HELP! draco unknown illness!

[Neelie]

got up this morning to feed my fish and noticed that draco was;

totally lethargic
very pale
heavy breathing
not eating
slightly bloated but NOT much
and a paralized fin (right i think) he swims badly.

also, i noticed a kind of pale coating on parts of his body.
not fluffy or spotty etc, just a bit of slime. nothing i have ever seen before.

i put him into quarentine with some salt and higher temp.

the other fish are ALL fine. same tank, same water, same food, same temp.

pic attached.
HELP! think he will die

[Oldfishlady]

He doesn't look good, the spot on him is that from the pic (dusty lens or tank) or is it on him? hard to tell...
You are on the right track....QT great idea........ and aquarium salt how much did you use? with bloat issues sometimes aquarium salt can make it worse, also be careful raising the temp too fast especially with already sick/weakened fish as this can cause other problems, personally I like to keep the water temp in the 76-78F range until I know for sure what is going on
How old is he or how long have you had him?
I would include some daily water changes to keep the water quality high to help his immunity.

[Neelie]

firty lense and dirty tank lol.
he has no white spots, just the weird pale slimey film...
ick would not influence him in such a way so fast either.

i used below the advised dose for illness. basically i used the dose for stress reduction. which is low enough as i was not sure what to add to his water at all yet... dont want to rush anything.

the water temp was the exact same as in the divider tank. i have a small heater in the quarentine tank which is now set to 80-82. it'll heat the tank slowly to about 79-80.

he is defo full grown, and i had him about 7 months.
surely not old enough to die withing 2 days!!! i hope.

[shinybetta]

Good idea with the quarintine, and salt treatment. sorry about your fish

[Neelie]

^^^ thanks i hope he recovers.
got the shock of my life when i saw him this morn!

[Oldfishlady]

Excess slim coat is usually from an irritant from either parasite or the environment.
Take him in a dark room with a flashlight and check for velvet to rule that out and yes, parasites can hit fast and hard with one little dip in water quality/stressful event to set it off
When you QT did you use fresh water, if not you may want to make a 50% water change for 2 days and then start a daily 100% water changes on the QT

[Neelie]

Originally Posted by Oldfishlady

Excess slim coat is usually from an irritant from either parasite or the environment.
Take him in a dark room with a flashlight and check for velvet to rule that out and yes, parasites can hit fast and hard with one little dip in water quality/stressful event to set it off
When you QT did you use fresh water, if not you may want to make a 50% water change for 2 days and then start a daily 100% water changes on the QT

ok the slime coat is kinda flaking off now. kinda like when you get a sunburn and the upper skin layer peals off, if you get me?...?

i used fresh water, conditioned of course. what i dont understand is that he was perfectly healthy night before and that the other fish are totally healthy and happy.

first i thought that draco got frightened by something and thats why he went pale but in the meantime he got worse so i threw that thought overboard...

water quality? no water added or changed etc since weeks. everything same as it always was. i didnt do anything to influence water quality

[Neelie]

nevermind.... he died
very swollen gills, fins gone weird looking and eyes grey.

sad sad day....

[SilverCaracal]

sorry about draco :(( at least he had a good life with you

[dramaqueen]

I'm so sorry about Draco!