Fish Behavior

[buckry]

One of the fish I got a week ago is acting weird. He/she hasn't eaten all day, despite today being the first day I've given them flakes since Saturday, and he/she is swimming near the surface most of the time. For a really long time tonight he was hiding in the stream of the waterfall. I was throwing some loose hyacinth into the hyacinth area tonight and he was hiding under them, as soon as the first one hit he went tearing down to the bottom, but came back up 20 seconds later.

Basically it looks like he's just hanging out, but none of my other fish are doing that and it seems weird. I think he's depressed, any fish psychologists in the house?

Seriously though, any ideas?

 

[Waterbug]

Impossible to know. But if I see a fish hanging out near the surface, near moving water, I assume an O2 problem. That doesn't necessarily mean low O2 in the water. More often it means the fish is having trouble taking in O2, and in this case, because the other fish are acting normal, I'd assume this fish is having an O2 problem.

Many causes. Anything that increases the slime coat, infection, parasites, salt in the water, slime coat medication. The slime over the gills can inhibit O2 intake. Another thing I'd check is ammonia and nitrite levels which result in fish having a problem taking in O2. Normally all fish are affected but can start with one fish.

 

[buckry]

Tested the water immediately, came back same as always, no amonia or nitrate PH is good. Maybe overnight will be an improvement, got the bigger pump in, moving 50% more water now, if that's the issue 50% more water movement certainly could be a solution.

 

[buckry]

Yeah, went out just now with a tetra test strip it came back perfect as well, no ammonia no nitrate, 8.0 PH. The waterfall is a positive torrent right now, I'm really happy with it, but man it's a freaking guyser, I don't think it can be a pond wide shortage of O2, gotta be fish specific. Guess I'll just wait and watch and see if any more clues appear to what is going on.

 

[buckry]

Woke up this morning and the fish was dead. Nothing in his mouth, gills looked great, and no scale problems whatsoever. Any conclusions I can draw from this or is this just one of those things? Probably sick already just took a week to show signs and die?

 

[Waterbug]

I've never been able to tell the cause when there's nothing obvious. I would normally cut open a fish too, but again, never found anything obvious.

 

[buckry]

That's too bad. Oh well.

 

[j.w]

Sorry you lost it Buck :sad:

 

[buckry]

Yeah, that was the $25 platinum ogon my wife picked out. That was 1/4 of the cost of the 28 fish I bought.

 

[don't ask]

ouch...man sorry for your wife as she picked that one... hopefully she and you won't be too upset and discouraged and hopefully she will find another one she likes

 

[buckry]

I'm not discouraged or upset. I wish he hadn't died, but it's not the end of the world.. That's probably the 20th fish I've killed, made a lot of mistakes early on with my goldfish, I kind of hoped it would be years before a koi died, but not really a big deal that it happened in my first month. Obviously I can't be sure, but I feel confident I didn't cause the death, and that's the most important part to me.

Now that being said, my wife is already talking about buying a fish to replace it. I told her, look right down there, there is a baby platinum ogon that came in the assortment I bought, why don't we just say that one is your new fish. Take a wild guess what she said...

 

[don't ask]

NO! she wants another one

 

[buckry]

Ok, now I'm discouraged. A second fish is behaving the same way. Is there anything I can do to help it? It's swimming on the surface with it's gills flared open. It definitely seems like an O2 problem, but none of the other fish are acting this way. Why would 2 fish have this problem 24 hours apart? The new fish doing it looks perfect, I don't see any issues whatsoever.

 

[don't ask]

man buck, that sucks...not sure i have any good advice... either the fish were already sick and showing the signs now or maybe do what sissy says to do all the time and quarantine new arrivals..hope all works out

 

[buckry]

The fish have been together in the new pond for 2 weeks now, and only the first fish was new, the one dying tonight is one of my 6 month olds.