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I've had a feather fin Syno for a while now - He's been slightly lethargic these past few days and swimming at the surface. Oxygen seems to be fine. The main symptom seems to be shaking/twitching of his fins (mainly the pectoral fins) it doesn’t seem to effect his swimming - but its as if he has tremors.... has anyone seen this before, and can anyone suggest a treatment?

Stonecoloured
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Hi. What size tank, what temp, what's the readings for A NI NA PH, what other tank mates? does he have a cave? Have you noticed him rubbing against anything? What food does he eat? How often do you do a water change , if it's cycled , and how much at a time?

Hello there,

He's in a 500 liter fish tank (5ft), Temp is 75, PH is 7.5-8 (due to water from Tap), rest is 0.
Tank mates are silver dollars, lima catfish, other synos, Bircher, tyretrack eel, a clown loach (I am in the process of moving it to the other tank with more clowns) and BN Catfish.
He has lots of clay tubing and some bog wood. I've not notices him rubbing against anything - he's been fine until the last few days. I noticed the other featherfin chasing him - but they do that occasionally.
Food for the tank is flake, catfish pellets, prawn, white fish, chicken, cucumber, corgette, peas and sweet corn.
I change the water approx once a month - as the tank has 2 x Eheim professional 2's running. I've got no idea how much I change... It's about 6inches off the top! Sorry it's not a proper measurement.
The tank has been running continuously for 7 years - 2 years here and 5 years at another home.

I hope this helps.

Stonecoloured

Canging water once a month seems a bit too infrequent. I have a 400 liter tank with 2 large external filter (One Eheim 2028 Pro 2 and on TetraTec EX1200), and I change about 40-50% of the water every week (which is about 10-14 inches from the top).

I also do not believe for even a brief moment that you have zero nitrate - if that's the result of your test-kit, then you probably have a duff test-kit. If it's a "drop" test, then it's highly likely that it's simply gone old. Both me and other members have seen nitrate tests "show nothing" after some time, and the water is CLEARLY not zero nitrate - getting a new test-kit may be a good idea (but you can also take a water sample to a shop and ask them to do a nitrate test). It doesn't matter how good your filter is, it will not remove nitrate. That is, unless you have attached something to your tank that removes nitrate - but a normal external (or internal) filter does not remove nitrate - it converts other nitrogenous waste (ammonia and nitrite) into nitrate - which is a good thing as the the other forms are highly toxic to the fish.

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Mats

wow , sounds nice. your tank.

What are your NA's? I am thinking maybe it's water related or originally I was but I am not sure.

I have 5 syno eupteras. Sometimes they just stay in one spot and kind of float, you know how they do , barely moving anything just seemingly floating. When you say yours are at the top, are they upside down floating like kicking it ? Just relaxing upside down all still or what?

You have some nice filters on that tank. But I wasn't really sure it mattered what filters or how much turnover as to changing water to remove NA's and hormones etc? I change 50% a week on all my cycled tanks. So if you think he is acting differently I'd be curious if it was the NA's bothering him? But then again no other fish seems affected?

Can you post a pic of him?

Seems I echoed Mats sentiments kind of.

Thank you for your replys.

I have had the tests for a while so I shall get new ones tomorrow.
I'll up the frequency of the water changing too - it's just how I have always done, but having read how others change their water I will see if it helps.
He's just floating at the top (about 2-3inches from the surface). I've been watching him closely and the fin edges seem slightly ragged - also when I look at him side on, in some lights he has *slight* cloudy/milky patches - but I can't see them very well when looking directly at him. I've done a large water change yesterday and I'll do another one tomorrow. I'll try and get a few pictures of him too I hope this helps.

The water changing frequency and size on tanks that are hevily stocked (and yours sounds like it is) does need to increase as the fish grows bigger.

So whilst it may have been OK before, it can be not enough now - and it will SLOWLY get from "ok" to "bad", not all of a sudden. Because the nitrate levels continue to increase, as you are not taking away enough water to reduce the level at the same rate as your fish are producing more.

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Mats