Floating and frantic swimming

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fzchk

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Hi all,

Seems like this problem is flavour of the month in Australian users...could it have something to do with the heat?

Anyway, here's mine - as I haven't found any useful information yet (still looking through the other threads). My paramaters are good though I do 25% water change each week and I'm unsure whether that's a problem, I feed her hiraki carnivore fish food (2-3 small pellets every 2 to 3 days) and the temparature in my house is pretty mild.

My axie Keating has/had the same problem of floating a lot and frantically swimming trying to get to the bottom of the tank. So I fed her a little less and kept an eye on her as well as letting enough water out of the tank so that she could touch the ground to at least chill her out a bit. I came back from work today to find her near belly up and thinking that she was dead I went to grab her but she was well and truly alive but listing quite a lot.
For a bit of background, she has swallowed and spat up a stone in the past so I'm aware she could have internal problems, but she eats fine and seems generally happy, apart from the frantic swimming to try and get to the bottom of the tank and today. So I've popped her in the fridge...here are the questions; so I know I should look for vom and poop but what else should I look for? I mean she doesn't seem bloated at all in fact I've always been worried that her head seems to big for her body but she is definitely not underfed. How long should I leave her in the fridge for, I have some chilled fresh water and cycled water so I'm prepared for a long stay but I'm just not sure how long is sufficient to make sure she's better - if she should get better. Should I keep feeding her as normal? I realise that if I'm trying to get rid of an obstruction, making more obstruction is not such a great idea, but I'm always unsure how to approach fasting in such...shall we say, inexpressive animals.
I just checked on her and offered her a little to eat and she took it and was still rather active; she's been in the fridge for about 6 hours. EDIT: She's been in there for 24 hours now and is still pretty active.
Any help would be appreciated.
 
What temp is the water in the fridge, are you sure the parameters are good? Is the tank cycled, do you test the water, if so what are the readings? Is she an adult or juvenile? I wouldn't say the 2-3 small pellets are enough every few days, especially with this heat. Worms are more nutritious than pellets. Are they the "carnivore pellets"? Try feeding some earthworms. What type of substrate do you have?
 
I saw in your other post that you have stones as a substrate. How do you clean under this? They're notorious for trapping waste. I suspect you have a water quality problem, as Olivia alluded to.
 
There is currently no water in the tank to test again as I'm doing a complete overhaul of her habitat (new plants no stones and putting in sand) whilst she's in the fridge. I remember the parameters being within the ranges as suggested in the water parameters thread here - albeit a little warm. The last thing I'm thinking about is numbers but I don't recall there being a problem. But yes, I think water quality is an issue, after a water change she generally would go back to the bottom of the tank now that I think about it.

They are indeed carnivore pellets. The only reason I was feeding her less is because I was under the impression she might be constipated and I didn't want to compound the problem. I clean my stones with a gravel vac, they're quite large and scant so the waste is normally easy to see and suck out during water changes, if I see something in there in the mean time I'll do a spot clean. How exactly to you clean around sand? And not stir it all up during water changes? I've only ever had rocks. I'm more wondering whether my filter needs replacing as well as the substrate.

I can't find good quality earthworms, they're almost always way too small and I'd have to feed her the whole punnet at once to feel like she's had a good meal and so I opted for the pellets, I agree she does need a change in her diet though. How about those little frozen cubes of worms?

I'm not entirely sure how old she is, I've had her for a year and she was about 4 inches long when I got her - she's a wild type. She's about 6 inches now.
 
Buy some composting worms from bunnings. It's much less messy and sand is actually very easy to clean as its usually to heavy to be siphoned out. You will have to recycle your tank now that you've redone your substrate but having the same filter will speed this up dramatically
 
Do you think keeping the same filter is a good idea? I was thinking of replacing it. If it speeds up cycling then I'm willing to keep it, how long would I have to cycle to have done it fully with the old filter? If its going to be a while (like you said in another thread around a month or two from scratch)...where should I keep Keating?

I never thought about going to Bunnings....in fact I didn't know they sold composting worms! Thats awesome for many reasons.
 
Yep they do, thats what i feed my axies. they are composting worms so it may take a while for the axies to take a liking to them. and yes, it can take as little as a few days to "recycle" because most of the bacteria lives within the filter. As long as you keep a bucket of tank water with your filter in it and don't rinse it under chlorinated water then it should be fine.
 
If its only going to take a few days, I'm happy, I will leave Keating in the fridge. The filter is sitting in a bucket of tank water but that was by coincidence, not by design. I'm off to the north melbourne aquarium shop tonight after work to pick up my new plants and sand... hooray.

To be honest with you, given the ****ty advice I was given when I bought Keating, I'm very surprised she's still alive.
 
Thanks for the support Olivia, the tank is cycling now with the sand and new plants. I tested the parameters before cycling everything was good apart from the nitrate, which was a little high. I'm going to let it cycle for two days then check them again and if everything is cool I plan to reintroduce Keating then.

Sounds like a good plan?
 
Sounds great! The good news is it's all up hill from here.
And with this Aussie heat your axie will probably appreciate the cool
 
Yeah, she seems super happy in the fridge.
 
It might be an idea to leave him in the fridge whilst the temp's so high. How are you cooling it when he comes out? My house tends to be quite cool the first few days of a heat wave, but the tanks hit the 20s within 24 hours (From yesterday when the tank was sitting at 19 by itself (ambient 22-ish) to 20.5 (when the chiller kicks in) by 10am this morning (it hit 28 here today)), so don't assume that a cool house is going to mean your tank is cold enough!
As to swapping filters, if you add in the media from the old filter, the new one usually cycles quite quickly.
Cleaning sand is quite easy- run the siphon through it to get any trapped gunk and reduce any gas pockets and you're good to go :)
As to diet, variety is the spice of life! I have similar issues with getting worms (Whilst there is a massive population down in our compost heap, nine times out of ten they're so deep down in the stack that they're impossible to get at (though today I got 13 for my darlings!)), so I tend to use a combination of pellets (The ones in the blue jar that used to be yellow with the purple label), bloodworms (Orca is okay, but Hikari is even better), very occasionally blackworms (although they are very expensive), very very rarely (And mainly in cases where they need a bit more fat) a bit of frozen beef heart (the nutrient enriched variety), and from my own quarantined stock (though not at the moment as my populations are only just starting to flourish again), red cherry shrimp (or ghosts- I'm hoping in the next few weeks I'll get a few dozen to populate the big tank out) and guppies. Whilst they were outside, they had a great time nomming on slugs (They let them soak long enough for the slime coat to dissolve), bugs, moths, mozzies and whatever else made its way into the pond.
 
It got to 40 today in melbourne, i've had to stay practically next to my tank, replacing ice bottles :( i can't afford a chiller and would have no where to put it.
 
Yeh Melbourne was and still is pretty hot. I have no chilling thing in place at the moment but my house has not yet warmed up for the summer. But I suspect it will soon so I may have to sit by the tank with ice bottles in the future. I'm off to Bunnings tomorrow to try these composting worms.

Olivia: I assume the worms are all above board, as in parasite free and so forth.

I'm leaving Keating in the fridge for another two days whilst the tank cycles anyway so she'll be safe and sound and cool for the time being. She freaks out a bit when I do water changes but is otherwise doing well.

Her new tank is awesome, I got sand, 3 different types of plants, including elodia (ITS TRADITIONAL!) and a bit of wood.
 
Yes they are, I was lucky enough to take them and some soil to a lab to get it tested :) and they're all good!
 
Quick suggestion for both of you- get a fan (Even a teeny tiny one will make a difference, but a massive great big whopping one makes even more of one!) This one from Officeworks GAF Mini Desk Fan 10cm at $14.95 in Appliances looks pretty good (guess where I'm going tomorrow arvo! Trouble will be a happy camper!), but if you can find something similar somewhere else, don't hesitate! Evaporation is one of the best methods of cooling a tank- it kept mine down at 28 (sans axies) when we hit 46 two years ago. Combine it with a chiller (gumtree and ebay are good places to keep an eye out, as are the FS forums on here), and you'll breeze through summer without any problems :)

Oh!! And whilst you're bottling, tie the bottles to a nice, heavy rock- you'll get much more cool for your buck that way (Saved me a heap of times before I got the chiller).
May we all survive tomorrow (we're getting hit early tomorrow morning *pleaseohpleaseletthechillerholdout!!!*)
 
Minniechild said:
Quick suggestion for both of you- get a fan (Even a teeny tiny one will make a difference, but a massive great big whopping one makes even more of one!) This one from Officeworks GAF Mini Desk Fan 10cm at $14.95 in Appliances looks pretty good (guess where I'm going tomorrow arvo! Trouble will be a happy camper!), but if you can find something similar somewhere else, don't hesitate! Evaporation is one of the best methods of cooling a tank- it kept mine down at 28 (sans axies) when we hit 46 two years ago. Combine it with a chiller (gumtree and ebay are good places to keep an eye out, as are the FS forums on here), and you'll breeze through summer without any problems :)

Oh!! And whilst you're bottling, tie the bottles to a nice, heavy rock- you'll get much more cool for your buck that way (Saved me a heap of times before I got the chiller).
May we all survive tomorrow (we're getting hit early tomorrow morning *pleaseohpleaseletthechillerholdout!!!*)
Click to expand...

we're going for a cooler 28 today, yesterdays temp was 40 and the tank was 26 * no axies in it * i ended up turning my filter off for a while (dropped it 2 degrees) i turned my bubbler on (lowered another degree) and then my ice got it to 19 :p
 
Go 'livia,Go 'livia,Go 'livia!
If i'm doing my calculations right (Don't trust our wall thermometer, so I mainly rely on calculating from the three BOM sites around us), we're around the 33C mark and rising...Got a big fan on Trouble, no lights and I'm crossing my fingers it keeps it reasonable until we can figure out where his homemade chiller's got blocked...
 
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