Help! Sick African Lungfish!

[Michibi]

so luckily these guys die slowly. I would guess water quality issues and unclycled tank. You shouldn't have any nitrite reading if cycled. Continue with good water changes and get the water quality back to no ammonia and no nitrite. You listed Nitrite and Nitrate. what is your ammonia?

Sorry for the late response! I had to go and buy some ammonia strips and something to decrease the nitrite. Okay. It seems the ammonia is in the "safe" zone but the nitrite and nitrate were both super high (probably from the worms he refused to eat, so I removed them all). I put in Tetra brand "SafeStart" formula to get rid of any ammonia and the nitrite. Should I put in a filter then with his quarantine tank? I wasn't sure if it would affect the medicine its getting. I've been doing 25% water changes every 3 days as the medicines tell me too.

I'm really worried about it not eating. I've tried tablets, worms, thawed fish, and even cat food and tried gently pushing it in it's mouth with large tweezers but no luck. It used to be so happy to eat the worms when we first got it.

Thank you for taking your time to give me advice!

 

[Charney]

your tank is not cycled. use seachem prime to neutralize the nitrite. its the water quality that is getting him. do lots of water changes. also salt the tank. what is your filtration?

 

[Michibi]

your tank is not cycled. use seachem prime to neutralize the nitrite. its the water quality that is getting him. do lots of water changes. also salt the tank. what is your filtration?

Ok gotcha! We have your typical hang on filters like an AquaClear (as far as I remember) so I will put that on his quarantine tank asap if that is ok. In its normal tank however I don't think it even had a filter..? All I know is there was some large filter-like thing underneath the tank and a faucet was continually putting water in plus the tank was long and the water shallow so I'm not sure if a detachable filter can fit it. I'll take a photo to put here if it helps.

I'll be sure to add salt too. Does 2 teaspoons per gallon sound ok? (I googled it but I want to be sure!)

 

[Michibi]

Update!

I can happily announce that the lungfish is pretty much all better! The fungus is nearly gone, though he still has some indentation in his skin of where it was. His fins on the front are perfect and his back ones are unfurling very slowly. The best news of all is HES EATING!! He looks so much livelier too. I'm pretty sure he would have passed if I didn't get the help from you guys. Thank you so much!!!