Sick Dat, Please Read

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Aesop

Aesop

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 4, 2007
420
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Garden Grove
I've had 2 small ntt dats in my 200 gallon for almost 2 weeks now. I woke up this morning to find both of them out of hiding, which I thought was great since they've been really shy. One is doing perfectly fine, swimming around and such, I'm really excited. The other, however, slowly laid on its side on the bottom of the tank, and is breathing kinda hard. I reached in and gently touched him to see if he was about dead. He "sat up" and then let the current of the waterflow guide him to the side of the tank behind a rock. He's just sitting there breathing extremely hard now, and I have no idea what could be causing this. He looks perfectly fine, no marks on him, and really bright colors at the moment.

All of the other fish, including the other dat, seem to be fine. I don't have time to do a water test at the moment due to an anthropology final exam in 30 minutes. But I'm going to be really bummed if I come home to a dead fish, more so because I don't know why he's sick.

The only thing I have changed is turning up the temperature a few degrees yesterday, on my heaters. I don't think this would have this effect on the fish though?

Here is a thread with pictures and such about the tank they are in:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108308

Any suggestions or possible reasons behind this?

Thanks.
 
Just did a water test before I did a water change, my nitrites spiked to 1.5ppm. I have no idea why...everything else is on the money.

In the few years I've kept fish, this is the only one I've lost that wasn't to another fish, kinda sucks.

I added more bio media when I did the w/c just now also.
 
Thats a total bummer. Dats can be sensitive to certain situations, atleast when they are small, or rather large. I had some killed by my gf, who overdosed them with melafix. i wasnt happy.

Sorry for your loss, what kind of filtration/aeration/water flow do u have in this setup?
 
AquataHolic420;1341632; said:
Thats a total bummer. Dats can be sensitive to certain situations, atleast when they are small, or rather large. I had some killed by my gf, who overdosed them with melafix. i wasnt happy.

Sorry for your loss, what kind of filtration/aeration/water flow do u have in this setup?
Click to expand...

Tank: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=108507

So I think I know what happened. Although I tested my water after 3 weeks of cycling (with fish) everything was spot on chemically. However, I think my tank was still in the later stages of the cycling and this dat (who looked a little on the weak side to begin with) just wasn't hearty enough to survive through it all. My pH seems a little high also, which I think may be from the sand, so I bought two peices of driftwood that I have being treated right now that I'm going to add to balance it out.

I think the fish in there currently are going to be fine, just sucks that I lost the little guy. I'll probably wait until late January and throw in a handful of dats then.
 
I would add a powerhead or mod the fx5 output to add some aeration. Your only filtration is completely submerged. You dont have much oxygen in the water. The rocks and sand will make the ph higher. You can also try ammonia detox or prime to help with the ammonia levels. Good luck
 
You said you turned up your temp. How high? The hotter the water the less oxygen.

And NTT's are the least hardy of all dats as Dixon mentioned, and have been known to die for no good reason (SDS)
 
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