Does Anyone Know What Is Wrong With My Piranha?

1697 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Ægir, Apr 2, 2018

Ashley123099

Discussion Starter · Mar 30, 2018 (Edited by Moderator)

Hello everyone, I thought he had ick and so I have been giving him medicine to treat that but now I am starting to question if this is what he has. .

He is constantly swimming to the top of the tank in an attempt to get some oxygen. I put in a basic air pump so he could get more air, but that does not seem to be helping.

We have another red belly in the same tank who is completely fine.

He is 7 years old.

Any suggestions to treat him would be greatly appreciated. Here is my piranha

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Ægir

· #2 · Mar 30, 2018

Size of tank? Filtration? Water parameters (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, temp, ph, etc)?

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Ashley123099

Discussion Starter · #3 · Apr 2, 2018

Ægir said:
Size of tank? Filtration? Water parameters (nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, temp, ph, etc)?

I woke up to him this morning looking like this. https://ibb.co/bA9c4n

He was still breathing when I came home in the evening, so we made the decision to euthanize him in a bucket of ice water. He didn't even put up a fight when we tried to remove him from the tank.

I know this is a hard decision for any pet owner to make and that some wouldn't make it, but I couldn't stand to see him suffer any longer. He was such a lively piranha in his prime, so seeing this transition was difficult.

My other red belly is starting to develop the same white spots as the other did. My main focus right now is to try to not let the same thing happen to him. So we vacuumed the rocks, drained half the water out of the tank, and refilled it.

The tank is 27 gallons and the filtration is a Fluval. I don't have a water testing kit readily available at this moment.

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Ægir

· #4 · Apr 2, 2018

Judging by your pictures, you have a water quality issue... the algae and water clarity are not a good thing and likely from lack of filtration / water changes. You need to get a test kit to determine what the problem is, but I would guess ammonia and nitrates. I would also consider getting a larger tank as a 27 gal is barely big enough for 1, and almost impossible to keep stable.

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