My Ornate is very ill

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rahne

rahne

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2004
32
1
0
Houston
Hi Everyone,

I really need your help. My Ornate is really sick and I'm not sure what to do for him. I'll start from the beginning.
I did a large water change Sunday on my 125. Normally I dont have problems. It had been a while since I had done a WC I'll admit. Then I had heater problems. Its now working. But apparently we've had a lot of ammonia in the tap water lately. That's what the fish store told me. I do use water conditioner. Anyway after my WC in less than an hour my Pink Tailed Chalseus was dead, and other fish were stressing. I added Stress Zyme and Ammo lock,and all my other fish started acting normal. Except for my Bichir.
He has been acting very weird. Yesterday I noticed he was having a slime coat issue, and also that my Harlequin Shark had been knawing on him and making raw spots! I have two other fish tanks that are 75 gallons. One with a Polleni, the others with Geophagus. I really hope I didnt screw up here, but I thought it best if I move him away from the Shark. The Geos are the cleanest tank, so I moved him in with them for now. He didnt put up much of a struggle when I caught him. At least they wont pick on him.
This morning He still has a whitish slime coat and is very lethargic. What can I do? I'm hoping the ammonia in my water didn't harm him beyond repair.
 
I think that the raw spots are probably harming him more. It's good that you relocated. Not sure what to do. Perhaps add salt to stimulate slime coat production. Hopefully someone more experienced will comment.

Good luck! I hope he pulls through.
 
I had it tested at the fish store yesterday and they didnt give me the numbers. Just told me I had lots of ammonia. Nitrates were fine. They didn't do a PH test. Then they sold me some Prime water conditioner. Which I added to all my tanks when I got home
 
This had happened to me in the past,
I would move the ornate into a separate tank then let the ornate heals gradually,
do you have any stock water?if so then use it instead, if not then I would use mineral water or bottle water, then I'd put enough aerator and filter, rise the temperature and not so much on the water level as bichirs will go up for air frequently. I did all this in the past and it works; bichirs will heal them self rapidly, and just remember to always use stock water..
 
Well if your ammonia is high that means your tank isn't cycled.

You should get a master test kit, every fish owner should have one.
It should have test for-
Ammonia
Nitrates
Nitrites
PH

Whats your filtration?
 
I use a Rena Xp3 on the tank he was in 125. I did have Master Test kit. Onlt recently did it prove to be out of date. I just havent replaced it yet. Should have one tonight. The tank he is in now 75 gallon and also has a Rene xp3
 
IMG00692-20100429-1815.jpg


here is a picture of him last night. I'm going to do a water change.
 
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