Gold rim dying with no explanation

vetteguy53081 · Jan 12, 2022

Salt is very low. . . you want 34-35 ppt
Ammonia and nitrate at zero - What test kit(s) are you using ?

T-J · Jan 12, 2022

Your water may be testing "fine", but cyanobacteria can release toxins into the water. I agree with what others have said, change the water, siphon out the cyano and maybe run some carbon.
@vetteguy53081 is also correct, 30 is pretty low.

Daveb300 · Jan 12, 2022

Eagle_Steve said:
I would try to siphon out the cyano and do a WC with some new SW. That large of a mat is not a good thing to have in the QT. I would also reduce light to just ambient light for the remainder of the QT time. No ned for much light over a QT. Just enough to see the fish and no more.

The only problem is the fish room is in the basement and there is no lights on when nobody is down there other than the tank lights .

The Dude Abides · Jan 12, 2022

My QT tank is in the basement also, I just set up a cheap lamp on a timer for ambient lighting.

Eagle_Steve · Jan 12, 2022

Daveb300 said:
The only problem is the fish room is in the basement and there is no lights on when nobody is down there other than the tank lights .

I prefer to use a lower wattage bulb, like a 60w or equivalent, on my qt tanks. It helps to not allow algae or cyano to grow , but gives me enough light to see the fish. I just hang it up high from the tank.

But in reality any light will work, just stronger lights may require you do more cleaning on the tank to stop cyano or algae.

Daveb300 · Jan 13, 2022

So last night before I went to bed I thought for sure I would wake up this morning to a dead gold rim. Last night he looked almost dead. Laying on his side and even upside down. This morning he is upright and even swimming a little. He got up enough energy to keep himself off the bottom and swim over to his safe place the cave that he hides in. I don't want to get my hopes up but I see some improvement. I have been putting heavy oxygen in the tank and fresh carbon. I am making some RO water today for a water change and will try to clean out as much cyano as I can. I changed the led shop light over the tank to a single 60w bulb. I plan on slowly increasing the Salinity to 33-34 ppt although I always heard it doesn't hurt to keep it a little low in QT. I am in the process of filling up my 310 and starting a cycle so hopefully in four to six weeks I can start moving fish over to my display. Although it is hard to see I included a pic of him in his cave swimming upright.

Daveb300 · Jan 13, 2022

I forgot to mention that I did see two or three marks on his forehead/nose. There could be a possibility he got into a fight with the orange shoulder. The gold rim has always been peaceful and timid. The orange shoulder is bit of a bully. I have moved the orange shoulder to a different tank for the time being.

Daveb300 · Jan 14, 2022

So I am happy to report that today my gold rim has been swimming and coming out when I walk by the tank like he is hungry. On the first attempt to feed him this morning he was interested in food but didn't eat. This afternoon I fed again and I did see him eat so that is a great improvement. Although he isn't 100% back to his old self I feel good about his recovery. I'm not sure if it was low oxygen or a injury but he is looking much better. I honestly thought he was done for but I have seen a great improvement. I want to say thank you to everyone that help and gave me good advice.

Daveb300 · Jan 17, 2022

I am at my wit's end with this gold rim. He was beginning to show improvement but is back to laying on his side and acting like he is struggling. Now he has a cloudy eye. Possibly a bacterial infection. I did a formalin bath just incase it is a prazipro resistant fluke. Then I moved him to a 20 long that has been set up for months. Now I'm dosing kanaplex. I have no clue as to what is wrong with him. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Daveb300 · Jan 17, 2022

What causes this behavior?

Colin_S · Jan 23, 2022

That sucks, was just reading through the messages and it seemed promising..

Eliminate what you can rule out..

Velvet - no
White Spot - no
Brook - no
Uroenema - no
Flukes?
internal worms?
swim bladder issue?

You've increased the air?
lowered the lights intensity to reduce cyno
removed the cyno?
continue to use carbon?
fish eating.

I would say getting the fish eating is very important as it might get too weak to even recover.
could it be a type of seizure?

hopefully someone with more fish health experience will chime in

Daveb300 · Jan 24, 2022

Colin_S said:
That sucks, was just reading through the messages and it seemed promising..

Eliminate what you can rule out..

Velvet - no
White Spot - no
Brook - no
Uroenema - no
Flukes?
internal worms?
swim bladder issue?

You've increased the air?
lowered the lights intensity to reduce cyno
removed the cyno?
continue to use carbon?
fish eating.

I would say getting the fish eating is very important as it might get too weak to even recover.
could it be a type of seizure?

hopefully someone with more fish health experience will chime in

I moved him to a 20 long where I can isolate him and better medicate. I have been dosing kanaplex. I believe he has a spinal infection or bacteria infection or spinal injury. He went from laying on his side and even upside-down to swimming normal again. He is starting to eat but is very shy now. I am working on getting him used to his new tank while being treated and getting him to eating like a pig again. He must be tough though because after all he has been through he is still alive.