Jardini swimming on its side?

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Burtess

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 10, 2006
774
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Ontario, Canada
I just picked up a Jardini last week, about 3".
He is in a cycled 75gal with a 8" Chocolate cichlid, the tank is divided. I have a 180gal waiting to be set up but deemed it overkill to put a 3" Jardini in there alone.
He is eating Cichild Gold baby pellets well.
I performed the usual weekly 50% water changes on all my tanks (4) 6 days ago and since this time the Chocolate has become sluggish, staying near the bottom of the tank, fins clamped, with a heavy slime coat. The slime seems to almost form drips on him.
The Jardini began swimming on its side today. He will swim regularly and then turn on his side when at the surface of the water. It almost looks like he is trying to look out the top of the water. He is eating normally.
Water parameters are 79F, 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and 20-30 ppm nitrate. I am doing another 50% water change right now.

Question, do Jardini do this, go on their side to look out the surface of the water, or is there something going on in this tank?

Possibly a problem with the city water added at the last water change? (although none of the other tanks exhibit any problems). I use Prime....

Burt :)
 
Sounds pretty bad if all the fish in the same tank are reacting badly to the water. Could have been something that was on the garden hose itself and not the water.

Up the heat and add salt. I'm going to let some of the more experienced guys get at the possible issues and no Jardinis will not swim sideways to look up at the waters surface. I've only ever seen them swim normally and if ever I see them swimming sideways they're extremely sick.
 
Fractal;4021909; said:
Sounds pretty bad if all the fish in the same tank are reacting badly to the water. Could have been something that was on the garden hose itself and not the water.

Up the heat and add salt. I'm going to let some of the more experienced guys get at the possible issues and no Jardinis will not swim sideways to look up at the waters surface. I've only ever seen them swim normally and if ever I see them swimming sideways they're extremely sick.
Click to expand...

I use a Python for water changes. This tank was the second one I cleaned last week, therefore the hose had 2 suction cycles and one fill cycle before adding water to this tank. There should not be anything in/on it as it is only used for the fish tanks, and if there was it should have been rinsed out by the time I used it on this tank.
I wonder if the Jardini brought something in with it, and it affected the Chocolate first, and now the Jardini is having problems. The Jardini's slime coat does not seem affected however.

I did turn up the heater a bit and added 3TBS salt to start.

Burt :)
 
Good luck man. Hope they get better with the salt and added heat.

Dumb question, but do you see any Ich on your fish? I lost my 3" jar to Ich and it displayed some of the same things you're describing.
 
This has got me seriously baffled!!

I am doing 50% water changes every other day just in case it was something in the water but no change in the aro....

The Chocolate however is doing better, no slime coat shedding and is eatin well.

The aro seems ok in the morning with the lights off. Swims normally. By the time I get home from work (still with the lights off but daylight in the room) it is swimming on its side. It continues to swim on its side with the lights on. Eats pellets like its going out of style....

Very strange....

Burt :)
 
Update on the Jardini situation:

The Chocolate in the same tank is now as normal, whatever he had is now gone.

The Jardini is eating Omega One pellets, and the odd earthworm.

When the lights are off, he swims normally.
When the lights are on, he swims on his side, like he is keeping one eye on the surface. He eats like this as well.
This is very bizzare!

I am thinking this must have something to do with the lighting. It is a single fluorescent, 30" long on a 48" long tank. Could it be the angle the light is entering the tank?

I am going to try elevating the light above the surface to see if this changes anything.

Any other suggestions are welcomed!

Thanks,
Burt :)
 
That was quick..... test completed.

Elevating the light higher above the tank has no effect, he still swims on his side.

Turning it off, he almost immediately returned to swimming normally.

Could there be some strange reflections on the inside of the tank? The back is painted dark blue...

Burt :confused:
 
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