Hey First post. I browse the site all the time but finally needed to get some help. I hope we can stay focused on my fishes health and not get side tracked on the fishes future tank size needs. Just for the record I currently have two indoor ponds in my basement. One is just under 700 gallons and the other is just shy of 1700 gallons with plans for a really big one next year. Now on to my problem.
About two months ago I picked up three baby Tiger Shovel nose cats. They are about three inches long. The three are being kept alone in a fully cycled bare bottom 40 breeder. They were picky eaters at first and refused frozen blood worms. The LFS had them on frozen brine shrimp which they seem to love. I have been working the blood worms and mysis into the mix. From the beginning the three were inactive unless being fed. They seemed to sleep vertically on some fake plants or in the corner a lot. About two weeks ago I found two of them laying on their backs on the tank bottom. I stuck my hand in thinking they were dead and they both took off and seemed fine. I tested my water and did close to a 75% water change. Everything seemed fine so I let it go. A couple days later I found one of the previous fish laying on it's back again. This time when I touched it it took off but had no control past it's initial burst of energy. It was floating around with no movement or control. It could not right itself. I immediately did the same water change and parameter check. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 and nitrate looked like 10ppm. I moved the sick fish into a 10 gallon quarantine tank with a cycled HOB. My fish room is heated so the tanks are around 76 degrees. I added an air stone and a heater to the 10 gallon and bumped the temp to 80. After checking the web I didn't feed the fish for three days and started to treat him with metroplex. Two scoops every other day with a 75% water change before adding the new dose. I did four doses of metro. The metro seemed to do nothing. I finally got kanaplex right after my last dose of metro and treated the tank with that every other day for the three treatments recommended by seachem. The fish does seem like he is improving but is still not close to healed. He is starting to swim and try to keep himself right side up. I watched him and I thought he was getting better but then he flipped to his back and could not right himself. After adding the last dose of kanaplex today I looked into the main tank and fish number two is floating around just like the first fish. I just pulled him out and put him with the first with the dose of kanaplex. Just yesterday the second fish was eating and acting perfectly normal. The third fish has not shown any signs of issues. All of the fish eat well until their stomach is full. Even the first one after three days ate blood worms like it was nothing. The weight of the food kept him balanced till his stomach was empty. Anyway does anyone have any idea what might be going on with my fish? Neither fish looks bloated at all. They do fill their stomachs up but it is back down by feeding time the next day. Whatever is going on it is something with the swim bladder because they cannot control their orientation. I just do not know what is causing it. I figured I would try for parasites next. I have levamisole but I am not sure if I should use something else. I really could use some feedback. It looks like the first fish has improved with the kanaplex. I am not sure if I I should just give it a couple more day for the final treatment to work. I also thoughts about trying epsom salt but I'm not convinced it is caused by bloating. I live in CO and have moderately hard water with a high Ph out of the tap. I talked to the LFS and he said they came from an asian fish farm and all his seem to look just fine. His water parameters are really close to mine. My tanks all get around 75% water changes weekly. Ok really really long first post. I apologize for rambling and I appreciate your help.
About two months ago I picked up three baby Tiger Shovel nose cats. They are about three inches long. The three are being kept alone in a fully cycled bare bottom 40 breeder. They were picky eaters at first and refused frozen blood worms. The LFS had them on frozen brine shrimp which they seem to love. I have been working the blood worms and mysis into the mix. From the beginning the three were inactive unless being fed. They seemed to sleep vertically on some fake plants or in the corner a lot. About two weeks ago I found two of them laying on their backs on the tank bottom. I stuck my hand in thinking they were dead and they both took off and seemed fine. I tested my water and did close to a 75% water change. Everything seemed fine so I let it go. A couple days later I found one of the previous fish laying on it's back again. This time when I touched it it took off but had no control past it's initial burst of energy. It was floating around with no movement or control. It could not right itself. I immediately did the same water change and parameter check. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 and nitrate looked like 10ppm. I moved the sick fish into a 10 gallon quarantine tank with a cycled HOB. My fish room is heated so the tanks are around 76 degrees. I added an air stone and a heater to the 10 gallon and bumped the temp to 80. After checking the web I didn't feed the fish for three days and started to treat him with metroplex. Two scoops every other day with a 75% water change before adding the new dose. I did four doses of metro. The metro seemed to do nothing. I finally got kanaplex right after my last dose of metro and treated the tank with that every other day for the three treatments recommended by seachem. The fish does seem like he is improving but is still not close to healed. He is starting to swim and try to keep himself right side up. I watched him and I thought he was getting better but then he flipped to his back and could not right himself. After adding the last dose of kanaplex today I looked into the main tank and fish number two is floating around just like the first fish. I just pulled him out and put him with the first with the dose of kanaplex. Just yesterday the second fish was eating and acting perfectly normal. The third fish has not shown any signs of issues. All of the fish eat well until their stomach is full. Even the first one after three days ate blood worms like it was nothing. The weight of the food kept him balanced till his stomach was empty. Anyway does anyone have any idea what might be going on with my fish? Neither fish looks bloated at all. They do fill their stomachs up but it is back down by feeding time the next day. Whatever is going on it is something with the swim bladder because they cannot control their orientation. I just do not know what is causing it. I figured I would try for parasites next. I have levamisole but I am not sure if I should use something else. I really could use some feedback. It looks like the first fish has improved with the kanaplex. I am not sure if I I should just give it a couple more day for the final treatment to work. I also thoughts about trying epsom salt but I'm not convinced it is caused by bloating. I live in CO and have moderately hard water with a high Ph out of the tap. I talked to the LFS and he said they came from an asian fish farm and all his seem to look just fine. His water parameters are really close to mine. My tanks all get around 75% water changes weekly. Ok really really long first post. I apologize for rambling and I appreciate your help.
