sluggish oranda

kmorse
  • #1
We got a bronze oranda on 8/20 (2 weeks ago tomorrow). He 's in a 37g tank with an Aqueon 75 HOB filter and a bubbler. We don't have a heater in there, but we also don't have a chiller, so his tank runs around 75-76 degrees.

On 8/25, we got him a tank mate, another oranda. Unfortunately, we discovered on 8/28 that the second one had ich when we bought her, so we started treating the tank on 8/28 with Marineland Ich Remedy. We have treated it every day since with a 25% water change prior to each treatment.

The bronze oranda has not had any white spots and has not shown any signs of being sick, except that he sat on the bottom of the tank for a couple of hours on 8/27 and then perked up after we did a water change.

The second oranda we brought home (the one that had ich) died overnight on 8/29-8/30. Her ich spots were improving, so the treatment seems to have been helping. She refused to eat on 8/29, but that was the first day she didn't eat.

This afternoon, the bronze oranda has been sitting on the bottom and he is breathing hard. He is working his mouth and gills about twice a second. He will not eat, although he expressed interest in eating somewhat - he swam around pretty normally at feeding time. He just didn't eat, and what he did eat, he spit out.

Rather than do the sixth day of ich treatment, we opted to do a 75% water change to see if he perks up. I have been checking the water parameters each morning during treatment (treatments are done around 4pm each day) and the ammonia and nitrites are always 0 and the nitrates are always in the 5-10 range. The pH in the tank is 7.7, which is where it always is, so there have been no shifts there. Our GH generally runs around 2 or 3 drops and KH around 5 or 6 drops (all done on API liquid test kits).

I can't think what is bothering him. It's not the water. There should be plenty of surface agitation. He shouldn't be constipated (ate peas successfully 2 or 3 days ago, although he passed them up today). I think it's safe to say he doesn't have ich. I can't think why he would be terribly stressed. I guess it's possible the other fish had something in addition to ich that the ich treatment has not killed? Any thoughts?
 
Aquaphobia
  • #2
I would opt for heat treatment instead. I don't know if the medication could affect the oxygen saturation of the water but it might be advisable to add an air stone. Certainly raising the temperature will require increased aeration.
 
Tank Girl
  • #3
If this was my fish I would definitely treat for flukes with Prazi. Be sure to treat long enough in case they are the egg laying type. Hope this helps
 
ravenxcore
  • #4
Was the tank cycled prior to getting the fish? If not, it's possible that when you added a new fish while the tank was mid cycle, it basically restarted the cycle since the filter now has a larger bioload to process. The constant change of levels may be stressing the fish out in addition to having ich
 
tanki60o
  • #5
I suggest you add aquarium salt or API Stress Coat to the water. Can you post some pictures please?
 

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