S
seastar0328
Guest
I have a weak spot for a. cacs. I decided to take home or "save" the fish someone previously owned which are in bad shape. They are two very young females and were housed with too many other males and females in the same tank which was also too small. They do not exhibit any outward obvious signs of infection, however, some scales and pieces of fins are missing and one seems to have a problem seeing out of one eye. I feel this could be most likely due to fighting as I know they can be very territorial. The eye doesn't appear damaged but she has a hard time getting out from under things and spooks when something from that side touches her like a plant or something. This female is clearly the weakest of the two. I also notice that their bodies seem ever so slightly curved vertically into a "u" shape but it's not very pronounced. They were being fed a generic flake food I think and nothing else. I do not know if they have been eating as they scarfed down some brine shrimp today when I brought them home. They look horribly skinny so I fed them individually tonight by squirting some of the frozen food (mix of brine shrimp, bloodworms and a small amount of glassworms) for my other tanks mixed with spirulina flakes out of a syringe in front of each fish. I did this to make sure they ate and that the one who possibly can't see could get a chance to feed.
My question is this: What should I do for them? So far I have a.) medicated the tank with mardel anti-fungal/anti-bacterial medication to prevent an infection of any site of injury and b.) hesitantly treated the tank with the minimum amount required of aquarium salt to provide electrolytes and reduce stress during acclimation. Did I do the right things? Should I do more? If I should have given the antibacterial/fungal medication, how long should I do this? I have heard good and bad about aquarium salt....will this hurt the fish/plants if I put it in there this evening and when should I do a water change? If the salt is a good idea, do I add more next water change or do I just let it gradually disappear with each weekly change (unless I should be doing more water changes during this acclimation/recovery period)? I understand that adding more salt is a bad idea as it doesn't evaporate out of the aquarium. Should I place a tank divider to divide the females anyway? I'd like to avoid doing this as they don't seem aggressive at the moment and to me it seems they have sufficient hiding areas. These fish came from a household where they only used RO water which was slightly cooler than mine (theirs was 75ish, mine is a steady 82). I floated their bag for 40 minutes where after the initial 10 minutes, 24 cc's of my tank water was added to the bag every 5 minutes. I hope I did everything right. Please feel more than free to offer any advice or criticism concerning my decisions, I appreciate any and every piece of advice. I feel like I made the best decisions here that I could. Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I really want these little girls to turn around.
(read on here for tank specs):
I selectively tested my water twice today. My NH3 is 0, my NO2 is 0, my pH is 7.1, and my kH is 2.5-3.0. The tank is a heavily planted amazon biotope tank, there are plenty of places to hide and plants/rocks/driftwood/moss-covered caves to provide protection and break up lines of vision. CO2 is DIY but dry ferts have been halted until/if these fish come around. Eco complete/tms substrate. Peat in filter with filter floss but no carbon. Photoperiod begins with any natural sunlight reaching tank from the window in the morning until about 7:30am then lights on until 8ish in the pm where they are reduced from 83 watts to 65 watts. These lights are turned out around my bedtime whenever that may be. Other inhabitants in this tank which will be returned once these fish recover are 1 stick catfish and 1 male a. cac. (it is a 20 gallon long)
THANK YOU!
My question is this: What should I do for them? So far I have a.) medicated the tank with mardel anti-fungal/anti-bacterial medication to prevent an infection of any site of injury and b.) hesitantly treated the tank with the minimum amount required of aquarium salt to provide electrolytes and reduce stress during acclimation. Did I do the right things? Should I do more? If I should have given the antibacterial/fungal medication, how long should I do this? I have heard good and bad about aquarium salt....will this hurt the fish/plants if I put it in there this evening and when should I do a water change? If the salt is a good idea, do I add more next water change or do I just let it gradually disappear with each weekly change (unless I should be doing more water changes during this acclimation/recovery period)? I understand that adding more salt is a bad idea as it doesn't evaporate out of the aquarium. Should I place a tank divider to divide the females anyway? I'd like to avoid doing this as they don't seem aggressive at the moment and to me it seems they have sufficient hiding areas. These fish came from a household where they only used RO water which was slightly cooler than mine (theirs was 75ish, mine is a steady 82). I floated their bag for 40 minutes where after the initial 10 minutes, 24 cc's of my tank water was added to the bag every 5 minutes. I hope I did everything right. Please feel more than free to offer any advice or criticism concerning my decisions, I appreciate any and every piece of advice. I feel like I made the best decisions here that I could. Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I really want these little girls to turn around.
(read on here for tank specs):
I selectively tested my water twice today. My NH3 is 0, my NO2 is 0, my pH is 7.1, and my kH is 2.5-3.0. The tank is a heavily planted amazon biotope tank, there are plenty of places to hide and plants/rocks/driftwood/moss-covered caves to provide protection and break up lines of vision. CO2 is DIY but dry ferts have been halted until/if these fish come around. Eco complete/tms substrate. Peat in filter with filter floss but no carbon. Photoperiod begins with any natural sunlight reaching tank from the window in the morning until about 7:30am then lights on until 8ish in the pm where they are reduced from 83 watts to 65 watts. These lights are turned out around my bedtime whenever that may be. Other inhabitants in this tank which will be returned once these fish recover are 1 stick catfish and 1 male a. cac. (it is a 20 gallon long)
THANK YOU!
