gold severum sick

[Big Ben]

My girlfriends gold severum has something wrong with it. It is young, about 1.5 inches. The fish has stoped eating completely in the past few days. He looks like hes having some difficulty swiming and his gills are pumping heavily. After a water change he sat at the bottom for awhile then he got back up and is stil having difficulty swiming. He kind of stays near the surface. It kind of like his back end sinks somewhat. The weirdest thing to add is it looks like he has pinksih red spot on him, please see the pic.


Her tank parameters are ok as far as ammonia and nitrite go. SHe had been doing regular water changes of about 30-40%. SHe hadnt done one in about a week and half to 2 weeks until today when I did about 30%.

The tank is a 15 gal hex. Its been running for well over a year. SHe is keeping the severum until he reaches about 3-4 inches so i can put him into my tank.
-aquaclear 50 filter
-2 neon tetras and 2 glo lite tetras are in with the severum.
-SHes had the severum for about 2 months. He was a picky eater to begin with. He would only eat frozen brine shrimp. Thats all hes been eating.
-nothing new added recently

She has a light but no lid for the tank right now. I do notice alot of evaporation everytime we do a water change. A white line had developed this time from evaporation. Im almost thinking the hardness in the water might be contributing to the problem, posssibly the pH is too high. I will check into this tomoro to make sure this is not it. The other fish are all fine and eating great.

Im not sure what it may be if its not the water. Maybe gill disease?

thanks
Ben

 

[Zagz]

It may be swim bladder related. Is the fish bloated at all? It could be due to the brine shrimp. Try feeding some frozen peas and add a bit of epsom salt to the water. I realize he is not eating, so for right now, don't try and feed him aside from the peas. Fish need variety, healthy fish will eat when they are hungry.

Keep an eye on the parameters and post the actual numbers.

I hope you plan on getting a larger tank in the future for the severum. A 15 gal is too small for an adult severum.

 

[krustykrab99]

You may need to try to add some antibiotics just incase it has and infection. You can combo malachite green or blue with a broad spectrum antibiotic. If the temp is low or around 70 try raising it to around 80 while treating it. Plus severums do quite well around 80. Hope it helps.