worried about fahaka

[Ryan Davis]

So my fahaka hasnt been doing well at all the last 3 days.
He is super dark on his sides. not his belly.
I believe that he may have gotten shelfish poising.

I have tested all peramiters and everything is fine.
All the other fish in the tank have no issues.

He looks like his breathing is labored.
Just sits there the every once and a while like trips out.

[jeb102385]

Is there an air pump in the tank? Might be due to low oxygen levels.

[mnemenoi]

What are your Nitrates at? How well do you trust the test kit? High Nitrates can cause all those symptoms. Was it ever treated for IP's? Can you list your exact tank parameters? Temp? Ph? Nitrate? Size of the fish? How long have you had it? Tankmates? Anything at all strange or different within the last few months? Anything added? Plants? Ferts? Supplements? Filter Clean out recently? Water Change?

[Ryan Davis]

temp about 80F. Water change last week. hob 110 cleaned at time. Have a cascade 1500 that i havent cleaned out yet. My gf fed him cooked mussles and im betting on that for his illness. Havent treated for internal parasites

[mnemenoi]

They have some amazingly tough stomachs, so my guess is falling in either High Nitrates or Ammonia readings from the Cholramines in the water from the WC. Especially with the HOB being cleaned at a similar time. What is your cleaning regimen for filtration? How do you treat your biological filtration media? Fahakas need some excessive filtration, they are Nitrate factories and their numbers can peak very quickly in a tank that had its bio filtration scrubbed. We had 250 gallons per hour filtration on ours when she was in a 45 by herself and was water changing 50+% twice to three times a week. Now she is in a 150 with 350 GPH filtration and gets water changed 50% weekly.

[mnemenoi]

Hard numbers would help in determining what is occurring (Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate), though in any case I'd suggest some decent (50-75%) water changes daily until you can get a better read on the root cause. Puffers have no scales, so they are usually the first fish in the tank to exhibit distress with rising water parameters. Other fish ignore it and can survive well at 3-4 times what would effect a puffer. If you have lost your bio media, I'd suggest a bottle of Stability and follow as if your initially cycling.

[Ryan Davis]

i do 50% weekly its a 120 gallon with 800gph i havent cleaned the canister in a month. i clean the hob about every other week.

[Ryan Davis]

i checked all those and they were acceptable. i put in some atm freshwater nitrate stabilizer or whatever it was. colony something. I also did some vitamin c stuff.

[mnemenoi]

With ours I usually ballpark 0ppm Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, less then 20-30ppm Nitrates. Any Ammonia, Nitrite, or Nitrate above 30ppm will cause ours distress and darkening of coloration and sedentary behavior. Above 50ppm Nitrate will cause loss of appetite. We have never gone beyond those numbers, but I imagine the symptoms worsen. I have read that any Ammonia or Nitrite readings will cause behavior worse then excessive Nitrate. Chloramines in the water are added by water companies and can increase with no reasoning. Many folks use carbon snakes to eliminate them, there are numerous threads on the box detailing folks losing all their sensitive fish because of Chloramines. They will register as Ammonia on your testing.

[Ryan Davis]

is this taken care of from the stress zyme and or tap water conditioner?

Should i clean out the canister filter or would that make it worse?

[Ryan Davis]

so hes gotten some of his color back as of this afternoon

[mnemenoi]

The Tap conditioner usually does bind it into Ammonium (a safer chemical) that then enters the cycle. On those occasions where folks have lost thousands in fish, they used Prime with no effect on whatever seemed to be effecting the fish. These were seasoned veteran aquarists and they still lost big. I'd suggest a steady solid water change over the next few days and perhaps double the dose of conditioner. Test your tap water source to see if it is registering any excess Ammonia. Adding activated carbon to the filtration system could help (one of the only reasons I ever advocate its use), avoid upsetting the bio media if possible as it will only extend the turbulence if the bacteria are hindered. Continue adding Cycle, or some active biological additive to recolonize your system. Zeolite can be added as well, even consider Purigen until you can identify the issue. The symptoms appear to me as a water quality issue, though I'm sure others might differ. That is what my steps would entail though.

[mnemenoi]

That sounds like a good sign, it might have simply been a mini cycle (Ammonia spike at the water source, causing a Nitrite spike as well) and they are terrific barometers for any water quality issue. To be honest they are one of the best fish I have seen in that regard.

[nightster]

Just want to add that I'd never feed cooked anything again. I once unthawed some shrimp in super hot water which turned the shrimp rubbery. Without thinking about it until he had eaten it I watched his reaction. He was very lethargic and not his normal color. Just a thought...

[nightster]

Freeze any dead food (shrimp mussels clams etc) to kill bacteria, thaw, then feed. Just what I've been doing for the life of my puffer....