Sick Black Ghist Knife!?! What can I do?

[Jmurray17]

Hi everyone,

Background story

Around new years was cycling a second hand tank I got from a friend. 75 gallon, 4 ft tank.

Dad surprised me with a little 3-4 inch black ghost knife, as the LfS told him it would be fine in my established 20 Gallon until the big one was cycled.

Was so excited but also went into panic mode,

bGK actually did very well in small tank and did my cycle. Very active, happy in his pipe/log, good eater!
When I thought I was done I took sample into my LFS and they gave me all clear. Moved some tetras from small tank to big tank and they seemed fine for 2 weeks in there so moved BgK in.

bGK was fine for 2 weeks until today.



Water param are amm 0 and nitrite 0....I don't have a kit for nitrate :S

I found the BGK lying on his side in the corner by the heater and filter intake.

Immediately moved him to my smaller quarantine tank 20g.

Have done a 50% water change and double dosed with stress coat (said to double dose in case of bacteria and stress etc)

He seems marginally better, I then tried feeding some brine shrimp directly to him.

It seems he is completely exhausted beyond the point of caring? Barely moving fins and there is quite rapid gill movement


Please help I am new to the hobby and have no other ideas :S

Thank you in advance!

 

[abrinn23]

What time of day was this?

 

[Jmurray17]

Found him before I left for uni this morning at 9am Melbourne, AUS time.
Put him in small tank.

Felt terrible but had to rush off for uni, came back 3 hours later and he hadn't moved, that's when I did part water change and dosed the tank. He's moved a little since then.

 

[abrinn23]

It could just be he's sleeping. BGK's sleep on their sides and they are nocturnal so they sleep during the day. I wouldn't worry too much about it! I thought mine was dead the first time I saw it. Here's a picture of him sleeping a couple of months ago

 

[Jmurray17]

Okay this gives me some hope haha I will check and see if his behaviour goes back to normal tonight.

It's just he was very happy to float to the bottom and nosedive without moving so got me a bit worried! Hopefully he just needed his beauty sleep!

 

[abrinn23]

Try turning the lights off on the tank and see if he moves at all. Mine won't even think about coming out if he senses any light is on.

 

[Jmurray17]

Well unfortunately my BGK is gone
I can't believe how rapidly he deteriorated. Will definitely be testing anything I can in my big tank to try find out why before I go getting any more fish was really looking forward to finally getting my BgK some tank mates :'(

Thanks for your help though.

 

[abrinn23]

Oh wow I'm so sorry! Was he eating alright?