My Rope Fish

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Nick12231

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2017
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I've had this ropefish for quite some time now (about a year or two) and now hes come up with a large black spot that seems to be infecting his scales. He also has a weird injury to his right gill. The first thing that scared me was his eyes became swollen but they arent as bad as they were before. I recently got another younger ropefish and they all live in the same little coral and never have a problem until these last few days. But, he seems very active and fine.

He lives in a 75 gallon fish tank with a few other fish:
A freshwater snowflake moray eel (or marble eel? I've heard so many different names)
5 tiger barbs
1 other rope fish (still young and doesnt come out much)
And a silver gar/rocket gar

It is a brackish tank and the salinity of the water is about 1.003-4 last time I tested it. (mind you Im pretty new to fish keeping but I know my stuff)
The nitrate is 0 but recently the nitrite spiked to about .5 and Im currently using Prime to get rid of it and Im also waiting for my Python Sand Cleaner to be shipped so I can clean.

In addition to said ropefish being injured, one of the 5 tiger barbs I have sit under a plant I have and breaths heavily which also scares me. (just seeing if anyone can help me with that too)

Couldn't really get any photos because the ropefish wouldn't sit still (which is also weird because hes usually hiding?)

Thank you for reading this! I hope its enough so I can get some help from someone who knows more <-Breaths heavily
 
Last edited:
How log has this tank been running?Last water change? How often are u feeding? What are I feeding? What's ur filtration?

Gotta see pics of the ropefish. Probably from poor water quality it sounds like. Gotta up your water changes as it'll help to correct some of the problems. Even the tiger barb can be due to poor quality.

Woukd suggest to do a 75% wc now with prime. Then adjust for the salinity.
 
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kno4te said:
How log has this tank been running?Last water change? How often are u feeding? What are I feeding? What's ur filtration?

Gotta see pics of the ropefish. Probably from poor water quality it sounds like. Gotta up your water changes as it'll help to correct some of the problems. Even the tiger barb can be due to poor quality.

Woukd suggest to do a 75% wc now with prime. Then adjust for the salinity.
Click to expand...

The tank is pretty new (yes it went through the cycle). We haven't done a water change yet because we are still waiting on our Python Aquarium Hose to ship. We feed the tiger barbs and rope fish frozen blood worms but I've never actually see the rope fish eat it. The tiger barbs absolutely destroy the blood worms. I've seen the rope fish eat ghost shrimp from time to time but never blood worms. Any suggestions on getting them to eat? The filter I use is a Sun Sun HW-304B multi layer canister filter. Pretty beefy filter (filters 525 gallons per hour)

As soon as the hose ships, I plan to basically do a 75% water change and prime it.
 
Update: He went from really active and out of his little hidey hole to literally not moving in the corner of the tank. Checked on him, he is still alive. He just isnt moving much
 
Would skip bloodworms and try to use a staple pellet and cut up fish. Break and cut into small pieces. Won't get eaten up quick by the tiger barbs.

In the meantime would change ur feedings to every other day. The food will add to ammonia, nitrite and nitrate build up. Especially w/onwater changes.

Inform when ur able to start water changes. Cause that should fix a lot of the issues, So I assume.
 
kno4te said:
Would skip bloodworms and try to use a staple pellet and cut up fish. Break and cut into small pieces. Won't get eaten up quick by the tiger barbs.

In the meantime would change ur feedings to every other day. The food will add to ammonia, nitrite and nitrate build up. Especially w/onwater changes.

Inform when ur able to start water changes. Cause that should fix a lot of the issues, So I assume.
Click to expand...
Alright! Thank you so much for the help. I will definitely inform you when I get a big water change done. Also, before I go, I heard that waste also raises nitrite as well right because the tiger barbs definitely produce tons of waste and when I put feeder guppies in the tank (for the silver gar) they produce quite a bit too.
 
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Waste will do that. You might now have enough bacteria established to convert over to nitrate.

That's why you need water changes till it all gets established.
 
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kno4te said:
Waste will do that. You might now have enough bacteria established to convert over to nitrate.

That's why you need water changes till it all gets established.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much once again! I will get a water change going as soon as I am able to.
 
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