Sick Zebra Danio?

[Eleven13]

Hey everyone,

I have a fairly heavily planted 10 gallon aquarium set up, and I currently have 3 zebra danios in it. When I went to the LFS the day I got them I wasn't planning on getting danios but the LFS guy talked me into it and now I sort of regret it because I now realize that they like to be in much larger numbers than 3 and have more swimming space than a 10 gallon.

I plan on finding them a proper home, but in the meantime they've all been healthy and active.

However, I noticed yesterday that one of them is just hanging out at the top corner of the tank floating there, not really swimming at all. If startled, he'll dart around normally, and if the other two come close he'll chase them away, but he always comes right back and sits there at the top out of the light.

When feeding, he'll come and go after food voraciously, but I don't think he's actually eating, seems like he's just biting and releasing.

I'm not sure what's wrong because he doesn't really look visibly ill.

The tank is fully cycled and yesterday it tested 0ppm of ammonia, do you guys know what may be the problem and how I could possibly cure him?

Thank you!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Does it look pale colored? White spots? Is it picked on? Does ot look like its scales are coming off?

 

[Eleven13]

There are only 3 danios in the tank, no other fish. They do peck around at each other, but I don't think that they are necessarily picking on one of them as opposed to just nipping at each other occasionally.

No sign of ich, color maybe looks pale, fins are usually always down or tight to its body. Scales look fine however.

They aren't gasping, but they do seem to be a bit more active when I turn on my air pump, but as I said the tank is heavily planted so I don't suspect oxygen deficiency during the day at least when the air pump is off.

The other two are starting to act like this as well now and I'm completely baffled. My water parameters are fine, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, ~20ppm nitrate or less (recently did a water change which didn't help much).

I'm confused just because nothing has really changed since I got them, so I'm hoping I can figure this out!

Thanks for your help!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Dose them with mardel maracyn two

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Sounds like dropsy to me

 

[Andrew McFadden]

I wouldn't wait to long once its advanced your better off putting the fish down

 

[Eleven13]

Oh man, alright I'll pick some up tomorrow on my way home from work.

If the fish end up dying, is dropsy something that I'd have to medicate the water column for anyways so it doesn't end up with any other fish I put in the tank in the future?

Thanks again

 

[Eleven13]

So a local LFS of mine has Mardel Maracyn 2 in stock so I'm going to pick some up soon, but I just had a quick question.

I have a small snail population that hitched a ride on some of my plants, will the medication kill the snails? Unfortunately I don't have a quarantine tank so I'll have to dose the 10 gallon itself. I'll still medicate either way, I was just wondering, thanks!

 

[Andrew McFadden]

So a local LFS of mine has Mardel Maracyn 2 in stock so I'm going to pick some up soon, but I just had a quick question.

I have a small snail population that hitched a ride on some of my plants, will the medication kill the snails? Unfortunately I don't have a quarantine tank so I'll have to dose the 10 gallon itself. I'll still medicate either way, I was just wondering, thanks!

I cant remember if it will or not some are not safe and some are but it will say on the sheet in the box. Hows it doing?

 

[Eleven13]

So far so good, they all seem to be better than they were before, they're swimming much more and they don't look like they're on death's doorstep

And the medication is great, it hasn't killed any snails and the water isn't even cloudy which is awesome.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Nice bacterial. Infections are hard to figure out so I was hoping I made the right choice on meds.