Jewel sits on the bottom

[Friedshrimp]

I have a jewel that was injured when I changed the substrate from rocks to sand. I was not able to removed the fish in this ordeal, tank is 165 gals and to many fish to move, and no where to put them.

He was a little scratched up, but has recovered completely, except he cant or wont stay afloat just sits on the bottom. Has he lost air in his swim bladder and will he recover from this.

He she, I cant tell, is displaying very dark red colors and looks great otherwise, and he will feed, but struggles to stay up in the water column.

None of the other fish harass him.

 

[Lupin]

to MFK!

I'm so sorry for the delay of response. This seems a very odd issue to me. Is its belly well proportioned or bulging? How deep is the tank?

 

[SpeshulEd]

Bumping this thread as my Dat is doing the same thing...has been for over two weeks now.

He was in my 450 and never had a problem before. He was one of the more pickier eaters, always going for tilapia or shrimp and never for pellets. I stopped feeding the tank the shrimp and tilapia for a few days, trying to get him to take pellets. After about 3 days of doing this, he just started sitting on the bottom.

I took him out and put him in a hospital tank, added salt and raised the temp to about 84-86. He will swim when I come up to the tank, beg for food, eat, etc. However the rest of the time, he just sits on the bottom, sometimes even leans against the side of the tank.

I think he might have been tagged by one of the bigger fish in the 450 though, his pectoral fins were roughed up quite a bit, one looks like it was split all the way down to the base. His caudal fin was split quite bad too. These are healing up now, but the one pectoral fin still isn't 100%.

Edit to add answers from Lupin's questions:

Belly seems just fine. The 450g tank he was in is 30" tall. He then went in a standard 55g.

 

[SpeshulEd]

Bump...anyone have any ideas?

 

[SpeshulEd]

Bump again.

He's still kicking, but still at the bottom of the tank.

 

[Lupin]

How does its poop look?
Is it flicking?
Any other symptoms?
How are the fins so far?
What have you been feeding it so far?

It's been a week since your last update so there may be changes perhaps...

 

[SpeshulEd]

I haven't seen any poop in the tank, which concerns me. I thought he might be constipated because of this, so I tried epsom salt and still didn't anything.

No flicking.

No real other symptons, just sits on the bottom and leans against the side of the tank.

Fins are getting better, but still not 100%. Which seems odd, like its taking a long time for them to heal. Then again, it was a pretty bad split fin.

I was feeding it raw tilapia and silver sides. I stopped giving him those for awhile and only offered pellets again. He took a couple, but still gets far more excited for the raw fish.

Other than that, not much has changed. His color is fairly stable, still very active when I come to the tank, just doesn't feel like swimming.

 

[Lupin]

Very strange behavior. It seems very strange not to see any poop at all. Is the tank barebottom or filled with substrate? I'd try other fresh foods and see how he goes for them. If your hospital tank somehow has limited space, it may contribute to its sulky attitude.

 

[SpeshulEd]

There is black sand substrate - just a dusting on the bottom. The tank is a 55g with two emperor 400 hob's on it. It's about an 8" dat. I realize the hospital tank isn't ideal in size, but not really too small either. Perhaps I'll bring him in and put him in the 210g. Right there's just a baby ray and a pbass in the 210g. They shouldn't mess with him all that much, he's bigger than both.

 

[Lupin]

I can't find anything wrong with your fish physically with the exception of absence of poop and sulky behavior. This may simply have been out of isolation. If the absence of poop is mostly because of his limited appetite, the issue may not be bacterial or parasitic in nature at all in which case, I do not think there's anything wrong moving it to the 210g if only the fish is driven out of its stupor.