Should I try to rescue these fish?

[afremont]

Ok, I didn't mean to be pushy. I just wanted to be sure you knew about the sale stuff. :-)

[afremont]

Day 5

So, day 5 starts off pretty uneventful. The flame in the big tank by himself is spending allot more time out in the open. Still not acting as spry as he should be though. I put some freeze dried bloodworms in the tank and he appears to have eaten some of them so that is real good. I'm thinking this has been primarily a bacterial issue, along with poor water conditions since he is recovering so slowly, being treated with MB and Parasite Guard, that I think it's just his immune system along with low stress and the antibiotics in the parasite guard that are responsible for the improvement. Tomorrow ends the four days of parasite guard treatment and I think I will run some carbon filtering overnight to remove the MB and the medicine, and change half the water tomorrow. I'm seriously considering starting him on some other antibiotics since I really feel this is a bacterial thing.

On a side note, I went back to the petco where I got them. There were several amazingly picked clean skeletons in one tank and way too many dead fish stuck to filters and whatnot in the others on that bank. When I told the cashier about the dead fish, she said the person who "takes care" of them will be back tomorrow. They've been on vacation. I saw allot of fish with really red gills and plattys that were sitting on the bottom amongst the dead. There were swordtails that looked pretty sad too. Pathetic.

On a happier note, the other 9 DGs look like they're pretty close to normal behavior. Some have some darkish patches on their forehead that I don't think should be there though. Could be some fungus so I stopped the QuickCure treatment, changed 1/3 of the water and put in some CopperSafe for long term treatment and prevention. They also received their fifth (final) doses of Maracyn and Maracyn 2 (I had decided to continue with both) to be safe. They eat well and have seemed to work out their personal issues especially after I vacuumed the tank and rearranged their world. They showed the typical curiosity and kept coming around my hand while I swept the tank, so I took that as a real good sign. I'm thinking of continuing the antibiotics until I run out (8 days total). I saw some recommendations on the internet to continue antibiotics for as long as two weeks instead of the five days specified.

[afremont]

Tragedy strikes for the flame

Well, I didn't see the flame for a few hours and figured he was hiding. I finally got worried and moved his hiding place and he wasn't in there. I looked all around and on the floor in case he jumped out when I had the cover off and was putting carbon in the bubble filter tube. I finally found him and also found where the water intake is for the Aqau Clear 50 powerhead when it's in reverse flow mode. :-O Unfortunately the fish found it first, man I didn't know. It doesn't pull water in the normal exit when it's in reverse flow, it pulls it in on a ledge above the sliding ring thingys. Aqua Clear should be more clear on this as it's obviously quite a hazard. I'd have covered it with something had I known. And he was looking better too. (((((

[fshfrk]

Binox has helped me with problems I could see on the outside of the fish. I have a complete setup 29gal you can have. Tank,stand,filter,2 holyrocks,top with light and other stuff. You seem cool saving those fish but stay out of them boxstore pet stores . I got this setup on trash day from a neighbors yard but it is nice. Just PM me to set up pickup if you want....john

[afremont]

Wow, that's a really nice offer! Thank you, but my wife would have a cow if I brought another tank, plus I'm not sure where I'd put it. She already thinks we have more than enough tanks as it is. I just have to clean out the 20 that housed the two that died and fix the powerhead so that it can't kill any more fish. I also have another 20 that I can put up if need be, but I think with enough plants they'll all get along ok in a 20 after being cramped up in the 10 for a week. If not I'll fill the empty tank and split them up. Looks like a good place for a fish bridge between the two 20s.

The sparring between the dominant fish is still continuing on occasion, but it doesn't look like anyone has actually ever been hurt. They've kinda toned it down to the point that they mostly flare up and getting within an inch of each other. I also saw them line up side by side but facing opposite directions and start whipping each other with their tales. Anybody ever see that before? They only really did that early on though. I can't help but wonder if there is a female among them.

[R_sustaita]

Well i had posted earlier but it was not saved. Sad day, to bad red di that way. He seemed to be a fighter.

I think a good complain to corporate about that specific store wouldnt hurt.


And dont worry about it you. Are not pushy, hell i wish i could have a bigger tank than the 10g i have but money and space are the concern at the moment.

[afremont]

Yes, it was very saddening to my family members and me. He was really starting to come around too. Thank you for your kind words thru all of this.

Corporate won't care, this is the new America. If I sent a complaint, I'd expect to receive a threatening legal response before I'd expect some kind of empathy or action on their part.

How are your fish doing? Is your cichlid getting along ok?

[jwh0818]

This reminds me of the walmart here in Pasadena on main st. It's fish tanks are horrible. Everytime I go in there, there is always atleast 20 dead fish with about 30 fish in each tank and there tanks aren't any bigger then 10gallons. Also the bottoms of the tanks are always covered in fish waste Plus all the dead fish. It's just so horrible. What can we do about it. I always wanna call the hspca and take pics of it but I don't think it will do any good.

Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G

[afremont]

Maybe a bunch of complaints to somebody like Emily Akin or some other investigative reporter could shame these stores (or the hspca) into changing their ways. As far as I know, there is no distinction in the animal cruelty and abuse laws that exempt fish from consideration.

[R_sustaita]

Into 1st note my fish a doing great i think. The cichlid is still afraid of the angels and he swims more often out of the cave. I need to get a vacum to clean it and do a WC


2nd not walmart has always suck at fish everytime i go the and see people buying fish there i told them not to. As 80% of the time they are sick and most times they already come with ick. But something should be done about all this those stores should be better equip with better staff and care.

[afremont]

I'm sure the cichlid will be putting the fear into the angels before long. Angel fish seem to be plenty tough though, I'm sure they'll all work something out by the time the cichlid grows up. Or maybe not. ;-)

[R_sustaita]

I do hope so too. I do plan to save the angels no matter what.

[R_sustaita]

Any updates?

[afremont]

Yeah, I gave them all a methylene blue bath to clean them up and I transferred them to a 20 gallon. It's not big enough, so I'm setting up another 20 gallon next to it to move some of them out.

I mentioned before that some of them had some blackish coloration on their face and fin edges. After transferring them to the new unmedicated tank, they started showing signs of fin rot. Their feelers started getting whispy on the ends and just withering away. Also a couple of them had long stringy white poo so since I hadn't medicated them for internal parasites, I went ahead and started them on the real "general cure". It contains metronidazole (an antibiotic) and praziquantel (internal parasite killer). Several of them have since pooped allot. One fish had a dark normalish looking string about two inches long hanging from him. Could that be a tapeworm? I also put low doses of melafix and pimafix in the water for their skin and allot of the black coloration seems to have vanished so I'm guessing that it's some kind of fungus that was kept in check in the medicated tank. It's my understanding that melafix can be hard on labyrinth fish like bettas and gouramis, though there is no warning on the bottles for them. I used partial doses anyway to be safe. If the fin rot doesn't clear up, but it looks like it will from the melafix/pimafix, I may put them back on antibiotics. I'm sure that allot of the problems now are from the stress of being crowded.

[R_sustaita]

Good to hear they ar good, they look so good and so colorfull who would think they were almost dead. Great job man!