Black moors are spazzing out and won’t swim

[Matthias48]

I just had cleaned out the tank with two black moor because the tank was super cloudy and one of them was floating, barely swimming, and going upside down. All the sudden the other one starts doing the same thing, in the clean tank, they both just float around, not swimming, slowly breathing, and act pretty much dead, one of them will have bursts of spazzing where he’ll ram into the tank glass, and he’ll stop, the other will do the same but not as bad, but when he’s done, he stops breathing, seems completely dead, and has like very tiny jerks, and then he’ll start slowly breathing again. We don’t have gravel in the tank, so nothing big can be swallowed, but they won’t eat anything, not peas or pellets. I don’t know what to do.

 

[Blueberries]

Sounds like something is wrong with your water and they are trying to get out. What’s the tanks ammonia level?Hope your fish get better.1

 

[SaraB]

What size are your tanks? What are your water parameters and water change schedule? Is your tank cycled?

 

[Matthias48]

Sounds like something is wrong with your water and they are trying to get out. What’s the tanks ammonia level?Hope your fish get better.1

We haven’t done an ammonia test on the tank yet.

 

[Matthias48]

What size are your tanks? What are your water parameters and water change schedule? Is your tank cycled?

It’s a ten gallon tank, it’s just the two of them, and we don’t change the water that often, we really don’t know how to honestly, but we moved them into a bowl yesterday to empty out all the dirty water and added clean water.

 

[Autumnsky]

The difference in the old water and the new water is likely very much different and this can cause shock to the fish.

Old water collects all the solids in the water and as evaporation happens you add new tap water which has solids and the fish waste also compounds. Water evaporated and the old stuff remains.

Think of how a forgotten cup of coffee or tea might sit and you end up with sludge at the bottom or stains/rings and color of the coffee or tea.

All the water might have evaporated but the solids still remain in the cup. And adding water as needed for the fish tank, adds more layers of the solids, over and over and over, which is much different than a glass of water fresh out of the faucet.

The build up of old stuff stays in and can become unsafe for the fish and they might get sick.

Or as this process happens slowly over weeks or months, the fish can adjust somewhat and get more used to the worse water quality.

So when you change the tank water, a lot, and all at once. A couple things happen, the fish are shocked, by the difference in old water they lived in and getting put into nice new clean, is hugely different. Seemingly a good thing but too fast.

Also if you changed the filter pad(s) the beneficial bacteria is thrown away.

And if you clean out the tank with untreated tap water, then most all the beneficial bacteria / BB on the rocks is washed away/ killed by the chlorinated water.

Sometimes the water companies add chloramine to the water which is stronger than chlorine, and you might need to check if they add that, and if the dechlorinator you use actually treats chloramine, a stronger harder to break down bacteria killer.

 

[Matthias48]

Thanks for the advice, one of the fish passed, but today the other seems to be able to swim around more and is keeping from swimming sideways or upside down

 

[Autumnsky]

Getting the water checked and maintaining safe water quality is of the utmost importance if the fish has a chance to recover. Getting a test kit is really useful.

The Aquarium Advice article link in my signature has a bunch of helpful details of getting the tank cycled and safe for keeping fish at their best, so they do not have to suffer.

 

[Autumnsky]

Getting the water checked and maintaining safe water quality is of the utmost importance if the fish has a chance to recover. Getting a test kit is really useful.

The Aquarium Advice article link in my signature has a bunch of helpful details of getting the tank cycled and safe for keeping fish at their best, so they do not have to suffer.