# ***HELP*** Snakehead is in serious trouble, ***PICS***



## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

my snakehead almost seems paralized, he can barely move his back half of his body, he is about 14" in length. he is a giant Red Snakehead, in the pics you can see the back of him almost has a white tinge to it, but i dont think its ick, what should i do with this?

my other 2 snakeheads in the tank are doing fine, i did a water change 2 days ago the same way ive been doing them without a problem for about a year. so whats going on here?

anyone know what this is?
View attachment 128119
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## gloom (Nov 11, 2006)

almost looks like a burn or something.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

why would a burn cause him to barely have any control over his own tail?


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

is it ammonia burn? what do i do? i have no god damn idea but i dont want him to die


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

it does look like ammonia burn. But there would have to be something to lead up to it. ammonia dosen't just appear. Have you tested your water? could possibly be damaged stress coat has lead to a infection.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

i dont have a water tester kit, ive noticed him swim funny for the past day or two, but today was significantly worse, and i notcied the white marks on him today.

i dont know what would cause the ammonia spike. i switched foods, i wonder if that has anything to do with it? they are eating a different type of fish. is it possible one of the fish i got from a local fish place could have had a disease?


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

shocker45 said:


> i dont have a water tester kit, ive noticed him swim funny for the past day or two, but today was significantly worse, and i notcied the white marks on him today.
> 
> i dont know what would cause the ammonia spike. i switched foods, i wonder if that has anything to do with it? they are eating a different type of fish. is it possible one of the fish i got from a local fish place could have had a disease?


Most certainly man-What were you feeding them exactly!!!!!


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

i dont know the name of it, ive been feeding them smelts for the past like 7 months, then i just recently bought some larger fish, from a chinese food marker "where i buy my smelts" i forget the name of it, ive been cutting the head off the fish, and cutting them into to, and putting them in. the biggest guy eats the most, and he is fine. even the little one is fine, the onyl one that is acting funny is the middle guy...

so what should i do? im going to get my water tested right away, but what if nothing turns up?


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

shocker45 said:


> i dont know the name of it, ive been feeding them smelts for the past like 7 months, then i just recently bought some larger fish, from a chinese food marker "where i buy my smelts" i forget the name of it, ive been cutting the head off the fish, and cutting them into to, and putting them in. the biggest guy eats the most, and he is fine. even the little one is fine, the onyl one that is acting funny is the middle guy...
> 
> so what should i do? im going to get my water tested right away, but what if nothing turns up?


Damn man I thought you were live feeding-I am unasure at this point in time-and I dont want to give out ne bad info-But if all else fails man hit me up under pm and I can refer to a good guy with snakeheads-He is very knowledgeable-But you will have to join-I know he is a member here but he doesn't get on very often at all!!!! Hopefully Jan or lewis or the pack will provide more info when they see this-Or ne one else that might know!!!!


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

i very rarely feed live, maybe once everyone couple months, i bought some live feeder's today, because he wont eat the frozen, so i figured this might get him to eat. but still nothin


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

I would seriously start looking around for internal meds for this guy then man-Thats my only suggestion-And sorry i dont have ne recomendations either-I'm pretty sad in that department n e how-Hope he pulls through man-It would devistate me to lose something like that!!!!!All the best wishes Shocker


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## leviathon13 (Sep 11, 2006)

the white "haze" looks like a skin infection. Fungal or bacterial. a combo treatment of Melafix and Pimafix would probably clear it up.Do you salt your tank at all? 1 Tbsp of freshwater aq. salt per 5 gal wouldn't hurt and raising the temp. to 85 F should help too. check the ammonia/Nitrite in your tank first. thAT WILL BE A GOOD STARTING POINT.HOPE THAT HELPED.


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

Damnit-there I go again giving false info-Sorry shocker-At least i warned you about it from the get go man!!!


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## Ex0dus (Jun 29, 2005)

Id be VERY careful with dosing salt in a snakehead tank as they dont take to salt very well. Get ahold of Jan for some meds you can use for this.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

i added salt, i put in roughly 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons, i also took the infected SH out of the tank and put him into a 60 litre rubber made container, then i added salt in there. i also bought some "fungus cure" tablets, i showed a couple ppl at the lfs and they said it looks like a fungus as well, so they said this stuff should work well, the tablets turned the water green. im supposed to give another dose in 48 hours.

http://akamai.edeal.com/images/catalog3684...g2813843med.jpg

thats the stuff i used.

to do this properly in my entire tank would have cost me over $100 so thats why i seperated them. the other 2 fish are fine, so the salt alone should be enough.


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## Miro_bolant (Nov 13, 2006)

snakeheads are extremely tuff fish, not much will kill a redline. i no this from experience with mine. salt wont affect the fish in a bad way...the species lerns to adapt to most water conditions may they be too hot or too cold and even brackish type waters...i think ur guy will make it out...theyre healing and recuperation is absolutly amazing anyone who has ever had a damaged redline knows wut im talking about....they snap back very fast. Just make sure u keep a close eye on him. 
How do ur snakeheads get along? at the size their at they should be showing very territorial behavior...have u seen this? have they been fighting? do they each keep a determined side of the tank?


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

big territorial issues, the biggest one runs the tank. i got an accurate measure on him today, 16.5" and the one in the hospital tank is 15" then the 3rd biggest is about 9"

i had one just about as big as the biggest, but now he is in my freezer, the biggest one and him go into a fight, i guess about who's tank it is. i bought 6 of them knowing in the long run i would only have 1. i did my research and i know about there behavior.

so far the biggest one has eaten 2 other snakeheads and just killed a 3rd one. im scared for the 9" i think he may be next.

he does seem a lot calmer now than he used to, im worried that re-introducing the 15" guy back into the tank might cause an issue. im not sure how he will react.

and they are a very aggressive fish, but they are even cooler cause they recognize me, they stare at me when im watchin tv and come right up to the glass when i put my face there.

one thing thats really cool is that they chase stuff when i throw it past the tank, including chasing a lazer pointer







its like a cat.


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## Miro_bolant (Nov 13, 2006)

we need pics!!!! fulll tank shots!


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

heres the update, the spot has not spread over anything further than it already was. its kind of turning red\brownish, he seems to have normal control of his tail like 90% of the time.

there is scales on the bottom of my hosptial tank, almost like he was shedding off the infected area. it has been 5 days now and he refuses to eat in this tank, so i dont want to keep him in much longer, nor do i want to put any additional stress on him.

is it time to put back into my large tank? or should i contain him for a couple more days?


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## black_piranha (Jan 12, 2006)

doesnt look that serious. id say put him back and keep an eye on it.


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## Azog (Jun 2, 2006)

just wait a bit then put him back. make sure you rearrange and all that crap (im sure you know) before you put him back if you are worried about a fight.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

how long can he go without eating? thats my big concern at the moment.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

k well he's in the tank. he seems better, but still a long ways away from good, being in the bigger tank he seems to have little control over his tail again, but its not floating as much.

i heard about a disease like this that turns from white to brown, and when it turns brown he's as good as done, well its kinda brown, so i hope its not that type of disease. ill check him in the morning and see if he's still alive.


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

well its a sad day, i got home from work and my snakehead was lying at the bottom of the tank upside down. this infection looked like it was getting better, but while holding him, you can see in the pics it was getting severly worse. he was turning almost a shade of purple and his scales were infected on both sides. its to bad having this guy was awesome, im down to 2 now. and by the looks of it, my biggest one is going to eat the smaller one now. he is about 19-20" and little guy is abouut 10-12"

anyway, here are the pics of the guy, if anyone has seen anything like this let me know what it is, and if it has anyway of affecting my other fish in the tank, they seem okay for now still swimming like normal, im doing a 50-60% water change right now, and am going to change my filter media tommorow, i hope it prevents any further issues.

anyway, here are some pics. R.I.P.


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## moron (May 26, 2006)

sorry for your loss man...I know how you fell...


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## the REASON (Jun 18, 2006)

sorry for your loss.


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## pottsburg (Aug 30, 2006)




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## black_piranha (Jan 12, 2006)

RIP

looks pretty weird, almost like some sort of burn?


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## MONGO  (Feb 7, 2006)

sorry for your loss.. sorry if this is off-topic but were those the snakeheads you got that were small after someone spilled tequila into the tank killing the pygos??


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## shocker45 (Jun 23, 2005)

RockinTimbz said:


> sorry for your loss.. sorry if this is off-topic but were those the snakeheads you got that were small after someone spilled tequila into the tank killing the pygos??


yea thats me, my buddy gave me $400 for the p's that he killed, so there wasn't a huge fight or anything, when he was drunk he was basically telling me to f.o. but the next day he called me and apologized and stuff and said he'd pay.

yea my snakeheads were about 2.5-3.5" when i got them in april, now the biggest is about 19"

they grow extremely fast, but so far have been my favorite fish to keep.


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## MONGO  (Feb 7, 2006)

around 3" to 19" since april







my reds have grown from 2" to 6" since april







I want snakeheads but its going to be hard to get them


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