How long has the tank been set up?
+/- 2 Years

What are the water parameters on the tank? (ph, ammonia, nitrate and nitrites will be sufficient)
PH 6.0
ammonia not available
nitrate 1
nitrites 160

What is your normal tank maintenance routine regarding water changes?
Once a month occasionally maybe only slightly longer. She gets very aggitated and won't eat for a week if I do it any more often.

Are you using a good dechlorinator that removes both chlorine and chloramines?
Yes, I use Prime by SeaChem

What size tank is it, and what species are you keeping?
55 gallons, one red Devil

What symptoms are your fish showing? Are they eating? Lethargic? Loss of colour? Darkening in colour? Reclusive? (Make sure to add any other symptoms you've noted, along with a time frame as to when the symptoms started.)
History : (Sorry this is really long and detailed...) She had a bout of ick due to a power outage and a 5 degree temp change, treated with Super Ick cure and it went away.
Three weeks/one month later the ick reappeared rather strong so I opted to Super Ick it again and change to 82. the ick stayed and due to her hatred of the super Ick I opted for a water change and kept the water temp at 82. She hadn't eaten in two weeks at this point. She stabilized and the ick disappeared but one morning I came downstairs to find her floating on her side or almost upside down in severe respiratory distress. She had what looked to be white flecks and long white fluffy noodle-type things around her gills. I assumed this was a bacterial infection that was helped along by the ick. She was only able to surface breathe and it took all her effort to right herself and get to the top. She couldn't use her tail or move her body. The only way she could propel herself was her side fins. I spent the entire morning with my hand in the tank using the intank sponge filter to help her to the top so I wouldn't touch her and damage her slime coat. I honestly thought I was about to lose her, but she held on all day. In the meantime, I did a 50% water change and used aquarium salt trying to slow the progress of the bacteria. As that was all I could do, I left her overnight to let the aquarium salt try to help. the next afternoon she was noticibly better and able to breathe better with only a little surface breathing. She started to float a little vertical, but seemed to swim using her body and tail. I was able to get Melafix for the bacterial infection and this seems to have worked but my new problem is that she floats vertical or slightly over now. I contacted the cichlid person at Big Al's in Barrie and his opinion was that she had swallowed too much air and couldn't pass it. He advised me to acquire sinking pellets, (at this point she had refused to eat previously to this and hadn't eaten in about a month) as all my food was floater style and she couldn't get it. He said that eating would possibly help her pass the air more efficiently. I could only get shrimp pellets, but she actually likes them and I supplement her right now with her floating pellets, which I noticed that she can get with effort. Also the shrimp pellets, the spirulina discs, and medium size sinking cichlid pellets. She seems to lately be able to better right herself to swim, but at rest she cannot stay horizontal.

Have you added any new fish to the tank recently in relation to your current problems?
With a 13" red devil, no...

Have you noticed any excessive aggression recently in the tank?
Only when she had the ick, she would violently attack the glass, even smashing the top of the aquarium when she was upset.

Do you have a hospital or quarantine tank?
She is the only fish in the tank.

If you have something really strange and unusual going on, posting a pic will be a great.
I will try to get some pics, if I can find my camera.

Red Devil

As I sent you in the PM I want you to monitor the PH level.If you live in Sudbury like I think you do our PH here is normally 7.2 -7.5. Your 6.0 is WAy to low. If you measure the PH after a water change this may be your problem and the stress is causing the ick and infections.The banging of the glass could be the fish trying to jump out of the tank due to the PH hurting her.

This is the time of year when we have this ph issue due to the change in season/weather


This may or may not be the issue here

Derek

My pH has been at 6.0 for about 3 weeks now, so it stabilized at 6.0, or else my tester strips won't monitor anything below that. I will get a pH specific test kit since you mentioned that and follow it more closely. Should I try to bring it up then?

She is actually swimming beautifully, she is acting very much more like herself, like she was 3 months ago before the ick. She is happy to see me now, like she always used to do, and she is eating which is the biggest sign for her feeling better. It seems to be just that she isn't floating the right way; though she seems to be able to right herself more in the past day or two.

As a side point, could the bacterial infection have made her blind in one eye? She has a very cloudy left eye and she doesn't seem to respond as quickly from that viewpoint.

I am in Levack. The water here seems 100% better than in Sudbury. My friend in Sudbury has so many issues with her tank lately so I will pass that information on for her to test her pH asap. Thank-you.

Her cloudy eye might just be from stress or water quality. It should heal up on it's own. There's a possibility that she could have hit that eye what she was upset and banging on the tank and lid.

One thing that caught my eye was your extremely high nitrite levels.

They should be kept below 40ppm with 20ppm being the desired level
or lower!

Only water changes can fix this problem. A simple rule of thumb to consider
is that if your nitrite levels were say 100ppm and you wanted them to be
50ppm, then you would have to do a 50% water change.

However, be careful not to do too much of a massive water change.

I would only do a series of 25% water changes until I reached the desired
levels!

Good luck!

Red Devil, I agree with preacherboy about the water readings. However it's the nitrates that should be below 40. The nitrites should be at zero. I'm assuming that you have those numbers reversed.

When you do the monthly water changes, approximately how much water are you removing?

What is your filtration like?

Thanks for catching my error, Aura! worry wart!

As of right now, the tank is at
pH 6.0
Nitrite 1ppm
Nitrate 200 ppm
I did add the Melafix 6 days ago, not sure if that effects any of those or not.
I am going to do a 25% change today.

It has been a little out of normal with the Ick and bacterial infection with two changes of 50% within a week. However, the normal routine is 30% changes monthly.

I have a AquaClear 70 and an in-tank sponge filter.

Sorry I didn't catch this sooner...

You need to be doing several small water changes a day.

And you really need to check the ammonia level!

The nitrite and nitrate readings alone are toxic. She is being poisoned by her own waste at this point.

Since your tank maintenance has been this way for some time, I would start by doing small water changes of 25-30%, 2-3 times a day. Don't forget that Prime when you do them, it will help to detoxify the ammonia...I know you've got some!

Agitated is better than being dead, so I wouldn't waste any time in getting that tank cleaned up. Once you do, you can do weekly water changes. You might also monitor your feeding habits and try not to overfeed.

Eye problems are usually contributed to water quality or injury. In this case, it's probably your water. They can lead to a bacterial infection, but I wouldn't dare advise putting meds in that water until you get it cleaned up.

It also sounds as if she may be experiencing organ failure, also likely from the water conditions. This causes the body cavity to fill with fluid and causes the fish to have a hard time maintaining it's balance, and is often irreversible. Again, she needs clean water.

Big fish need even more diligent tank maintenance than smaller fish. They produce a ton of waste. 30% water changes monthly just won't do the trick.

Kim

I did a 30% change at 7:30 and right now (12am) the water is pH 6.5, nitrates 80 and nitrites under 1ppm. I will do two 25% changes tomorrow and get an ammonia test kit to check the levels. I added the Prime when I did the change this evening and will do it again with tomorrow's changes.
Thank-you very much and I will continue to follow-up.

Don't worry about that ph until you get the rest of the tank straightened out. A steady ph is better than one jumping all over the place, even if it's a little high or a little low.

Good luck!

How the red devil does is going to depend alot on how long it's been kept in these conditions. If it's been a long time, there might not be anything you can do to turn things around, but I would certainly try.

Kim