Help with sick Flowerhorn
- Thread starter anzo1993
- Start date
Impossible to say what’s going on, seems you’ve had this fella a fair while now. If not water issue, not sure?
I had a friend who had a great looking flower horn for about a year. It went from being very healthy to repeatedly sick. I asked him about water quality and he said it was “great” and he was changing 25% of the water twice each week. He even took the fish to the Vet which was basically a waste of time as the Vet simply examined the fish and gave him a prescription for fish antibiotics. Only after I heard his Flowerhorn had died did I question him closely about how he did his water changes. He said he drained water from the top of the tank with his Python then refilled it. When I informed him he needed to run the siphon thoroughly through his gravel to remove all the junk that would gradually accumulate down there, he stated he had never thought about that. The next day, he told me he had vacuumed the gravel as soon as he got home and was shocked at the amount of crap he was able to siphon out. He thinks he inadvertently caused his fish to die due to poor water quality despite frequent water changes. So, are you siphoning your gravel when you do your water changes?
I think something that many have touched up on here is that when you breed for visuals you dont know what other genes that are "masked" by color, size, and shape. Especially in hybrids and crossbreeds. The more it goes down the line into more filial generations the more chance you have of locking in weak immunity and susceptibilities that would be otherwise unknown without genealogical testing. Flowerhorns and hybrids are handsdown my favorite to raise and keep. But having kept them the last 15+ years I can accurately tell you that sometimes hybrids will have an unknown issue. This of course isnt the answer you're looking for however I hope it can comfort you that it may be bad genetics rather than enviroment. Also, have your water tested elsewhere too. I bought a bad test kit and used it for 6 months before I found the issue. Best of luck and keep us updated!
Sorry did you test for Ammonia? As RD. said nitrites should be 0, like him I'm guessing you meant nitrates. Everything else you mentioned is indicative of good water quality. There are only a few othe things you could test for but there's no symptoms indicative of a need for doing those particular tests.
The symptoms you listed, and the sunken eyes would seem to suggest a parasite but without any initial stressor to trigger it or introduction via another tankmate or live food it's a mystery to me as well. Many parasites and pathogens exist around and even inside us at all times and the same is true for fish in an aquarium. Usually in fish something causes the immune repsonse to not be as strong as it should which is most commonly water quality. If it's not that it's a foreign thing introduced by something such as live food or a new tankmate.
Since you had the FH for a while and his initial picture looks great it would seem to indicate he was in great health at the sellers. He also looks in my humble opinion to be a decent quality FH. You've treated him for parasites, your water quality is good, and I don't see any signs of bloating that might indicate a swimbladder or constipation issue I'm at a loss. I'm sorry to say it's beyond my ability to help you. I can only hope someone more knowledgeable than I chimes in. I consider RD. more knowledgeable but he at least for now seems to be at a loss as well.
I will say one more thing. I never use my other fish as a barometer of water quality or a nonissue even when in the same tank. Different fish species and in some cases even within the same species some indiviuals will show a resilience that one or more might not have. I myself have experienced this. On occasion I have become overly confident, and it cost me some fish. I live in NY and the water quality is generally good, I do water changes fairly frequently because I don't pay for water and assumed I wouldn't have a water quality issue. I did and it cost me some rare fish(ossubtus xinguense). Without me knowing my PH out of the tap had drastically dropped from 7.0 to below 6. The toxicity of nitrite and ammonia is greater at low ph. Nitrite exists as NO2(ion) and HNO2(nitrous acid) the amount of each of these that will be present is dependent on PH. With low PH it is HNO2 which is in greater concentration and therfore the water is more toxic than it would be at a higher PH. So even though I had closely related species ossubtus xinguense and various Silver Dollars the SD's showed no signs of issues while my poor Xinguense suffered for my arrogance. Over slimecoat production being the only sign I noticed that would occur as I got closer to a water change. But the buildup of toxins after the water change grew to levels in the low PH that eventually killed my Xinguense despite showing at acceptable ranges on my tests.
Yeah when I do water changes I usually do 25-50% bi weekly and I clean the gravel with the siphon
Thank you for the help I appreciate the effort, for now I’ll moniter and continue doing regular water changes and I’ll hopefully or the best
Yeah very strange scenario considering the circumstances, maybe I got unlucky with the genetics in this individual Flowerhorn
Looking at some of
anzo1993
other tanks, and fish - any chance of cross contamination? You've had some recent health issues in other tanks, something as simple as using the same water siphon could potentially introduce a pathogen to a tank where the fish is more susceptible, such as your FH.
