Cherie Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 (edited) Rambeaux came home with me a month or two ago and did extraordinarily well in my 20 long. He’s been interactive and eating well. I did a 25% water change a couple of days ago, replacing with pure RO water. I’m trying to soften and lower pH gradually. I added 2ml of easy green and easy iron and 1 ml easy carbon. Last night I saw he was sitting on the bottom breathing hard. He ignored me when I approached the tank. He won’t eat. Color is still very good. API Test kit pH 8 - this has been stable since I had him. Ammonia neg Nitrite neg Nitrate 10-20 (coop strip says zero for Ni and Na) - usually Na is 5. I did remove a lot of duckweed from the tank when I changed the water. kh is 4, gh is 7 Temperature is 82 I did a 50% water change with RO. I tested RO - ph is 6.6 and Na neg. TDS is 8. He did perk up a little after the water change. I bumped the temp to 85. Today he still won’t eat (even live mosquito larvae) and he had some white stringy stool. The juvenile endlers in there with him are doing great. I know they are very sensitive to water quality. I’m afraid to just start dumping meds in there. Any help would be appreciated. I’ve attached a photo of him and of his setup. I can’t attach video to show his breathing. Thank you! Edited August 26 by Cherie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 I think using pure RO is the cause dropping your pH from 8.0-6.6 could be the reason he's gone off his food. white stringy poop can be caused by your fish not eating I would gradually increase your pH to 7 a good compromise endlers do best with pH of 7.0-8.2 you could add a small amount of garlic guard to the the food to try and stimulate his appetite if after a couple after a couple of days your seeing no improvement or he gets worse give an update@Cherie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherie Posted August 26 Author Share Posted August 26 (edited) Oh sorry! The RO is 6.6. The tank after a 50% change (the second water change) was 7.6 (was 8 ). Thank you. Edited August 26 by Cherie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 (edited) On 8/26/2024 at 10:01 PM, Cherie said: Oh sorry! The RO is 6.6. The tank after a 50% change (the second water change) was 7.6 (was 8 ). Thank you. Must have read it wrong with 0.4 change in your pH shouldn't cause issues so something else could be going on have you added any new fish to the tank recently if so did you quarantine them any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing spitting food out sunken belly Edited August 29 by Colu Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherie Posted August 27 Author Share Posted August 27 Nothing has changed except for the water change and duckweed removal. I added prime to the tank as well. I forgot to mention that. He does occasionally flash but now that you mention it, I haven’t seen him do that in a couple of weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cherie Posted August 29 Author Share Posted August 29 Update! He had an enormous stool and is eating again. Now every time I look at him he’s pooping. Guessing this might have been some constipation. He’s not 100% but he’s not scaring me anymore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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