I am pasting in here information from a thread I started on another forum, that fully describes the details. My dojo seems to have recovered, but it's a real mystery why this happened.
All three dojos have been perfectly healthy until yesterday afternoon. That's when I suddenly noticed my middle male scooting upside-down along the substrate, struggling unsuccessfully to right himself, and breathing laboriously in the process. He would open his mouth very wide in the yawning gesture, and his gills would jut out sharply when he did so. He would roll over onto his side for a split second, then back onto his back again. Never could completely upright himself.
Prior to this, I did witness one bit of uncharacteristic behavior: He totally ignored his O-Nips, while the others went crazy over them, as usual. He just laid motionless in the far corner of the tank when I fed these, but was completely upright at that time, in his usual normal position.
Now, this is a real mystery, as my water quality is excellent and he shows no sign of any blemishes on his skin, and his fins are intact.
Is it possible for a dojo to get so stressed out it can have a stroke or heart attack? I try to provide conditions that help them feel more secure in their environment, such as subdued lighting with lots of cover and place where they can hide out and / or rest. They are in with peaceful fishes.
I do notice that when I have to vacuum the substrate, this particularly stresses them out. Two of them always bury themselves in the gravel at that time, and I have to be particularly careful with the siphon -- I always flush them out before vacumming, and if they re-bury themselves, I flush them out again -- for their safety.
I can't figure out what could have caused a swim-bladder issue, which this appears to be, when no disease is present in the tank.
The only other possibility I can think of is maybe he swallowed something he couldn't pass.
My water parameters are: Ammonia, 0; nitrites, 0; nitrates, 7-10 ppm.
I now have him in a bucket of tank water with an airstone, and he is being treated with half-dosages of the only medications I currently have on hand that have been touted as safe -- Melafix and Pimafix.
Any insights into this? It was very, very sudden!
All three dojos have been perfectly healthy until yesterday afternoon. That's when I suddenly noticed my middle male scooting upside-down along the substrate, struggling unsuccessfully to right himself, and breathing laboriously in the process. He would open his mouth very wide in the yawning gesture, and his gills would jut out sharply when he did so. He would roll over onto his side for a split second, then back onto his back again. Never could completely upright himself.
Prior to this, I did witness one bit of uncharacteristic behavior: He totally ignored his O-Nips, while the others went crazy over them, as usual. He just laid motionless in the far corner of the tank when I fed these, but was completely upright at that time, in his usual normal position.
Now, this is a real mystery, as my water quality is excellent and he shows no sign of any blemishes on his skin, and his fins are intact.
Is it possible for a dojo to get so stressed out it can have a stroke or heart attack? I try to provide conditions that help them feel more secure in their environment, such as subdued lighting with lots of cover and place where they can hide out and / or rest. They are in with peaceful fishes.
I do notice that when I have to vacuum the substrate, this particularly stresses them out. Two of them always bury themselves in the gravel at that time, and I have to be particularly careful with the siphon -- I always flush them out before vacumming, and if they re-bury themselves, I flush them out again -- for their safety.
I can't figure out what could have caused a swim-bladder issue, which this appears to be, when no disease is present in the tank.
The only other possibility I can think of is maybe he swallowed something he couldn't pass.
My water parameters are: Ammonia, 0; nitrites, 0; nitrates, 7-10 ppm.
I now have him in a bucket of tank water with an airstone, and he is being treated with half-dosages of the only medications I currently have on hand that have been touted as safe -- Melafix and Pimafix.
Any insights into this? It was very, very sudden!
