Sick Red Fin Borlyei?

Hey all! I have a Red Fin Borlyei that hasn't been eating for the past 4-5 days. During last night's feeding, he would swim up to the food falling, but not eat it. As far as I can tell, there are no physical signs of sickness, trauma, or damage. As a matter of fact, I think he has the best looking fins among the other fish! No sunken or bloated belly. No loss of scales. Not as active as he used to be, but he doesn't sulk in a dark corner, like a bullied fish normally would. I'm honestly stumped! Maybe he's getting self conscious about his weight? Lol. Do I have a case of anorexia here? Haha. I included a link of the YouTube video I posted. Check it out, let me know what you think!

http://youtu.be/JV01Yvq0xHY


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I'm not sure that's a male...sorry but in the video he's really lacking color(maybe the lighting etc) I can send a pic of my male when I get home.

As for the not eating could be a female..holding a few eggs(had that happen to me where the jaw protrude/doesn't show etc because so few eggs)
If that's not it I might be worried about parasites(treatment dep on internal parasite) blockage (increase salt temp) just to be safe QT ASAP.

Was the red fin eating when you first
got it?

Only pic with the red fin ATM
Will take some later


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Yeah, I'm starting to have my doubts too whether it is a male after all. He/she is about 3-4" now, and if it was a "he", you'd think he'd "pop" by now. Yes, he/she was a hungry pig the first two weeks, then I just noticed that he/she wasn't eating anymore. But here are some pics that might help discern whether it's a male or female. The first couple of pics are with flash.

Localzoo said:

I'm not sure that's a male...sorry but in the video he's really lacking color(maybe the lighting etc) I can send a pic of my male when I get home.

As for the not eating could be a female..holding a few eggs(had that happen to me where the jaw protrude/doesn't show etc because so few eggs)
If that's not it I might be worried about parasites(treatment dep on internal parasite) blockage (increase salt temp) just to be safe QT ASAP.

Was the red fin eating when you first
got it?

Only pic with the red fin ATM
Will take some later


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my male

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Localzoo said:

View attachment 11882 my male

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Gorgeous fish


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Manage to see if its holding?


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Localzoo said:

Manage to see if its holding?

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I'll have to try tomorrow morning if I can. I'm at work right now, and I don't get off until 11pm. Lights in my tank will be off by then, and I don't want to spook them. One night I came home, and I flipped on my kithchen lights and the sudden light made all my fish freak out and one of my "possible" kandeenses (watch my other YouTube video to know what I'm talking about) got so freaked out, he crashed right into one of the rock decorations and ended up with a nice divet on his forehead! He's fully healed now, thank God! I have since then, installed a dimmer for my kitchen and dining room lights! The lengths we through for our fish!

I just hope I'll be able to catch it without too much trouble and without causing too much stress to it and the other fish. 110 tall tanks are nice on the eyes, but maintenance is a PAIN!!

manbern said:

I'll have to try tomorrow morning if I can. I'm at work right now, and I don't get off until 11pm. Lights in my tank will be off by then, and I don't want to spook them. One night I came home, and I flipped on my kithchen lights and the sudden light made all my fish freak out and one of my "possible" kandeenses (watch my other YouTube video to know what I'm talking about) got so freaked out, he crashed right into one of the rock decorations and ended up with a nice divet on his forehead! He's fully healed now, thank God! I have since then, installed a dimmer for my kitchen and dining room lights! The lengths we through for our fish!

I just hope I'll be able to catch it without too much trouble and without causing too much stress to it and the other fish. 110 tall tanks are nice on the eyes, but maintenance is a PAIN!!

Click to expand...

Cool keep us posted


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That's a male they can take forever to color. I noticed he was hanging at the bottom in the vid. I figured he was either still in a bit of shock or he was sick. He may have eaten himself to sickness. Its rough with new fish. They are used to one food then either gorge or starve themselves on the new food. If he's not eating anymore there's something wrong most likely on the inside and unfortunately it usually doesn't end well. The strees from shipping weakens them then any number of things can take advantage. Hard to say where to go, either isolate and look for symptoms or just keep a real close eye out so if something pops up you can treat it.

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Is his stomach bloated or sunken in? Is he breathing heavy? This is just opinion but I'd add an airstone? Do you have one on at all times? A lot of your fish appeared to be breathing heavily in the vid. Could have been from feeding but that's almost always the first sign of trouble if its constant.

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DONT CATCH IT! Unless its to isolate it. That's only gonna make things worse especially grabing it to pry its mouth open

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cichlidaddicted said:

That's a male they can take forever to color. I noticed he was hanging at the bottom in the vid. I figured he was either still in a bit of shock or he was sick. He may have eaten himself to sickness. Its rough with new fish. They are used to one food then either gorge or starve themselves on the new food. If he's not eating anymore there's something wrong most likely on the inside and unfortunately it usually doesn't end well. The strees from shipping weakens them then any number of things can take advantage. Hard to say where to go, either isolate and look for symptoms or just keep a real close eye out so if something pops up you can treat it.

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That's encouraging to hear an opinion in the "it's a male" category. But not so encouraging that he/she may be sick. If I can catch it easily tomorrow morning, I will put it in the hospital tank for closer observation. But that brings up another question: IF I put him in the hospital tank, and he recovers and gets back to his normal self, how do I reintroduce him back into the main tank? Won't he get beat up because he essentially becomes the "new kid on the block" again? I don't really have many options as far as redecorating the tank to force the others to re-establish their areas because I only have one huge Holey Rock decoration and one other small Holey Rock piece. And when I say "huge", I mean I can only move it maybe 3-4" in either direction before it's up against the glass.

If its only a week or two he will be fine. All the fish are young enough that there won't be any real battles till they grow a bit. Just put him back in when the lights are off.

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Oh no question its a male, I'll stand behind that all day

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cichlidaddicted said:

Is his stomach bloated or sunken in? Is he breathing heavy? This is just opinion but I'd add an airstone? Do you have one on at all times? A lot of your fish appeared to be breathing heavily in the vid. Could have been from feeding but that's almost always the first sign of trouble if its constant.

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The reason they were breathing hard is because I'm still gradually bringing the temp back down from 87 degrees. My Red Shoulder came down with a case of Ich, so I raised the temp to 87 and added aquarium salt. I think right now, my tank is at 85.6. But that still may be too high, as I'm not documenting my tank temp during the hottest parts of the day. Yes, I have central A/C throughout the house, but where my tank is, there is quite a bit of ambient sunshine that gets in throughout the day. Unfortunately, installing black out curtains are not an option because my wife wants the room to be light and not blacked out. You guys may not believe me, but other than the garage, the wall I have the fish tank on right now, is the ONLY option I have, unless I want to spend some more money to re-inforce other parts of the house. And I already have another 55 gallon and 20 gallon in my garage, lol!

As far as aeration, I have one of my outputs of my FX6 pointed at the surface. A maxijet powerhead pointed at the surface. And the output from my other canister filter (JBJ Reaction 4 UF-45) is a spraybar which I have positioned above the water line to create even more surface agitation/aeration. Is this not enough? I'm trying to stay away from using an air stone as much as possible because even the quietest air pump makes way too much noise for me. If you think I need more aeration, can you suggest other options that don't involve air stones?. Maybe add another powerhead at the other side of the tank?

cichlidaddicted said:

If its only a week or two he will be fine. All the fish are young enough that there won't be any real battles till they grow a bit. Just put him back in when the lights are off.

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Or during a water change.

Thanks Dan. I know you have more experience than I do

Can you elaborate on how you determined it's a male?



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If they are pointing at the surface enough to create an audible sound and drag the air into the water that should be enough reguardless of temp. The noise a filter makes disturbing the surface is usually more than an airator Would make. I'd consider a pump even a small one they are almost silent if you wtap them in a towel

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cichlidaddicted said:

Is his stomach bloated or sunken in? Is he breathing heavy? This is just opinion but I'd add an airstone? Do you have one on at all times? A lot of your fish appeared to be breathing heavily in the vid. Could have been from feeding but that's almost always the first sign of trouble if its constant.

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As far as his stomach, no bloating, so sunken belly. And all his other attributes, are looking good, other than him not eating. All scales intact, fins are looking beautiul, eyes are clear, no stringy white/clear poop. And when I first started noticing he wasn't eating, he was less social, and hid in the botom back of the tank. But now, he is out and about. Still not swimming as energetically as I'm used to seeing, but he still swims to pretty much all sections of the tank. And like I said, during the last feeding, he swam briskly toward the food, as if to eat it, but never "took a bite".

Its fins, a female would be more silver with orange fins males start silver with orange or yellow fins but get darker and their fins turn black during the transformation. I've seen females with fin color like males but never do you see a female with pointed fins. And the first two pics have black pointed fins with a white margin.

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cichlidaddicted said:

If they are pointing at the surface enough to create an audible sound and drag the air into the water that should be enough reguardless of temp. The noise a filter makes disturbing the surface is usually more than an airator Would make. I'd consider a pump even a small one they are almost silent if you wtap them in a towel

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Any particularly "quiet" air pumps you can reccomend? The spraybar does create some noise, but in my personal preference, the spraybar creates a more relaxing/serene noise than the noise an air pump creates. To me, a running air pump sounds like a humming electrical transformer, and I'm an electrical engineer that works in power plants, with mobile generator sets and such. And being reminded of work while I'm trying to de-stress and relax while watching my fish, would be counter productive, lol.