Ropefish diagnosis

OTp1144

OTp1144

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So my ropefish has been acting weird for the last month ish. Finally, since adding my new giant ornate, I decided it was also time to QT the ropefish. Temp is 80F.

Here's where I'm confused, his symptoms. He's been having trouble staying at the bottom and was pretty much just chilling at the surface of the water for about a week. Seeing as how ropefish are usually weird, i didn't think much of it the first couple days, but after that QT was where he went. So recently, checking on him today, I noticed he has some discoloration on the top of his head. So thinking it's hole in head, I added a bit of salt. He immediately perked up. About 30-45 mins later, I go to check on him and notice his head is pointing downward, he's not upright, and he's bleeding from his left nostril. From what I can tell, he hasn't eaten in about a week either. I'm at a complete loss. There's no pineconing, no obvious fungus or growths, just some slight discoloration.

I also realize it's very unlikely he will make it, but I'd still like to know what is wrong so I can know how to treat it in the future and how to prevent it.
 
the lion who ate the sun

the lion who ate the sun

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That's really unfortunate... sorry to hear (s)he is sick.

What are your water parameters? What do you feed? A dose of prazipro might be in order.
 
Dr.B

Dr.B

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What's your water level at in the QT tank and display tank? Like how many inches of an air gap between the water and top of the tank, because those injuries are constant with fish trying to jump. I know I had the exact symptoms with my palmas polli, I wondered the same thing, but they would heal in about a week. Then one day I witnessed it and just keep the water level lower now. As for him being at the top and also being pointed down it's normal. I know that I have seen some rope fish bend in ways I didn't know was possible. Almost to the point I thought they were dead and broke their back or something, but sure enough once I stirred the water they'd move. This isn't a definite diagnosis, but that's what it looks like from the pics. The next couple days will be key to understanding what it really is. If the wounds heal then I'd say it was probably from him trying to jump. If they do not heal then some other symptoms or problems should show up, but adding a little bit of salt or medicine can't really hurt. I would probably throw in some API General cure just to be safe. So if the wounds do heal and they were a result of jumping the medicine is just a precaution, but if they don't then the medicine should hold off whatever the problem is just long enough to try and diagnose it and treat it. Either way I think it's just form jumping, but can't hurt to take a few precautions and throw some more salt and medicine in there.
 
OTp1144

OTp1144

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Well unfortunately, I started my day burying him. :( Thanks for the advice.

As for preventing in the future, I'll still answer the questions.

Water parameters were good. Ammonia/nitrite - 0. Nitrate 20-40. ph - 7.5 water is very hard. I don't bother testing because we live in the desert, so i know it's gonna be up there. he was eating massivore and hikari cichlid gold sinking pellets.

There is a 2" gap between the water level and the glass top in the display tank and about a 1" gap in the QT tank. The QT tank has a plastic top with 2 CFLs. One of those crappy dome ones, you know? I figured it might be that, but I've never seen him jump. And it kept looking like he was having issues sinking. I figured it might be swim bladder, but I've never heard of poly's getting that. Either case, I tried to starve him for a bit and do a slightly larger water change, once I noticed he was floating. Didn't seem to help. I did miss one week's water change on the display tank and had my nitrates get up to 200. They're since down again, but it seemed it affected everyone in the tank. I'm thinking maybe that might have had something to do with him? Even with that, he started his floating routine after I got the nitrates back down. I'm really lost because it seems to have come out of no where. :/
 
the lion who ate the sun

the lion who ate the sun

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200 is extremely high. You probably had a large amount of ammonia in the water at that point. Might want to reaccess your filtration situation or feeding habits. I've never seen over 80 in my tanks, and that only happened a few times before installing power heads and adding additional filtration. Those instances were self inflicted due to poor tank circulation and overfeeding.
 
OTp1144

OTp1144

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the lion who ate the sun said:
200 is extremely high. You probably had a large amount of ammonia in the water at that point. Might want to reaccess your filtration situation or feeding habits. I've never seen over 80 in my tanks, and that only happened a few times before installing power heads and adding additional filtration. Those instances were self inflicted due to poor tank circulation and overfeeding.
Click to expand...
I tested ammonia too, it was 0. Nitrite was 0 as well. In both QT and main tanks. The tank is overstocked, but it's temporary. I'm also drastically over filtering. ~1000gph
 
Jhncf

Jhncf

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Well you've got your answer there, your tank must be badly overstocked for your nitrates to get that high when you only missed one weeks water change, I'd get that sorted before you lose more fish.
 
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