Sick/dying fish...is there anything I can do???

[Still_human]

My flashlight fish stopped eating 4 or 5 days ago, but was still swimming around(he was a pig before that), and then 3 days ago he was laying on the bottom on his side. I was expecting him to die later that day, but he’s still very alive, and can shoot around when disturbed, but just lays unsupported(on his side/back, unable to keep himself up) on the ground. I feel awful cause I don’t know what I can do to help! I keep wishing I would find him having passed, so he wasn’t suffering anymore, but he seems to be hanging on quite strongly. I can’t come up with anything, but I feel like there must be SOMETHING I can do:( Does anyone have any ideas???

Edited April 10, 2020 by Still_human

[Jon Lazar]

My standard advice here it that when a fish suddenly starts laying on it's side like you describe, it means the fish is having trouble breathing.  Remove the fish to a treatment tank.  Take immediate steps to increase the oxygenation of the water.  Increase circulation and aeration.  An airstone under a powerhead creates massive air bubbles in your tank.  That's a good thing for a suffocating fish.  Set a slightly lower tank temperature.  This increases the oxygen saturation, while decreasing the fish's need for oxygen. 

 

Then I would begin treating the fish with the assumption of any of the common gill parasites (velvet/brook/ich).  I would start with a 5 minute freshwater or 45 minute formalin dip, and start therapeutic treatment with copper.  I've been using Copper Power with good results.  If you can put the fish into hyposalinity, do it.  It won't eradicate velvet, but it will make the fish more comfortable.

 

There's a lot of velvet out there that doesn't present like the "powdered sugar" pictures you see.  IME, it's extremely subtle and almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.

[Jon Lazar]

Other symptoms to look for are swimming directly into the output of your powerheads, staying in the shade all the time to avoid light, flashing against the rocks or sand, clamped fins, faded colors, and rapid heavy breathing.  These symptoms may have started around the time the fish stopped eating.  You may also see some of these symptoms in your other fish.

[Still_human]

2 hours ago, Jon Lazar said:

Other symptoms to look for are swimming directly into the output of your powerheads, staying in the shade all the time to avoid light, flashing against the rocks or sand, clamped fins, faded colors, and rapid heavy breathing.  These symptoms may have started around the time the fish stopped eating.  You may also see some of these symptoms in your other fish.

The only other fish in the tank is a cleaner wrasse that’s doing perfectly fine. Right away I put him in a floating breeding trap and stuck it right in front of the flow, so it’s getting plenty of circulation through it. There’s no visible signs of anything other than his massive eyes being dull. Not cloudy eye, it looks different. The tank is dark 24/7, except for the very front that gets ambient light for the sake of the wrasse, so I know it doesn’t have damage from light, or anything. I’ll lower the salinity right away,  like you suggested. I don’t think I can use copper with a flashlight, though. I’ll try and look into their medicinal tolerances some more, but very sadly, safe medications, even more than just antibiotics, seem to be very limited with bioluminescent fish.