Unusual AT behavior

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pacu22

Candiru
MFK Member
Jul 15, 2008
494
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I have a 8" AT that is very solid, eats the most out of all my dats (4 ITs about the same size). About a month ago its colors were almost flashing and it looked very unstable (which is unusual because it is ALWAYS stable) and it looked like I would lose it. I did a 50% water change and added salt. Problem solved, or so I thought. This morning when I checked on the tank the AT was floating sideways and flashing colors again. I thought I was going to lose it for sure, so I did the same as before, water change and salt, and then shut the lights off. To my amazement it is swimming normal and stable as can be again :WHOA:
Long story short, has anybody else had this experience?
 
Can't say that I have but what I would suggest is to stop doing fast large water changes, that's only going to help temporarily. Test your water and try to find out exactly what's wrong or you'll just keep stalling the inevitable and your AT will continue to show this behavior. Once you find out what's wrong it would be better to do small daily W/C's rather than massive ones every few days/weeks etc. Massive water parameter changes even for the better can shock your fish and cause just as much of a problem as the initial issue. Test your water and let us know what the results are, also are you doing or have you done anything different previous to this happening?
 
Maybe it has to do with the fact that AT are brackish fish? I'm just throwing this out there but if its okay after a WC with salt maybe thats the issue. I've never really seen an AT larger than 8" and most likely at this size they begin to require brackish or else they'll die. What are your water parameters?
 
Don't have a testing kit, so params aren't certain. I have heard that they are brackish but I wasn't sure if that was certain or that salt was a necessity. From what I have recently read about brackish tanks is that they use the same salt as marine tanks and that salt is different from aquarium salt such as API or just epsom salt.
 
First, I would get a test kit or get your water tested at a LFS. I think it's most likely that it needs brackish water, I've had chromides before and I figured I could keep them in freshwater for a while and out of nowhere they all died. Water tested perfect, all the other fish looked great. I would recommend getting your AT in a brackish set up soon, or at least exploring the idea of adding more salt. As for what kind I honestly don't know what works best, I've been told regular API works if you add enough and I would imagine marine salt would be ok as well. It's just like adding salt to make it full saltwater just add less. Don't take my word for that though.
 
I've wanted to put bb groupers at dats together since they day I saw one in person. That'd be a sweet set up.
 
pacu22 said:
I have a 8" AT that is very solid, eats the most out of all my dats (4 ITs about the same size). About a month ago its colors were almost flashing and it looked very unstable (which is unusual because it is ALWAYS stable) and it looked like I would lose it. I did a 50% water change and added salt. Problem solved, or so I thought. This morning when I checked on the tank the AT was floating sideways and flashing colors again. I thought I was going to lose it for sure, so I did the same as before, water change and salt, and then shut the lights off. To my amazement it is swimming normal and stable as can be again :WHOA:
Long story short, has anybody else had this experience?
Click to expand...

the reason the salt made things better is because its a brackish water fish
 
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