# Whats Wrong With My 11" Caribe



## skylute3 (Nov 30, 2007)

Caught him flashing once or twice, but what caught my attention was the drunk swimming....that's best I can desvcribe, he swims really wobblely, and swims into the sides of the tank. One time shot straight up and cut himself on the lid. Anyone know wuts up? He's the only one actin up out of the 6. Btw the piraya has healed beautifully from the ammonia burn. And the caribe has reddish brown scuff marks on his tail. Looks like acne or something. I thought maybe a scuffle, but this caribe stays untouched and usually unmatched, so it being a bite wound is highly unlikely. Never seen that b4.


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## FEEFA (Nov 19, 2007)

Have you tested the water, what are your params?
What is your w/c routine, how much and how often?


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## skylute3 (Nov 30, 2007)

Tend to do w/c about 1 a week. Gravel vac as needed. Pellots make them sh*t a lot. But since my piraya got ammonia burn, due to my ammonia sensor being wrong, I have been doin w/cs a lot. Id say in my 180 gallon, ill put about 15 buckets of new water a week. Usually like 8 buckets all at once, and onvce or twice 2-4 buckets to die down agression, and bc I did a gravel vac, and needed to replace the 10-15 gallons. Come to think tho, I did do a decent amount of wcs latley, and I thro is stress coat every bucket, salt, and sometimes for the hell of it, ill throw in stress zyme or colonize.

Ammonia-0
Ph- 7.6
Nitrate-0
Nitrite-0


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

skylute3 said:


> Tend to do w/c about 1 a week. Gravel vac as needed. Pellots make them sh*t a lot. But since my piraya got ammonia burn, due to my ammonia sensor being wrong, I have been doin w/cs a lot. Id say in my 180 gallon, ill put about 15 buckets of new water a week. Usually like 8 buckets all at once, and onvce or twice 2-4 buckets to die down agression, and bc I did a gravel vac, and needed to replace the 10-15 gallons. Come to think tho, I did do a decent amount of wcs latley, and I thro is stress coat every bucket, salt, and sometimes for the hell of it, ill throw in stress zyme or colonize.
> 
> Ammonia-0
> Ph- 7.6
> ...


Nitrate shouldn't be zero which is why i think you are making this up or killed all your bacteria from water changes and are now going through a cycle. Buy a python too. It would be worth it.

Are you conditioning the water for large water changes?


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## skylute3 (Nov 30, 2007)

sean-820 said:


> Tend to do w/c about 1 a week. Gravel vac as needed. Pellots make them sh*t a lot. But since my piraya got ammonia burn, due to my ammonia sensor being wrong, I have been doin w/cs a lot. Id say in my 180 gallon, ill put about 15 buckets of new water a week. Usually like 8 buckets all at once, and onvce or twice 2-4 buckets to die down agression, and bc I did a gravel vac, and needed to replace the 10-15 gallons. Come to think tho, I did do a decent amount of wcs latley, and I thro is stress coat every bucket, salt, and sometimes for the hell of it, ill throw in stress zyme or colonize.
> 
> Ammonia-0
> Ph- 7.6
> ...


Nitrate shouldn't be zero which is why i think you are making this up or killed all your bacteria from water changes and are now going through a cycle. Buy a python too. It would be worth it.

Are you conditioning the water for large water changes?
[/quote]

Making this up? No, its real. And perhaps I did kill all my bb with the large water chnges...and when u say python, I assume ur talkin about the hose to take out water? I have that, I run a hose to my toilet to drain water....then fill back up with 5 gallon buckets, and I treat the tap water as recommended with stress coat, and ill thro sum salt in there. And sometimes for the hell of it, stress zyme or colonize. Always condition my water. So if you were in my position, wut would u do? I will not feed for a while, I tend to do it quite often out of boredome, and they are like dogs and beg allllll the time.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

skylute3 said:


> Making this up?*Only reason i say this is a lot of people reply with every thing is fine without actually testing. Then they say that parameters are spot on which seems like their making it up when obviously their water quality isn't that pristine* No, its real. And perhaps I did kill all my bb with the large water chnges...and when u say python, I assume ur talkin about the hose to take out water?*yes* I have that, I run a hose to my toilet to drain water....then fill back up with 5 gallon buckets,*Does it not attach to your tap? The purpose of a python is to drain and fill without needing to lug buckets* and I treat the tap water as recommended with stress coat, and ill thro sum salt in there. And sometimes for the hell of it, stress zyme or colonize. Always condition my water. So if you were in my position, wut would u do? I will not feed for a while, I tend to do it quite often out of boredome, and they are like dogs and beg allllll the time.


Salt will be fine. I would keep monitoring the water every day or two to see if your in a re cycle. if thats the case there isn't much you can do other then just make sure ammonia or whatever doesn't get too high and toxic. Also Have you seen a continuation of flashing as fish can periodically rub themselves on something, but not actually be flashing. If he's doing it frequently then its flashing because something in the water is irritating it. Im not totally sure, but i think exterior parasites could cause it too, so give him a visual check for any abnormalities especially if he keeps flashing to one side


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## skylute3 (Nov 30, 2007)

Wow. Learn something new everyday....so ya, I'm not much of a direction guy...I just do things as I see just....but I went and read my test kit manual, come to learn I have to do steps other then what's on the bottle. Either way, figured out why my nitrate was always 0. Wasn't mixing well enough. My water params CORRECTLY are as follows

Ammonia- 0-.25ppm ( hard to tell pretty damn close)
Nitrate-10ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Ph- 6.4


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

skylute3 said:


> Wow. Learn something new everyday....so ya, I'm not much of a direction guy...I just do things as I see just....but I went and read my test kit manual, come to learn I have to do steps other then what's on the bottle. Either way, figured out why my nitrate was always 0. Wasn't mixing well enough. My water params CORRECTLY are as follows
> 
> Ammonia- 0-.25ppm ( hard to tell pretty damn close)
> Nitrate-10ppm
> ...


 Ok those sound normal and 10ppm n03 is a good range.

Dr. Giggles replied this in your duplicate thread:

"Sounds like swim bladder disease, but it could be a problem with other organs that may be pressing against the swim bladder. You can try isolating him to a hospital tank and treating the tank with one teaspoon of predissolved salt for every gallon of water once a day and repeat for a total of 3 days. What the salt will do is relieve pressure on the kidneys and hopefully the fish will recover. These things usually don't end good."

The drunk part does sound liek something to do with the swim blatter as thats what controls a fishes buoyancy. Sorry i didnt comment on that earlier, but i was scanning what i read and picked up flashing, but not the irratic swimming. Bad news is i dont think theres a cure for swim blatter disease, but i would just do you best to keep water pristine and hope for the best.


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## skylute3 (Nov 30, 2007)

Thanks guys for the help, I am an idiot. I didn't notice until late last night, but my caribe had run into something, and caused a lil flap of "skin" on his face plate to be just lingering on his face. I noticed when I put the powerhead on, that's when he'd do it. I think it was bc that little flap was bothering him, I woke up this morning and he got it off, my ph is on and everything, he is perfectly fine. I thought this was weird, bc this particular fish has been the most healthy, dominate, best lookin untouched pygo I own. So ne disease is doubtful. This guy is a tank. But apprectiate all the help and ideas. Much love


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