I have had a tank my entire life. I started with a 75 gallon that was maintained by my mother for 20+ years. I had it for 10 years before selling it and upgrading to a 200 gallon about 6 months ago. About 3 weeks ago I got 2 rope fish. 1 got out and was eaten by my cat on the 3rd day. I got another about 4 days later. Tonight I got home and one of them “Wiggles” was hanging out in the floating plants with his tail straight down and it looked like he was gasping for air and ignoring the worms I gave him. I thought he might be stuck so I moved the plants and he swam away awkwardly. Like his back end isn’t working. I looked over him closely when he came back to the top and got back in the plants. He has no other signs or symptoms that I can see. No swelling, no discoloration, nothing. Nitrates are 0 ph is 7 and water has plenty of oxygen. Help?View attachment 1363264
I added salt, but the water level is already 4-5 inches below the top of the tank. If I lower it much more my oldest placo won’t be able to go vertical without his nose being out of the water. I also increased the water temp from 68 to 70 over the last several hours. I generally do 20% water changes every week. Am I missing something or is my sons favorite fish a goner?
He was dead when I woke up this morning. That was so fast! I’m cleaning the tank and all the decorations. I’m also running all the tank numbers again. If we get another I need to make sure I don’t get a repeat. My 3 year old can’t handle another loss like that.
You keep your tank at 68f ? Thats too cold. Ropes like warmer water as do most tropicals at least 75f. Ropes are also all wild caught so it's pretty hard to get them to live very long. They use some pretty hard to handle catch methods with them also. Ive been lucky with mine 3 came from someone else that had them for a while and the other 7 came from a huge shipment my lfs had that was qt'd for 2 weeks then they were on the floor for about 4 more weeks before I took some home.
Sorry to hear it didnt make it.
Sorry to hear it didnt make it.
