I think my baby Peacock Bass is sick.

[Brentw59]

I have 4 Baby Peacock Bass and 2 Bala Sharks in a 55gal Aquarium. Tank hasnt finished cycling yet water temp is currently at 81 Degrees, Ph is about 7.5 (with API master test kit), Nitrite is about .25ppm - .50ppm, Nitrate is 0ppm, Ive been chasing the ammonia levels for the past 3 days its about 2ppm been doing daily 25% water changes and using Seachem Prime to treat. I have a marineland 350 filter and an Aquaclear 110 filter. 3 bubblers with lots of air flow and seems like plenty of water current in the tank. I've been feeding Blood Worms, Tubiflex Worms, and today some very small feeder fish. Today when i came home one of the peacock bass had a very light color to it. Seems to be loosing all of its color. The fish were normally hanging around middle part of the tank but today there all hanging out on the bottom more. There not gasping for air and are still active. Just trying to cautious before something bad happens.

Do you think there is a problem? If so what should i do? Or is this normal? I only noticed the lightened color change today seemed like it happened pretty fast and only after i fed them the live small feeder fish and it only happened to one fish. The other fish have great color and seem fine.

 

[Jmunroe]

That tank is far to small. Even when the fish are small they will fill that tank. Your uncycled and ammonia is very high at 2. Don't feed live feeder fish too much risk of disease which you may have just found out the hard way. Do 50% water changes everyday until ammonia and nitrite readings stay at 0 and you have a nitrate reading. Which should be soon if your having a nitrite reading. The high ammonia may be the problem, keep using the prime as it will neutralize ammonia for up to 48 hours if you dose for the entire tank volume. You may want to start looking into a large tank if you don't have one.

 

[Brentw59]

I really appreciate the reply. This fish was baffling me. I have 3 55gal a 70gal tall and a 300gal. These bass are going to go into the 300gal tank. Since the fish were only 2in long i decided they would be easier to monitor and control in the 55gal. I like to monitor new additions before hand. I have a breeding pair of guppies in a 55gal and use them as feeders I agree that they still might have a disease but doubt it.

As for the fish it changed from a nice dark color to a very light color in 24 hours I though for sure i would loose it. I was gone all day yesterday feed them blood worms yesterday evening and noticed his color was getting better. This morning its like nothing ever happened to him. I will keep monitoring and updating. I have dealt with lots of fish but never seen that happen before.

Thanks again for the reply

 

[Brookster123]

You must have some good bb in your established tank?!? Throw some in the 55, give those sweet little bass a break??

 

[Brentw59]

Just moved and am re-establishing all the tanks started about a month ago. It was the first time ive ever had to do a full tear down and rebuild. All the tanks are cycling I sold all the previous fish back except for the fiances guppies. The tanks were sitting in the new garage for about 2 weeks and about a month ago one by one i started putting all the pieces back together. I used water and scrubbed them down no crazy cleaning products. I think I under estimated the amount of waste these Pbass produce even at such a small size. The fiance and I have been talking about tackling a very large tank down the road a bit. Maybe a plywood tank built against the wall. I dont even think a 300gal is large enough for Pbass. I know a lot of people have Pbass in smaller tanks but i would love to get them into a 1000+gal tank and re-create there natural environment. Or scrap the Pbass and do a full native tank. Large Mouth bass, Catfish, Sturgeon, and some Crappie or Gills. Any thoughts.

 

[bribo12]

Sturgeon do not belong in any aquarium but a native tank with bass, bluegill and catfish would be sweet.

 

[Brookster123]

Can you obtain media from a friend or your Lfs,peacock bass in the wild can reach 20 lb easy.. I am an avid fisherman, bass mostly, a largemouth tank could be fun, it would have to be huge as they get pretty large too, my basspro shop has an enormous tank, has to be 3-4k gallons, all native game fish, very very cool, trout in a in store river..

 

[Brentw59]

Yeah our bass pro has an amazing tank to with both hybrid stripper and reg stripper. Stripper would be amazing to have in a tank but they would have to be hybrid stripper reg stripper get far to big.

 

[Brookster123]

Yeah our bass pro has an amazing tank to with both hybrid stripper and reg stripper. Stripper would be amazing to have in a tank but they would have to be hybrid stripper reg stripper get far to big.

Yah! They have those as well, that would be amazing to keep the hybrids, can you even buy those or would you have to catch them on your own?

 

[Brentw59]

Well people captive breed everything imaginable and I can guarantee that you can buy them somewhere.

 

[Brentw59]

Check this video out. It has a guy with Hybrid Stripped Bass. Tank is way to small. Look how much water splashes around.

striped bass in an aquarium - YouTube

 

[Jmunroe]

I really appreciate the reply. This fish was baffling me. I have 3 55gal a 70gal tall and a 300gal. These bass are going to go into the 300gal tank. Since the fish were only 2in long i decided they would be easier to monitor and control in the 55gal. I like to monitor new additions before hand. I have a breeding pair of guppies in a 55gal and use them as feeders I agree that they still might have a disease but doubt it.

As for the fish it changed from a nice dark color to a very light color in 24 hours I though for sure i would loose it. I was gone all day yesterday feed them blood worms yesterday evening and noticed his color was getting better. This morning its like nothing ever happened to him. I will keep monitoring and updating. I have dealt with lots of fish but never seen that happen before.

Thanks again for the reply

Yes it's unlikely that your guppies made it sick since you bred them and they are quite probably clean which is good. I agree with you that 300 gallons is still gonna be too small for them. Your right about them creating more bioload than you'd think for their size. Maybe he was just having an off day since he seems to be normal again. Coulda been pushed around by one of the others or what I'm guessing happened, is that he got startled or rough housing with the others made him dash into something like the glass and he was just "off" for a bit.