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My umbee is sick and I don’t know what to do.

Devin Gibson

CCA Members
His dorsal fin stays out of the water like he’s floating. Stomach is a little sunk in and he looks ashy all over . Fins are fine but eyes are cloudy. I have been treating with pimafix and melafix for past week. Haven’t noticed any change. He’s 18 inches and I could really use some advice.
 

Becca

Members
Pimafix and Melafix are snake oil. I know some very experienced folks swear by them, but I've never seen them work on a fish that was actually sick.. There's a fish veterinarian somewhere in Rockville (quick google search will find her) if you want to go that route, but she tends to have a long waiting list. His fins don't look fine to me - they are cloudy and I see a white spot on the tail. My guess is he's got some sort of internal infection stressing him that's opened the door to skin infections. If he's eating, try a food with metronidazole and praziquantel (Beantown Aquatics makes one). You could give him a round of General Cure, as well (it's Metro and Prazi) before starting the food.

I wish you luck.
 
How long have you had the umbee ?
How long had the tank been set up ?
What filtration do you have on the tank ?
What are you feeding it ?
 
Do you do regular waterchanges?
To me it looks like he was going into a sort of toxic shock. Which would mean the total dissolved solids in the water column could be way high.
 
What size tank ?

The pair is in a 300g 8 foot tank.

I do 50% weekly waterchanges on them in the winter and only feed 3 days per week.

In the warmer months I feed them 4-5 days with 60-70% waterchanges weekly. They do produce a lot of waste, especially as they grow large. I would recommend that you up the % to 50 weekly, and feed only 5 days a week, once a day, enough he can eat in about 1.5 - 2 minutes time. Clean water is essential for health, growth and to lessen stressors.
 
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