Please help: Microglanis iheringi sick

Mr. Namazu · Post by **Mr. Namazu** » 14 Sep 2006, 05:28

I've been keeping several of them in my 55 gallon tank for close to 3 years. i just noticed today that there was something wrong with one of them. Its mouth is constantly open (with gills opening) as if it's gasping. I can definately tell that it's weaker than usual. So i moved the fish to a quaranteen tank with clean water for now. Can someone help me what is happening to my fish? the cause and perhaps how to cure it?
To be honest, I don't know how long its been in this condition (since it's really hard for me to see these fish cuz the're always hiding underneath the driftwoods/plants).
I've been doing partial water changes weekly, and the only different thing that happened recently was that i added in few feeder shrimps into the tank last week.
Any suggestions will be helpful, thank you.

Mr. Namazu · Post by **Mr. Namazu** » 14 Sep 2006, 08:24

well, that microglanis iheringi passed away. But I would still like to know why might have caused this death, and how i can prevent my other microglanis iheringi from dying this way in the future. again, any suggestions are helpful. thanks.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 14 Sep 2006, 10:10

I have no experience with this fish, but generally, fish get sick for a reason - and the reason is very often water quality. Live food can also spread disease, but I wouldn't say that for sure.

Without knowing more about the situation, it's hard to say. What are the levels of nitrate, nitrite and ammonia in the tank?

It could of course simply be that the fish is old - that does happen.

--
Mats

grokefish · Post by **grokefish** » 15 Sep 2006, 08:23

I have kept migroglanis for about 15 years now. They don't have a long lifespan.The way you descibed is typical of them dying of old age, sometimes you won't ever see them until it's time for them to die and then they almost always come out in the open to die. Unfortunately if you got them all at the same time then you may soon see more deaths. Try and breed them. More people need to atempt to breed the dificult fish instead of always going for the easy options (corydoras, Bistlenoses, Zebras etc.)the more people that try the more likely that we are to succeed, and with such a great medium for comunication as this success is only going to be a matter of time.