Monster Is Sick

PatchworkClocks

PatchworkClocks

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Rhiannon
When I fed him earlier, he was just fine. I gave him his usual diet of shrimp and bloodworms, and nothing was out of the ordinary. A little bit ago, I added a piece of fossil slate rock to his tank, because I figured it would be better for him than the decorative pebbles. I checked on him a few minutes ago, and I found him on the bottom of the tank, not moving, with his gills flared. I reached in to see if he would react to me like he usually does, but he just sat there. I looked around the tank and found all of the shrimp I had fed him floating at the top. I'm not sure what's wrong with him, so I figured the best course of action would be to stick him in a quarantine tank inside my fridge. Is there anything else I can do? I was looking around and no one's had quite the same issue as I'm having. Please help me out!

I added the tidbit about the slate rock because he was fine up until I added it to his tank.
 
Where did you get the slate from? did you clean it thoroughly first?

From the sounds of it he might have just eaten too much,
 
I've had the slate for a few years, and when I got it, it came from a local river. I cleaned it off before I put it in, though. And some people told me that dried foods expand in their stomachs, and I wasn't aware of that when I was feeding him blood worms and shrimp. I did a 75% water change while he was quarantined (and spitting out the rest of the food) and now he's back to his usual self. I checked all the parameters in the tank, and everything checked out, so I put him back in and he seems to be doing fine. Going to go to a local bait shop for worms tomorrow, until then he's not going to be fed.
 
Okay, so, he was fine for a while. But he started coughing or something earlier, but nothing was coming up. Right now he's sitting in one of his hides. Occasionally he'll try to move, but he ends up falling sideways. Is there something wrong with him? Or did he just exhaust himself from regurgitating?
 
He's not flopping over anymore. After a few minutes he was able to move around the tank for a little bit, but it was more like he was dragging himself around rather than moving like he normally would. He's been laying in the corner of his tank like this for a while now. He'll move occasionally, so I assume he may just be sleeping.

monster2_by_patchwork_clocks-d6j7kq7.jpg


Sorry for the blurry quality, phone cameras suck.
 
He's not entirely back to normal, but his gills aren't flamed anymore, like they were when I took the picture. He's moved to a different spot in the tank since the picture was taken as well. At the moment he's lethargic, but that's understandable since he did spit up all of his food. The water temperature is a bit high as well, but the water parameters are normal; nitrates and nitrites are at 0, pH is around 7.4, the water hardness is between soft and hard, alkalinity is low (I don't remember what the strip said when I tested, it was a little while ago). The tank is still in the process of cycling, but I'm keeping a very close eye on it, and I'm going to get some bogwood to keep the pH stable. 25% water changes every couple of days is also in order. If anything changes in his behavior or appearance I'll definitely update this post.
 
If the nitrites and nitrates are 0, you must have an ammonia reading? Have you got a test kit for it? If not I suggest you remove the axie into a tub of clean water and start doing more regular water changes. Without removing the ammonia it's going to be building up. Also, test strips are known for not being as reliable as the liquid tests. If you can afford to it's best to get hold of the liquid tests.
What's the temp of the water now?
 
I don't have an ammonia testing kit right now, but I'm going to buy a liquid test kit today. The water temp is 21C as of right now. He's still lethargic so I'm going to move him back into his quarantine tank in front of the AC while I'm out and change the water 50% when I get home.
 
UPDATE: As of my return home earlier this afternoon, Monster has recovered fully and is back to his usual self. I gave him a shrimp pellet and he gobbled it down pretty eagerly after a little game of "sniff and find". I did a 50% water change, as the ammonia level was at about 50mmp. I also bought a mopani wood piece to help buffer the pH down from 8.5. Nitrates and nitrites are both still at 0. I'm going to do regular water changes every day from this point on. For the moment, Monster is staying in his quarantine tank while the main tank's levels settle a bit overnight. Monster does have a slight discoloration in one of his gills, and I was worried about it, until I remembered that he had damaged the gill last week and the discoloration is most likely just from it growing back. Here's a picture of him, sorry for the blurriness.

healthymonster_by_patchwork_clocks-d6jaqdr.jpg


He does have a small v-shape at the base of his tail, too. I'm not sure what it's from, but it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all.
 
Are you going to soak your mopani piece first? And glad to hear he's back to normal!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4
 
I didn't know they needed to soak. It's not in the tank yet though. Do I just soak it in plain tap water? And for how long?
 
Nevermind, the tag on the piece says it's pre-soaked. I stuck it in some water just in case to see if it would leach any tannins, but I'm still not seeing any change in the water's color.
 
Yeah just regular tap water:p its cool that its Pre soaked! Mine leeched tea colored water for a couple dats

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 4
 
Well, everything in his tank is set up now. I used the mopani log to disrupt the current, and added some artificial plant stalks that came off of his hide to disrupt the current as well. I'm thinking about adding some anubias plants to the tank at some point too. Is there any specific place I can get them? Would a pet store sell them, perhaps?
 
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