Sick Knife Fish

[shellyd]

Hi,

I have owned my knife fish for aprox 2 years with no problems except of course disappearing small fish. In last 2 days he has started to lose his direction. Had small lesion on side of his body which has cleared with triple sulpha treatment. But he's all over the place. rests for a while and then he's back to swimming everywhere haphazardly. Seems to Jerk around in pain sometimes as well. He's trying to stay closer to the surface as well. Has eaten a little when it passes his way. His condition is still ok as in he's lost no weight. This started 2 days ago. His gills are now swollen as well. He's very stressed as am I. Any thoughts. Have been told could be a head injury but how does that happen? Please help if you can.

[bryce2003]

I couldn't say what it is as I have never had anything like you have described with my fish before. I have to ask but did you get advice for half dosing etc. due to it being scaleless, or whether or not it is a suitable treatment to be used with BGK's. Not trying to be offensive with these questions but I have never used them so it is also for my own info as well. Maybe it could be a water quality issue. Try doing a water change, aroung 50% as BGK's are susceptible to nitites and ammonia. It may not work but then again it could but still worth a shot. Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Bryce.

[FMZ]

If he's eating food, he should be fine. Try feeding him Bloodworms and live Blackworms if you can.

I think you should have halfed dosed the medicine since scaleless fish such as BGK, loaches don't do so well on the medicines

Also as bryce2003 said, try changing the water as BGK is very suspectible to Ammonia and Nitrite. Also some medicines can kill your good bacteria and that probably caused the ammonia and nitrite to shoot off the charts.

HTH and keep us informed

[shellyd]

Thanks for reply.
Ok sorry but left few details out. Just moved my 3 ft tank 2 1/2 weeks ago. Lost my Large bristlenose catfish week ago as well. Both Very healthy fish before I moved so maybe he got stressed, or hurt in the move even though I did a very careful job and I'm sure he didn't. So tank had at least half water change then. Other fish in tank are tetra's, danio's, & honey gourami's. No problems with any of them.

Poor knife fish is worse today. Can't really swim now. Just hand fed him and he took some food but he's starting to curl up. NOT GOOD. His fin is still moving but sporadically, fast then slow, then stops, then fast etc. It does seem that he's really out of it as in brain problems. He seems aware but not able to do anything but stress. I did half dose the tank with Triple sulpha which cleared the bit of fungus on his small wounds. Triple sulpha works from the inside out not actually on the surface. Local Pet shop reckons I could give full dose because of this reason. I have heard tho that it's not good for their livers/kidneys or whatever which is why i half dosed. Not sure whether to redose or what. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH. How stressful. I love my knife fish.

Another thing is that I ran out of his normal food and fed him tubifex worms only for 2 weeks. Only started on normal food again with NO TUBIFEX (cause i ran out of that too) 6 days before this all started. Maybe it's to do with major diet change. Is this possible?

I'll try moving him to another smaller tank with only half water. Was told if it is a head injury that less pressure is better. And he may or may not get better. How does a fish get a head injury of that magnitude. Maybe it's a friggin tumor or something. Bloody tumor's are taking over the world!!!!!!!

Thanks for help.

[bryce2003]

It may sound like a stupid thing to do, but if you cansee if you can get water from or near your previous locality. This being because there may be a fair bit of a water change that it cannot handle. Our water supply where I am fluctuates greatly due chemicals added and after it rains etc. Our water supply can shoot up from around the 7.4 or 7.5 to sometimes being around the 8.5 mark so we have to be careful and test the water at various stages before changing it. This may be a option as well.
Hope this helps and all the best.
Cheers,
Bryce.

[shellyd]

Hey There,

No problem with different water here. Only moved couple km's away. I live in Brisbane, Australia. Finally went and bought Nitrite and Ammonia kit's (for a small fortune) but no problems there. My nitrate level is a bit high but I'm sure that's not it.
Poor old Knife fish is unable to swim around at all now. He can move a bit now and then but mostly just lies on bottom of tank. I've been picking him up and hand feeding him and he certainly hasn't lost his appetite. Tried to feed him live Blackworms but he had no interest. Probably cos never fed him live food before. Loves his flakes! He just drops to the bottom if i let him go tho he tries to swim. Still moving his fins slowly, but he just lies in one spot. My brother talked to a fishfriend of his and he said that his knife fish also did the spinning and careering around the tank thing. He said that it was brain damage as his fish smacked it's head against corner of tank. Eee Gads. So I guess that's what it is. How depressing. Might have to steel myself to putting him out of his misery cause that's what he's in.
Sad to see such a healthy fish turn like this. Can't really understand how such a placid fish could hurt itself that way. Never seen him even move that fast. He always seemed so careful with himself.

Thanks for suggestions. Will let you know how he goes.
Shell

[FMZ]

I hope he recovers. As long as its eating, I think it can make it. What I've noticed is that as soon as fish stops eating, they go belley up

[ineverdrinkwater]

I would personally use a medicine like Melafix whcih is completely herbal but also replaces coatings on the fish caused by stress - it certainly wont do any harm. Other than that, you could change tank just to stop him getting picked on by other fish. In terms of PH from your water just use a buffer it saves all the worry. Other than that you just have to wait and see, if he hasnt got many places to hide give him a few more - like a pipe - and hope he settles down well. Curling fins is not a good sign but i think you just have to do all the right things and ultimatly hope.