What could be wrong with this fish?

[Cave]

I have a CAE who's been the boss of my community tank for the last 4-5 years. The last few days though, he's been lying on his back on the gravel breathing fast. He isn't eating or moving but his scales and gils don't look diseased and he isn't bloated.

Except for a horrible overpopulation of snails, the tank is otherwise okay. I'm not sure what the water parameters are because I don't have a test kit, but the other fish look completely fine. Do you think this could be a disease? Could he recover? I'm not sure how long to let him lie there before I humanely euthanise him.

Thanks.

 

[JNevaril]

well, I'm going to do some deductive reasoning here.



bear with me.

You have a chinese Algae eater.

You also have an overpopulation of snails.

Snails eat algae.

If your tank is over populated by snails, it is possible that your CAE is being starved to death.

You could try to drop some algae wafers in the tank to make sure there is food available for all....


Could be age too.

Never know.

try adding algae tabs though....provide food....see if that works. If not, come back. And we'll try a different approach.


=)


(***disclaimer....I do not intend to come off as rude. If you find me rude, get a sense of humor....)


ooh. is it a false CAE or a true CAE?

Just wondering.

 

[Cave]

I probably do have too many algae eaters in this tank (especially with the snails taken into consideration) but the others seem okay. It's hard to tell when a fish looks thin I guess, but they look reasonably 'fat' to me. Also, in the last few years this CAE has shown a preference for flakes and bloodworm rather than algae.

It's a true CAE, and shares the tank with two true SAE and a false SAE. I just put some algae wafers in just to make sure the others are alright. Maybe it's time to deal with these snails..

 

[Zman16]

How big is your tank?

 

[Cave]

It's a planted Rio 125 (30 gal)

 

[cinlnk]

Could it be that he is just plain old "OLD"? Not sure how long they live.....