# Sick Red Belly



## carlakarmen (Jan 31, 2015)

hi Everyone, I'm new here and have been a fairly new owner of a Red Belly. He was a rescue about a year and a half ago and has been doing pretty well until recently. I've learned as much as i can about caring for them but i seem to have come to a bad spot.
I had some health issues lately and have left my tank in the care of someone else for almost two months. They fed him once per day. did not do any tank changes but added water to his tank twice. this last time, caused my RB to come out of his log where he usually likes to hide and only comes out when he thinks no one is around and it's dark or if he's feeding. He had no problem with appetite lately but since this last water add, he's been sitting at the bottom of the tank exposed. he's been there for almost two days now. About 5 gallons were added to his thirty gallon tank. Can someone please help me figure out what is wrong and how to fix it. He's barely three years old and I don't want to lose him.


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

I feel like I needmore information before I can say anything educated. 
First do you know the parameters of the water? Him laying around exposed tells me the fish is ill. 
Are you or have you fed live feeders to the fish recently?
This may pass all on its own. But in the mean time let's assume it won't. Let's figure out water quality firstly.

Get your hands on a test kit. That's a must. It might be something as basic as that but if it's not we can rule that out and start digging for the cause of his issue elsewhere.


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## carlakarmen (Jan 31, 2015)

the tank hadn't been cleaned in two months apprx. they added about 5 gallons to or three times to the tank as it evaporated. it's a thirty gallon tank with only one piranha. he was doing fine until i recently added about 5 gallons of city water that i treated with aquasafe. shortly after that addition, i found him just outside of his hide log and hovering at the bottom of the tank. he swam away from the glass about a couple of inches and has been in the same spot for almost three days.
the ph is 6.2, temp is 78. i wasn't able to check the ammonia or nitrites. the only store around here was out of kits, hoping to get that today. 
When i poured the water in, i did it in two small doses about 2.5 gallons at a time but when i dumped in the water, obviously a bunch of debris floated up and i scooped some of it out with a net. I am afraid to do a complete tank change at this point for fear of stress killing him.
Also, no live food has ever been given to him. I usually feed frozen blood worms and brine shrimp alternately. One night last week he didn't eat the brine shrimp cube but i wasn't able to remove it once it melted....could this possibly be ammonia too high?


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## scent troll (Apr 4, 2005)

the problem is obvious to me. leaving a tank for 2 months is a sure fire way to make a fish ill and eventually kill it. 
any tank, be it a 30 gallon or a 200 gallon needs frequent water changes. I would never go longer then 2 weeks between water changes. remember. this is an enclosed isolated environment. you absolutely need to cycle old water out and add new fresh water to keep everything in balance.

absolutely 100% I am convinced. start stepping up your water changes. about 25% weekly/biweekly will prevent any issues. the debris floating to the top during the addition of new water tells me that there is far too much waste in the tank as well. the ammonia is probably off the chart. the leading cause of a fish growing sick. the water is literally polluted.

use a syphon to clean the substrate and change the water. do this twice a month (at least). you'll thank me later. so will your fish.

good luck! keep me updated


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