# Sick fish



## Shrimpette (Feb 17, 2015)

My kribensis pair recently spawned (mother brought the babies out two days ago, I'm not sure when they hatched). The first day the female alternated between putting up with the male's presence and chasing him off/fighting with him. Today they've been great partners getting along well, taking turns watching over the fry, chasing my cory around the tank. Nice bright colors on both of them. Things seemed to be going very well.

Tonight I noticed the male hanging out at the surface sheltered by the roots of the water lettuce floating on top. Neither krib has ever spent any time at the surface before. His mouth is at the surface and the rest of his body drooped down so he's pretty much vertical rather than horizontal, color washed out, fins slightly clamped. He *might* have a couple of tiny white spots on the mouth but it's hard to see to confirm. I imagine he took a bit of damage from the female when she was in aggression mode, and that combined with the stress of being chased or chasing other fish away has probably led him to be susceptible to infection.

After reading a lot online I determined that melafix would be safe to use in the tank with the fry, so I did a 20% water change (probably should have done more) then dosed with melafix. The bottle says to dose the tank for seven days and *then* do a water change... but isn't it better to be doing frequent water changes right now? Does anyone have any ideas on which way to proceed? Keeping in mind that I have new fry in the tank plus a corydora. I also have MTS and mystery snails (mysteries could be moved, MTS obviously harder to find in order to move them).

I don't have enough to set up a hospital tank right now - I do have a used 10 gallon that needs to be cleaned out, but I don't have a heater or filter for it or a space to set it up on 

The way he looks right now... he might "solve" the problem by not making it through the night.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Congratulations on the fish spawn. It seems your assessment of the situation is on the right track. We may not know the direct cause of the male kribs' degrading health; but with the circumstances that have occurred, the most likelihood seem to be due to the increased stressed brought upon by the infighting with the female.

You've done a WC and dose some medicine, and if the male krib is still behaving the same while everything else in the tank is normal, just give him the space to rest and hopefully can have enough to pull through. I would ensure the tank has quality water, and more frequent small water changes would be the best.

I hope everything works out well. At least the male helped produce a new generation of offsprings for you to care for.


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## Rogo (Mar 1, 2015)

Hi Shrimpette,

If the male has been chased off by the female he will most likely stay in a corner away from her and the brood. My suggestion is to just leave them alone - they usually sort these things out on their own. 

Continue to change the water and he'll probably be fine. 

As a side note, I never use things like Melafix because I'm not convinced adding tea extract to the water is good for fish. Tea extract does have anti-bacterial properties, but it has to be in a dose high enough to be effective even though its diluted in the water column. I can't imagine continually breathing that stuff can be good for fish. I always try to fix things with increased salinity and warmer temperatures (very old school


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## mollyb (May 18, 2010)

you might consider floating a breeder box in the tank and putting the male in it till he recovers.


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## Shrimpette (Feb 17, 2015)

Thank you everyone. I don't know what did it, but he's looking much like his old self again. Not 100%, but he's back with the family and even colored up again. He was definitely not well last night - not just hiding. But the rapid switch from happy healthy involved father to looking extremely unwell, and now back to being part of the happy family again, is just bizarre. Bizarre, but happy conclusion. I'll continue with daily water changes just to be certain he doesn't slip again


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## Rogo (Mar 1, 2015)

Shrimpette said:


> Thank you everyone. I don't know what did it, but he's looking much like his old self again. Not 100%, but he's back with the family and even colored up again. He was definitely not well last night - not just hiding. *But the rapid switch from happy healthy involved father to looking extremely unwell, and now back to being part of the happy family again, is just bizarre. * Bizarre, but happy conclusion. I'll continue with daily water changes just to be certain he doesn't slip again


Not really, just anyone who's a father 

I'm glad your Krib family is doing well.


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