Ryno

Hello. Nice forum you have here.

I was wondering if someone could please help me out. I have a Clown Knife that is about 9 years old that stopped eating about a week ago. I had noticed that she was breathing air from the top of the tank as well. I cleaned out the tank and did a couple of water changes but she still has no appetite. Tonight I was looking at her and noticed her eyes are real cloudy. I thought it may be ich but wasn't sure. She has had it several times before and usually just gets a salty look to her sides and back. Her back did have a bit of a salty look but not very much and I hadn't noticed this during the last week. I went ahead and put some Ich Cure in the tank. Do you guys think this is her problem?

Thanks in advance to any responses.

Shawnie

Hi ryno...welcome to fishlore!! I would just turn up the tank to 83 degrees and keep it there for two weeks and with daily water changes, the ich should be cured without meds....hope your knife fish gets better...9 years old...thats a great life!

susitna-flower

HI RYNO, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

Sorry your fish is sick....can you tell us more about your aquarium.

What size tank do you have? What fish is it stocked with? How big is your clown Knife?

What do you usually feed?

You said you had done some water changes.....how much? Do you vacuum?

What is your usual schedule for water changes? Do you test your water?

What do you use to test the water?

What are the readings for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate?

Off hand I would say your fish is sick....probably either a parasite, or bacterial infection. See if you can answer the questions first then more folks will have something to work with to help out.....

Ryno

What size tank do you have? What fish is it stocked with? How big is your clown Knife?


I have a 55 gallon tank. I know it is too small for her but haven't been able to afford a bigger one and have been realativly lazy because she is so easy to take care of. She has been alone in the tank for about a year now and she is actually over 10 years old now that I talked to my wife about her.

I refer to her as a she because she laid eggs all over some crappy stick I put in the tank once. I bought it at Petfart(c) and it turned the watter orange. I cleaned that off, did some water changes, and put some carbon in the filter and returned that, I think it was made for reptiles but said something that made me think it would work in a freshwater fish setup as well.


What do you usually feed?

She has never eaten anything but live fish. She is in there right now with some starving goldfish feeders right now. I guess I should throw some flakes in there. When I purchased her I thought she would eat frozen brine and blood worms but I soon discovered that she was not eating any of this and her cichlid tank mates were eating it all and her as well. The whole side of her was skinned so I took her out of the tank and put her in an 8 gallon hex that I had as a community tank (I had her for less than a week and she was 4" long max). Soon my White Clowd was missing and she was looking healthy again.

You said you had done some water changes.....how much?

As embarrassed as I am to say I have done very little water changes. The water evaporates quickly in that tank and I have to purchase water for her because my water is so hard. I did a water change recently because she was ill. Do you vacuum? Yes, when I do water changes.

Do you test your water?

I used to but it was always the same. Hard water, everything else is good. I haven't done one since the illness and I know a should.

What do you use to test the water?

I have a deluxe test kit. I don't know who makes it. Not some cheap test strips or anything. My test kit is about 1-2 years old, is it expired?

Off hand I would say your fish is sick....probably either a parasite, or bacterial infection. See if you can answer the questions first then more folks will have something to work with to help out....

I treated the tank with chemicals and raised the tank temp to 83 degrees. No sign of ich on her back but still some sort of parasite on her eyes. I know I need to do another water change and test the tank but I am also trying to expect the inevitable. I alway intended to last longer than she did.

Thanks again for your help, and once again I dig theses forums.

Ryno

I tested my water and will take some to the LFS tomorrow to have tested as well.

If my testing chemicals are not expired;

Ph - 7.0
Ammonia - 0.0
Nitrite - 0.0
Nitrate - 0.0

Shawnie

hey ryno ...if your using the api liquid kit, really shake up that nitrate bottle..just about bang it off the counter, those crystals really need to be mixed...you should have some nitrates in an established tank...I think your gettin a false reading on that hope you guy is doing better!

Butterfly

The wood you put in the tank was releasing tannins into the water. It is not harmful to the fish and some of them even like it. Wood (even wood bought at the LFS) should be soaked to get the tannins out before putting into the tank if you don't think you will like the yellowish color . Eventually the wood will stop leeching tannins and the water will clear up through water changes.
Carol

capekate

Hello Ryno
Welcome to fishlore. As a newbie here you may not be aware of some of our rules. Fishlore has a strict rule on using profanity, even in the disguised form of asterisks as in your post. This is a very family friendly forum and we have many youngsters here as well. I wanted to let you know right off so that you can be aware of this for any future postings. For our guideline on forum rules please check out:
FishLore Forum Rules

thanks for your understanding on this matter.. ~ kate

Ryno

Interesting. I always boil stuff before putting it in the tank, when that happened after boiling I thought something must be wrong. Thanks for the info.

Ryno

No problem. I really don't even know what I typed. I just left the asterisks because I thought it got my point across. I will edit any posts that show up like that in the future. Thanks for the warning.

Now back to my fish...

I took a water sample to the LFS. They said that my Ph and Ammonia levels were fine. They said the Nitrates were very high though. I purchased a new test kit, and some Java Ferns for my planted aquarium.

I got home today and did a 35% water change. I then tested the water afterwards with my new kit and now my levels are showing as follows;

Ph - 7.0
Ammonia - .25
Nitrate - 40
Nitrite - 10

Butterfly

If you have any ammonia or Nitrites you need to do daily water changes until it's gone. Wait 24hrs after a water change to test though so all the new water and old water can be well mixed.
Nitrates are a little high if you don't have a well planted tank. More plants and the water changes will take care of Nitrates also.
weekly 25 -30% water changes and gravel vacuums are habits well formed. Your fish will thank you for it.
I boil wood before I put it into the tanks also but some woods leech tannins worse than others. The tank I have set up at work has a piece of wood leeching tannins as we speak and it looks really cool. One of our visitors thought I had put a yellow light on it LOL
Carol

Shawnie

well now, either your LFS pulled another scam as to water parimeters being ok, or they soldya a faulty test kit...because ammonia should ALWAYS be 0 ...hmmm so which do you think it could be? although I do agree nitrates are high, under 20 is ok, what brand of test kit did you buy? I hope things get better soon...goodluck!

Ryno

It is an API freshwater master test kit, but I did the test right after the water change so that may have effected it. I just did another test today and I got pretty much the same results. The ammonia just seems to have a very slight green tint to it, not bright yellow like the card. Maybe somewhere between 0 and .25 or maybe I am reading it wrong.

The test kit says that Nitrates should be at 40 or below, should I keep doing daily water changes in an attempt to get the Nitrates down if they are at 40?

Shawnie

yes...below 20 is comfy...and any green at all in the ammonia tube, is not good..should be totally yellow...water changes are the cure...and make sure you treat it with prime from the tap..also a suggestion, check the tap water for nitrates...and shake shake bang bang that bottle

Ryno

I have been doing lots of water changes but my nitrates still seem to be up in the 40 range. I tried testing my treated tap water and got 10 nitrates in that, is this normal? Ammonia and Nitrite were not present, Ph was an estimated 7.4. I'm not getting much waste in my water changes anymore, keep looking for new places to vacuum. Her eyes haven't cleared up at all. I am concerned she hasn't eaten in so long now.

Shawnie

Daily changes are still required..treating the tap water with prime....and if you think its ich, turn up the heater to 83 degrees for two weeks...ask cobettacouple on using vita-chem and garlic guard for knife fish..im not sure on that one but I do know its the recommended stress cure for some fish...

COBettaCouple

Those are both good, as is Fish Protector.

Ryno

I got some garlic guard and she seems to be eating again. Her eye is looking a littler better too.

Looking at this site and the situation has also got me back into the hobby. I just ordered some new lights for my planted aquarium and have added some more cardinals and ghost shrimp. Now I want to get some rummy nosed tetras or some glow tetras.

MTS has set in as well, I finally got my Beta tank set up. Just have a feeder in there right now.