Sick Ropefish?

Greetings all...

I've been the proud owner of a pair of wonderful Ropefish for a coulpe years now, living inside a 39gal tank with a few Blue Paradise Gouramis.

Anyway, a couple weeks ago I did a water change in the tank and took out one of the larger rocks that was in there and replaced it with a couple more fake plants, to open the tank up a bit more and provide more swimming room... then the next day I added a small Angel Fish.

Everything seemed fine. All the fish were very active, and the Ropefish become more active, swimming around more...

Until tonight.

I walked over to put some food in and noticed one of my Ropefish just, sitting, at the top of the tank. Not moving, but sitting there... his head tilted slightly to the side. As I started at him, he suddenly opened his mouth wide as though yawning, and a bulge formed beneath and between his gills... thought he was about to burst for a moment but then he closed his mouth, and swam away.

Thought nothing of it, and left only to come back a couple hours later and now I find him in a horizontal position, tail at the bottom of the tank and his nose aimed towards the top. He seemed to be having trouble righting himself, kept trying to swim up but not going anywhere and occasionally swaying over backwards for a brief second then drifting back horizontal.

It was at this time that I have also noticed that some of his scales have turned from the usual perfect olive, to a darker shiny brown that seems to have hardened...

I'm having trouble finding Ropefish experts as the fish themselves, seem fairly rare but I at least knew enough to keep a pair of them alive and healthy for 2 years...

But now I need some help and advice... anyone out there able to assist?

 

maybe not enough O2 in water? and is going to top to get more O2? or maybe some internal parasites..............

 

Whatever the problem was...

It struck the Ropefish quickly, and unfortunately he did not survive through the next couple hours. :-[

Upsetting, these guys are expensive for me and it is very rare to find one in the pet stores around me. I got lucky finding the two I have (had, one now) as I was not even looking for them but had always wanted some, and just found a few for sale at a local shop when I wasn't even looking for them at the time. They ran me about $25 a piece and were just a little over 6 inches long at the time.

The one who died, had grown to at least 11 inches! He's the one in my Av pic.

Now I'm going to be concerned for the other one for a while...

 

Sorry to hear about your loss We may never know hat happened, but only hope it doesnt happen again......

 

Oh and welcome to 3reef!

 

Ditto on the welcome and ditto on the loss. Maybe that angel fish brought something with him. Did you quarantine the angel fish before introducing him into the main tank? Im not sure if that works with FW, I know nothing about FW.

 

what are your water parameters?

 

I am having the same exact problem as I write this. When I got home from work today, I checked on everybody as I do everyday and noticed my Ropefish just kinda floating at the top of the tank. So, I watched him for a minute and nothing. So, I reached in and lightly poked him to see if he'd move. Nothing. I poked a few more times and he finally started swimming away. He went to the other side of the tank and did the same thing. I watched for a little longer an nothing. I went to the bathroom and came back and he was floating in a vertical position with his tail end up. I noticed the different colored scales about two days ago(grey/charcoal in this case). He was still active and eating at the time so, I racked my brain for quite some time over it and all I can come up with is - - He must have gotten burned by the heater. I notice he hangs out next to the heater alot. Could that be it? I checked the heater with my hand to see if in fact it could burn him and sure enough, after about 10 seconds of holding on to it, I had to let go due to how hot it was. It could definately burn him. So, I wonder if the discoloration on his scales are from being burned. They are definately in a pattern that would match being burned. Also, if he got burned bad enough to do this to his scales, could it have damaged his insides causing the death. Mine is on his last "leg" right now and doesn't look like he'll make it more than a few more hours if that. If anyone has some advice that could possibly save my fish (Rocky) from his untimely death it would be greatly appreciated.