I use for my filter change monthly but I read online because goldfish produce a lot of waste to change it more so like I said I change it every water change which is weekly

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Your absolutely right goldfish produce a lot of waste. This can be dealt with by:

Water changes - hardly any nitrifying bacteria are in the water column so weekly water changes of 30 to 50% are great. I have tested my tap water here but it may also be possible to download a report from the town water board on tap water quality. Here they do an annual report by suburb which lists ph, ammonia, metals, kh, etc.

Gravel vacs - I use my water syphon to vacuum the gravel as well during a water change. There will be some nitrifying bacteria in the gravel so you might cover 50% of tank floor each week. This will remove a lot of waste matter out of the tank.

Filters - generally filters should have biological filtration which might be ceramic bio-media or plastic balls where nitrifying bacteria can live and not get disturbed. On my hob I have jammed in some extra bio-media like below. Then they will have mechanical / chemical filtration like filter wool cartridges which can be rinsed out in old tank water until too grotty. Or they could be replaced but I haven't bothered replacing mine in a year. It doesn't really matter as the nitrifying bacteria are living elsewhere.

If your filter only has one filter cartridge then it is trying to do biological and mechanical filtration all at once and that doesn't work so well.


http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/catalogue_products.php?prodID=2929&catID=9

Thanks for the pics of the black moor. I'd be looking into feeding ways so he isn't gulping any air at the same time. Perhaps he got startled and banged on something, ruffling some scales and upsetting around the swim bladder.
 
I would ditch the Whisper filters and get an AquaClear that is rate for 2-3x your tank size.
 
Just read back on lights question. I never noticed a problem with lights when I had gold fish but could be different fish / different lights. Might be on to something.
 
Hey I didn't feed my black moor for about 22 hours. I just gave peas. About maybe 3. I notice him trying to go to the bottom to eat the remaining peas. And he almost like swims side ways. And when he's trying to eat the peas or search for them he looks like hes floating

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Floating like up... And if he can't say down...he moves his fins A LOT more then the red cap to search for food. Does this mean it's the swim Bladder ??

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Hi, I would say so yes. He otherwise looks good. I couldn't see anything on him that looked like a bacterial or parasite infection.

Something is preventing him from swimming normally up and down (through regulating his swim bladder) and looking at his eating habits is a good place to start. You could try other veggies as well if he can't get to the peas.

Found the article below. Brine shrimp are also good but I'd skip blood worms.


http://thegoldfishtank.com/swim-bladder-disease/
 
I've been feeding krill sometime and blood worms

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So this is the salt I have... How much would I add in tank ...20 long....am I adding it right into tank?? Or doing a water change first?? And only adding the salt to the new water.


Should I as well keep adding the primafix? For skip that? I've been using it for about four days but only less then half recommended amount per day because I was unsure if he was sick, or only looked cloudy BC he's been at the top

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