Kev
03-05-2003, 04:37 PM
As a few of you may remember, I recently added 6 discus to a tank that previously only contained 1. I now house 7 fish in a 55 gallon tank, planted, with a sand and gravel mix substrate.
The problem fish has been an over territorial red turquoise, however up until yesterday everything had been fairly normal. At 11pm last night, everything looked pretty good in the tank. By 11:45, the turqoise was laboring quite a bit to swim and stay afloat, swimming with it's head pointed somewhat towards the bottom of the tank. Upon closer inspection, the fish is rather bloated in the stomach, and somewhat pinched slightly behind the stomach. I'm assuming with good reason that this is the product of over eating, as the fish is quite territorial and ate quite a bit more than her fair share of food last night. I immediately ran to the store, which is only a block from here, and by the time I got home things had gone from bad to worse. I walked in the door just in time to see my light click off and the silouette of a discus swimming upside down. I thought for sure she was a gonner, never the less I did a 10 gallon water change, adding back 7 teaspoons of epsom salt with the new water. At 1am the fish was barely moving, still upside down, and clinging to the underside of a leaf with her ventral fins. By 2am (i know, can you believe i stayed up all night babysitting this?) the fish had managed to right itself, and appeared to be breathing normally, sleeping in her normal spot. 3am, same. 4, same. I went to bed around 4:30 hoping to see my fish still alive in the morning.
This morning when I got up, I found her exactly where I had left her. When the light came on, she started her day by swimming around the tank, and while she's nowhere NEAR as bad as last night, her swimming does still seem a bit labored, sometimes sideways, and if she ever stops pumping those pectoral fins, she sinks like a rock. She is still bloated like last night.
How long does it take for epsom salt to work its magic? should I add more? also, for anyone who has had this problem, what is my chance of brining her back to health?
thanks for any help.
Kevin
The problem fish has been an over territorial red turquoise, however up until yesterday everything had been fairly normal. At 11pm last night, everything looked pretty good in the tank. By 11:45, the turqoise was laboring quite a bit to swim and stay afloat, swimming with it's head pointed somewhat towards the bottom of the tank. Upon closer inspection, the fish is rather bloated in the stomach, and somewhat pinched slightly behind the stomach. I'm assuming with good reason that this is the product of over eating, as the fish is quite territorial and ate quite a bit more than her fair share of food last night. I immediately ran to the store, which is only a block from here, and by the time I got home things had gone from bad to worse. I walked in the door just in time to see my light click off and the silouette of a discus swimming upside down. I thought for sure she was a gonner, never the less I did a 10 gallon water change, adding back 7 teaspoons of epsom salt with the new water. At 1am the fish was barely moving, still upside down, and clinging to the underside of a leaf with her ventral fins. By 2am (i know, can you believe i stayed up all night babysitting this?) the fish had managed to right itself, and appeared to be breathing normally, sleeping in her normal spot. 3am, same. 4, same. I went to bed around 4:30 hoping to see my fish still alive in the morning.
This morning when I got up, I found her exactly where I had left her. When the light came on, she started her day by swimming around the tank, and while she's nowhere NEAR as bad as last night, her swimming does still seem a bit labored, sometimes sideways, and if she ever stops pumping those pectoral fins, she sinks like a rock. She is still bloated like last night.
How long does it take for epsom salt to work its magic? should I add more? also, for anyone who has had this problem, what is my chance of brining her back to health?
thanks for any help.
Kevin