Gbr dying

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Dubs1281

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Jun 30, 2013
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I have a gbr who is on the verge of death. I thought she had lymph and qt her, but the spots did not heal. But she became less.and less active each day. I think she was stressed because the temperature.kept changing to different extreme temps. Between 78-90°. So last night I put her back in the main tank to relieve her stress. She is hiding behind the filter motor and will not move unless chased. Is there anything I can do?
 

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She moves around from hiding place to hiding place. I cant get a great pic with my phone. She still gets around fine, but only moves when chased and is breathing heavily. I am thinking of force feeding her as she hasn't eaten in about 4 days. Any ideas of what I can do? She didn't get this bad untill a week after qt. And since ive put her in this tank, her condition hasn't gotten worse. But not better. What I find most odd though is her color is great right now. I would expect her to be very pale and green. Not red and blue.
 

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Can you share your tank parameters? I'm not familiar with gbr, but is there a possibility she's constipated? To my knowledge not eating is a very poor sign. I've never heard of force feeding a fish before? How is that done?

I hope your fish gets better soon! :)
 
Perfect
 

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Could I put her in this breeding box I got with some meds I also picked up? The breeding box cycles whater through it and the meds are API's general cure.
 

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Don't waste your time with meds. Get some food that contains garlic in it to boost her immune system. It's hard to tell from the pic but her colors look okay. Is she being bullied? How many rams do you have (m/f)?
 
Don't waste your time with meds. Get some food that contains garlic in it to boost her immune system. It's hard to tell from the pic but her colors look okay. Is she being bullied? How many rams do you have (m/f)?

She is getting a little bullied by a male and female gbr. What I originally did was buy what I believed to be a male and female, but they both turned out to be female. So I went to a different lfs for a guarantee of a male, as he was much older and much more distinctive as a male. The male paired up with the female who is now sick right away and they laid eggs together, the hatch was unsuccessful but anyways, after I qt her when I first noticed symptoms of lymph, after a week in qt, the male paired with the other female. I can tell which female is which because the one whose sick has very long fins. But now the new couple bully the ex. I think its actually not bad for her because it forces her to move around. And the bullying is only chasing and one or two nips. As for food, do I buy this garlic food at a petstore or do I mix garlic with peas. Plus she wont eat. She goes for food if its next to her but will swim away if anyone comes near her, hence the breeding box. Should I try to force feed her? I did it to my gecko and she lived through her sickness. But her mouth is so small how could I do it?
 
She is getting a little bullied by a male and female gbr. What I originally did was buy what I believed to be a male and female, but they both turned out to be female. So I went to a different lfs for a guarantee of a male, as he was much older and much more distinctive as a male. The male paired up with the female who is now sick right away and they laid eggs together, the hatch was unsuccessful but anyways, after I qt her when I first noticed symptoms of lymph, after a week in qt, the male paired with the other female. I can tell which female is which because the one whose sick has very long fins. But now the new couple bully the ex. I think its actually not bad for her because it forces her to move around. And the bullying is only chasing and one or two nips. As for food, do I buy this garlic food at a petstore or do I mix garlic with peas. Plus she wont eat. She goes for food if its next to her but will swim away if anyone comes near her, hence the breeding box. Should I try to force feed her? I did it to my gecko and she lived through her sickness. But her mouth is so small how could I do it?

You can't force feed fish, but there are foods at the store that have garlic in the ingredients. And it sounds like the pair is causing her stress. Once a pair forms, any other rams in the tank are susceptible to much harassment. She needs to be out of the tank, as much as it stinks. I have a total of 9 rams in my tank and do not have any aggression issues but I have Germans, golds, and electrics. My tank is also moderately planted which helps.
 
You can't force feed fish, but there are foods at the store that have garlic in the ingredients. And it sounds like the pair is causing her stress. Once a pair forms, any other rams in the tank are susceptible to much harassment. She needs to be out of the tank, as much as it stinks. I have a total of 9 rams in my tank and do not have any aggression issues but I have Germans, golds, and electrics. My tank is also moderately planted which helps.

But why would the male switch so fast? Also, the first pair was never aggressive to the third. And lastly my tank is heavily planted and tanks me a while to find a hiding fish.
 
But why would the male switch so fast? Also, the first pair was never aggressive to the third. And lastly my tank is heavily planted and tanks me a while to find a hiding fish.

I'm not really sure, I find it strange that even happend. Most of the time once they pair that's their partner for life but I could be mistaken. It's very difficult to tell with rams as to why they strike ill randomly. Try QT again and see how that goes, if she shows signs of improvement it means she is not comfortable in the main tank. Try to keep the QT in the same conditions as your main tank, especially temperature wise. I'm sure moving her back and forth isn't helping but so this one last move. Do you have any dither fish you could add to the QT as well?
 
You didn't shake your nitrate test or something is wrong with your liquid test, that isn't a valid test result.

For the nitrate test, you add 10 drops of liquid 1, then shake liquid 2 for 30 seconds then add 10 drops of liquid 2. Once you've added it to the test tube, you shake the whole test tube for a minute and then time for 5 minutes for accurate results.

A test negative for nitrates will always be yellow. Clear means the test is invalid.
 
What about ammonia, why is that still clear?

It shouldn't be either, I actually thought initially that you were showing you hadn't done that test because it had tested 0 at an earlier date.

I have never seen a clear ammonia test, a negative for that is also bright yellow. How old are your tests? Are they maybe expired or were they left open at some point?
 
It shouldn't be either, I actually thought initially that you were showing you hadn't done that test because it had tested 0 at an earlier date.

I have never seen a clear ammonia test, a negative for that is also bright yellow. How old are your tests? Are they maybe expired or were they left open at some point?

I use nutrafin and if mine is clear that means no ammonia
 
I use nutrafin and if mine is clear that means no ammonia

But you don't use the API test guide then of course. API test for ammonia is always yellow for negative. I would imagine if the OP was using Nutrafin she'd be using the Nutrafin color guide not the API one.
 
Shes been in a breeding box so I can make sure she eats, poops, and is not bullied, she's a little stressed but this was the first time she's eating in several days so... its a good thing.
 

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I hecked on her this morning, I forgot to put the lid back on the breeder box and she jumped out. In the middle of the night. I found her dead.
 
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