I got this fish on Friday and he’s seemed fine. He’s been in my quarantine tank but he’s the first fish I ever quarantine so I might be doing something wrong. Anyway he was fine all the other days swimming around and pecking at stuff, but today when I went to feed him he was hiding and his belly looks sunken in and he’s also breathing rapidly. My water parameters seem fine except my ph was low (around 7). Can low ph cause this? Or maybe it’s not getting enough food? I put one of my live rocks from the main tank in the qt tank so it could eat algae off that between feedings but I don’t know if he does or not. If it is a good issue should I just put him into my main tank so he has all the sand and rock to scavenge food off of?
Court jester goby looks sick
- Thread starter jco17
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Fish is stressed.
Some reasons (items to check) may be:
Rise in ammonia
rise in temperature
Low ph does not help and near dangerous level.
gill flukes (if so, it will dart across tank, scratch, - elevated breathing and loss of appetite are also signs
How are you testing water and also salt?
Adding an air stone will help with added oxygen and surface agitation
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I’m using api test kit to test the water. Temperature seems to be about the same as always (76°). I have a sponge filter in there that makes bubbles. Is that good enough or should I get an air stone aswell? I have been doing partial water changes pretty often because ammonia keeps going up but I also used prime so that should’ve neutralized it.
Prime will lock ammonia but not remove it.
Ammonia as suspected plays a role. The bubbles from sponge filter should help but air stone really increase oxygen.
As for test kit, on ammonia mainly, this kit is notorious for false readings and it may help to verify by taking a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at
Yeah I’ve been doing water changes pretty often to get rid of the ammonia. I just tested it with the Red Sea ammonia test kit and it’s showing around 0.2 I also went and bought and airstone. I also added in added some stuff to raise to the correct level. Is there anything else I can do or do I just have to wait and see if he gets better now?
Focus on water quality
Ammonia is elevated. You want < 0.25
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The fish is breathing very fast and deeply. The pH of 7 is a huge problem - but it could be something wrong with your test kit (pH is difficult to test accurately). Does the tank have good aeration (not just circulation, actual bubbles rising to the surface)? If not, the pH could be low due to carbon dioxide in the water, which will also cause a fish to breath fast.
Are you treating with anything yet? True quarantine needs to use preventative treatments....
Jay
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