Help - Fish swimming straight up and down.

[AKelly]

Just got back from lfs. Boy did I splurge! I got this stuff called Paragon for the anitbiotic. I bought a filter, heater and a new rock with hole in the middle for the qt tank.

I also got salt, new heavy duty algae scrubber, new themometer, other one broke.

I will set up tank when I get home from work. How long should I wait before putting fish into qt tank? I will fill it with tap water and put a water conditioner tablet in. Then put the heater in. What if I put luke warm waterin to speed up the heating process. would that work? I'd like to get the fish in the qt tank tonight.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks again!

 

[TankGirl]

Yep - get the fish into the quarrantine tank soon, and putting in pre-heated water (checked with a thermometer) is a time saver. This tank might require daily water changes to keep toxic levels down, but all you need is a filter and a heater, no gravel, light optional.

Antibiotics are not going to do a thing for parasitic infestations but are great for use after the parasite has been eradicated, because often a secondary bacterial infection will set in. Salt and heat do wonders for parasites, and if the parasites are visible it is very wise to try to physically remove them, if you can stomach it.

Best of luck with your fish, and kudos to you for going all out doing the right thing - if this does not work out for this fish you will have a setup ready to go in the case of illness or injury in the future.

 

[AKelly]

Hey,

Thanks tankgirl. My boyfriend actually wanted to try to pull the parasite off. So I should have him do this then. I wasn't sure. I thought it would hurt the fish so I told him no way!

The fish is in qt with no gravel, heater and filter and a new rock for him to hide in. He seems to be swimming a bit better. The meds i got said if would help with flukes, worms, etc. Who knows.

There is a yellow thing sticking out of him, so i assume that is the parrasite. Should we use tweesers to pull the parasite off?

I have the heat up and I will add the salt, wasn't sure if i should mix the salt with the med.

Please let me know how we should go about pulling the parasite off.

Oh, I tested the nitrate and nitrite of main tank

I also omitted the charcoal from the filter as per the qt instruction.

Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = between 40 and 80.

 

[AKelly]

Oh Thanks for the Kudos much appreciated!

 

[MarkLehr]

You very likely have multiple problems with this fish. I always hate to recommend this... but you would be best to peacefully dispose of the infected fish for the safety of the other fish in the tank. You probably have an internal bacterial infection as well as beginning stages of parasites. I would suggest Quick Cure as a medication type as a preventative for possible parasites. Treat for a full 3 days. The infected fish can be put into a ziplock bag of aquarium water and placed in your freezer.

 

[Umberle]

I think now that she has it QT'd it's worth seeing if it'll recover, personally. It's not posing a continuing a threat to the main tank anymore. My livebearers have come back from some pretty amazing symptoms.

You might be right about the Quickcure for the main tank though...I'd probably wait for the first sign of a problem though. Generally not good to stress the fish if you don't have to.

 

[AKelly]

Hi,

The fish has been in QT for almost a week now. The fish does seem to be doing better, swimming a better. I have been putting the antibacterial and antiparasite med into the water. I have also added aquarium salt to water every so often and have done one water change so far.

The thing that I thought was a parasite is actually the swordtail fin on his underbelly. We didn't pull it off after careful examination.

If the fish looks better after another week I will return him to the main tank.

I need to do a full water change on main tank as the it is just overcome with algae and everything really needs to come out and be cleansed. I will save some of their water to add to the fresh tank.

 

[TankGirl]

OMG! If it is what I think you are referring to then you must have a male and I am sure he is very glad that you did not try to pull it off! 8O

Glad it was not a parasite - and I'm glad he is doing better. I would really try to keep him quarrantined for at least a week after you think he is totally back to normal, if possible.

 

[AKelly]

Thank god we didn't pull it off!!!!

What would happen to him if we did pull it off, I am sure he would have died. Yeesh, we thought it was a fin, now I know how to tell the sex of swordtail.

oh boy!

 

[Umberle]

rofl

 

[TankGirl]

Any livebearer male will have that modified anal fin, while the females is more in a fan pattern. I guess you need to apologize to the poor chap for calling it a "parasite" (okay, I'll stop with the bawdy humor, but could not resist!).

 

[gozetec02]

I wouldn't clean out your tank completely. This would kill some of the benificial bacteria. Just clean the glass and use a gravel cleaner to remove any waste. Maybe change 50% of the water. Remember to add more aquarium salt 1 tablespoon per gallon and dechlorinator. Then every week after that change 50% of the water for about 3-4 weeks. So you would have in theory changed the water completely two times. Keep that fish in the quarantine tank for till the other tank is fine.

Good luck and happy keeping.

 

[AKelly]

lmao! poor guy!

Thanks again for all of your help with this.

My boyfriend was the one who looked at a pic on the internet and that is how we figured it out it wasnt' a parasite, but he was like helloo. you spent so much time on this and I found out in like 5 mins... i had to give him that one....

 

[AKelly]

Okay, but instead of using gravel vac, can I just somehow take all the gravel out and clean it that way, then put it back in. The gravel vac just doesnt seem to be picking everything up.

 

[AKelly]

other problem is I cannot get the algae off of the glass no matter what I try, so i thought I would tranfer the fish into some container with most of their water and then try to scrub the tank that way. I am also thinking of getting new tank, cause this tank seems old, we inherited it from previous house owners so who knows how old the tank is.

 

[TankGirl]

Don't remove the fish and do a big cleaning procedure on this tank - you will invite trouble and it won't solve the algae problem. If the tank is holding water there is no reason to replace it, unless it is scratched or otherwise unsightly. If the same conditions that are present now are there with a new tank you'll be right back where you are now in no time.

You need to starve the algae out, and it will disappear on its own. Reduce lighting and increasing water changes are two first steps, in addition to making sure direct sunlight is not getting on the tank. I have eradicated algae by doing a partial water change every day for about a week, so I could get a handle on the excess nutrients in the water without doing a major cleaning procedure that would kill the beneficial bacteria that resides in your gravel. You want to protect that in any way you can.