# Ah jeez...Disease or Quirk?



## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

So I may have spoken too soon. Those cute little aspidoras that I put into my main tank from QT are behaving VERY erratically. Lying upside down, spinning, etc. I turned the light off, thinking that was stressing them.

One of them was lying upside down, and when gently prodded, it "leapt" up and begain spinning uncontrollably. Very worried, I re-quarantined it. Since then, it is swimming normally in the QT. They weren't doing this, I swear, until I put them in the bigger tank. I tested the water in both tanks...The QT is higher in pH than the main tank (CO2 in the main tank) but I read that pH swings due to CO2 can't hurt fish...

What's going on here? I may have clonked a few of them in the head on Friday when I was moving a plastic cave around in the QT during a WC, (little buggers are so small and sneaky) but I don't think I did any real damage.

Help!


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

How big of a Ph difference? If it is more than .2 then that could be your culprit. I have no idea if that would cause the spinning though. I think a ph swing regardless of cause is an issue, but I know very little about CO2 and am open to being wrong.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Hmm...the 15 is about 6.5, the QT is around 7.4. But I read that since there is no difference in TDS, the pH swings don't matter...


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I am not sure I would believe that, especially considering the difference there, but again I am no where near an expert with CO2.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

:\ Well, if it is due to that, will it clear up soon?


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

You said the fish is acting normal in the QT so that tells me its okay. You can put it into the big tank just use a drip acclimation process. That is what I would do. If you drip acclimate them and it happens again then that would probably rule out the Ph as the issue. You would want the water from the big tank to drip into the holding bin (whatever you use to transfer from QT tank to big tank. Tupperware works well) such that it takes 30-45 minutes for it to double the volume. This will slowly lower the Ph to the big tanks Ph. I have used airline tubing pinched with a binder clip to do this, it works well once you get the flow adjusted how you want it. It would also be okay to remove some of the water about half way through this, which will help the process even more by tanking out some of the QT water.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Got it. Unfortunately, most of the fish are in the main tank right now :\. SHould I just keep an eye on them for now? I added in some higher-pH water to try and get a middle ground, but the CO2 will probably drop it.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

The big thing is just that the change happens slowly. Are the ones that are in the main tank appearing okay? I don't know if they will be good in the long run or not, but if they appear to be acting normally I would say leave them there as that is less of a hardship than moving them back and forth which will just shock them repeatedly. I know one thing to look out for is an outbreak in disease in the ones that you put in. I had a ph swing caused by a water change and had an outbreak of columnaris afterwards. Whoops.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

They're acting a little loopy, but I turned the light off and I can't really see what's going on in there right now. I will give you an update in the morning!


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## Guest (Apr 15, 2008)

Are these the cories you just bought from that place in Greenwich? 
How long did you quarantine them?


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Not very long, only about 5 days. But they were very healthy, and were showing no signs of any ill health. I watched them very carefully. 

I really should have QTed them longer, I realize that. :\


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

That's a pretty big pH swing. Consider that each little .x = 10 times difference, not 1/10th difference. That would be my guess what the problem is, and maybe there is just too much CO2 and not enough O2 in the main tank, or at least a big enough difference from the QT to make the fish really not like the change. Look for other possible differences too, like stray electricity or some other thing in the main tank that's not in the QT.


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## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

I will definitely check it all out. This morning, the aspies are acting just fine. One harlequin is behaving like they did last night, but this could be due to my piece-of-crap regulator dumping too much CO2. I can't afford to replace it yet :\


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## Toshogu (Apr 24, 2009)

Did you ever figuere out what was wrong? I have one Platy that's doing the same thing, rest of the fish are fine.


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