# HELP!!!!! My fish looks like he's dieing



## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

My silver tipped columbian shark looks like he's dieing Ive had him now for about 8 months and they've been in my cycled 180 for about 2 months, nothing is wrong with the other fish but hes swims real weak then stops and just kind of floats to the bottom breaths really heavy and then swims a little more, hes getting worse by the hour, he's been swimming around the tank non stop for the past 3 weeks and hasnt really eatin much, please help, i really dont want to lose him, but i fear its to late


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Why doesn't anyone read the stickies?
http://www.fishforum.com/tropical-fish-diseases/must-read-all-members-please-read-652/


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

180
Freshwater
3 months
12 fish, columbian silver tip=2, blue guoramis=2, fire eel, black ghost knife, pictus cat, tiger shovelnose x redtail cat, pink guorami, 2 common plecos, bala shark. 
No
78
sump with bio balls
no
no
3 days ago about 90 gallons
every week
algea wafers, tropical flakes, ghost shrimp, blood worms
t5 actinic and 10k
ph6.9
amonia 0
nitirite 0
nitrate 10
API liquid
about 2 months ago, very active and aware

sorry just a little freaked I got a video Im trying to get uploaded now


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

YouTube - MOV00264


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

never mind he just passed


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## Shara (Jan 31, 2009)

Aw.  Sorry. I had not advice as I am a newbie to fish keeping but I was hoping someone would be able to help. Too bad. Your tank is lovely btw


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

thanks, I have no Idea what happened to him I've had him for a while now with no problems, he used to eat like crazy and here lately he wouldnt eat at all


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Sorry about that.

I think your problem is that they are brackish fish for the most part. The long-term fresh might have done something wrong.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

I might also, were it me,, Employ the use of some power heads for water movement if you aren't already. If so ,, maybe larger ones are needed. As the particular fish you have grow larger, I would try and provide as much oxygen and water movement as possible. just my opinion.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

I'm sorry about your fish.


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Sorry to hear about your fish.

Colombian sharks are not freshwater fish. They spawn in freshwater and very young sharks can survive in freshwater, but over time they need to be transitioned to brackish water and eventually full marine conditions. Your fish likely died either directly from not being in salty enough water or from an illness caused by the much-lowered immune system that results from not keeping the fish in the right conditions.


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

yea my bigger one is starting to do the same thing, I got him in another tank right now and im adding salt to it, he's not floating like that, but he's not eating and he's laying on the bottom then getting up and moving, i got it up to .001 ill add a little more tomorrow, does anybody know the right salinity for brakish water??


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

"Brackish" just means anything between fresh and full marine, which is usually somewhere around 1.025 or 1.026. It's probably safe to raise it up to 1.005 over a couple of days, and from there raise it by 0.001 every week or so until you're at the desired salinity.

You're using marine salt mix and not aquarium salt, right? Also keep in mind that salt does not evaporate, so in order to keep the salinity steady you need to be sure to constantly top the tank off with fresh water to compensate for evaporation.


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

alright now this is starting to really discourage me, I lost the bigger one today and the shovelnose is headed there, prob be there by morning, the pictus, guoramis nd ghost knife are fine, Ive checked everything and nothing comes to mind, now either my fire eel is becoming spoiled and wants me to hand feed him all the time now or he's not eating either, he goes towards them but gives up about half way there. anybody got any ideas other than the salt


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

Considering that the smaller fish appear to be fine, I would think they are getting proper amount of food where perhaps the larger fish, may not be. The fish you have chosen are carnivores in nature and require meaty foods and lots of it as they grow larger. foods like carnivore pellets, earth worms, beef heart, and you might consider raising some feeder fish in another tank as opposed to buying them and take the chance of introducing disease in that way.These fish , Like most,, Do best in well maintained water conditions. Even small spikes in ammonia and or nitrites will harm fish and the ones you have chosen are quite sensitive in that respect. Were it me,(and it ain't) I would not replace the columbian sharks which require slightly brackish water as they mature with fish that might do better in clean freshwater containing no salt. I WOULD provide all of the mechanical and biological filtration I could to this tank in the form of additional filters whetherthey be hang on the back such as Emperor 400"S or the addition of canister filter ,the larger the better. I would also add aeration if you aren't already,, in the form of air stones and or spray bars. As mentioned in a previous post ,I would also employ the use of power head as well for movement of water. And lastly, and most importantly,, I would change the water at intervals and at such volumes,, that ammonia =0 nitrites=0 and nitrates read less than 40 with 20 being even better, all day,, every day. I do hope your fish improve and hopefully, some of what I suggest will prove helpful.Most of these large catfish are slowly suffocated due to lack of proper filtration , lack of proper foods,and or lack of clean water.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

In addition to previous post. The feeding of these fish with meaty foods that they require to continue to grow, will make vaccuming the substate(gravel,sand.etc.) mandatory to ensure that food that is not eaten is not left to rot or decay which will cause water quality to deteriorate quickly. This should in my view, be done within an hour after fish have been fed. I very much like the catfish you have chosen but sadly,, I don't have a tank large enough to accomodate them.


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

Alright I think I know what happened, I gave the lfs the other fish cause I didnt want to lose anymore. h also they eat bloodworms and shrimp and been doing it for 8 months to 2 years and were fine. But for something to happen like that over night is rediculous. But back to what I was saying. When I moved them into the 180 I took a stab at the pool filter sand, I understod that it would take alot of clening and such cause the matter dosent sink to the bottom it just sits on top, well I thought I was on top of it pretty good, but once I got it drained and starting gathering the sand out WOW!!!! Lets just say I spent some time in the bathroom throwing my guts up because of the smell. It smelt like a sewage plant inside that sand, and now that I come to think about the 3 cats I had that all died are bottom dwellers, so I can only imagine with a smell that theres got to be some kind of poison in that too, needless to say I 86'd the sand and will never use it ever again or recomend it to anyone, I mean it looked great and I vacumed almost everyday, but the matter gets under that first layer and just ferments horibly. Does anyone think I might be wrong about this? Have any of you had a bad exsperience with the sand or do you think it something completly different?


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

The catfish love to root about in sand or gravel in search of food and it is entirely possible that some of this food, poop, etc got buried in the sand and contributed to your fishes death by allowing the water quality to suffer. That is why most folks regularly stir or sift the sand with some type of tool ,fork,stick etc. By all that I have read,, the pictus,redtail,and shovelnose are particularly sensitive to even brief spikes in ammonia, nitrites,and nitrAtes. I have sand in a small 29 gal tank and I sloped the sand from back to front, slightly deeper at the back than the front and most of the debri seems to collect at the front of the aquarium in this way. Switching to gravel will as I'm sure you are aware,,also allow food ,poop,and debri to get down into the gravel and will need to be vaccumed a little more agressively than sand. I would ,,were it me,, split the tank into thirds and vaccum one third of the tank each week and a different one third,each time. I would stick the vaccum down into the gravel and really dig. If you should choose to try these particular fish once more,, Please consider more filtration,aeration,and current as well as what you will do with fish capable of reaching four to five foot in length. Not many folks would be willing to take them in when they outgrow the tank.


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

I think my filtration was big enough, its 40 gallon sump, bio balls, and a 3000 gph pump, I vacumed the sand almost everyday. Ive never had that smell in gravel, Ive broken down plenty of tanks and never smelled anything like that, and i tested the water everyday NO SPIKES. And I dont think they are that sensitive to the amonia they have been threw a cycle and were fine. Plus the sand had only been in there for about 3 weeks, theres no way I wasnt cleaning it enough


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

dont think they are that sensitive to the amonia they have been threw a cycle and were fine. Plus the sand had only been in there for about 3 weeks, theres no way I wasnt cleaning it enough[/quote]
:frustrated: All fish are sensitive to ammonia.


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

I know that but some are more hardier than others, but thats not even the question here, i tested it every day and there were no spikes in anything


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

You say it smelled like a sewage plant - do you mean it smelled like really nasty rotten eggs? If so, that's sulfur you're smelling. When you have a sand substrate like that, waste materials can get trapped in anaerobic pockets. This means that no water is flowing in that part of the sand, and therefore there's no oxygen being brought to the area. As a result, normal bacteria (the kind that break down decaying materials into nitrite and then nitrate) cannot survive in these areas and anaerobic bacteria start to take over. These bacteria don't need oxygen to survive so they can live in these "dead spots" in your sand. One of their metabolic byproducts is hydrogen sulfide, which smells absolutely terrible but is also highly toxic to your fish. If you don't keep your sand stirred on a regular basis, this gas can build up under the sand. If something then disturbs the sand bed, the gas is released into the water and you can lose a lot of fish. I suspect this is what happened here.

In the future, whenever you use a sand substrate it's best to keep it stirred on a regular (weekly) basis. Do this yourself during water changes, or get some kind of burrowing creature that will do it for you (Malaysian trumpet snails are a perfect choice).


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## chris55 (Jan 11, 2009)

it did smell like rotten eggs, well atleast now i know what did it, but let me ask you this, how do you bring a fish back that hasnt died that was exsposed to it but not doing well?


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

I did a lot of research on hydrogen sulfide poisoning because I once though one of my fish was exposed to it. I couldn't find any info on the matter. I would just keep up high water quality and see what happens.


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