Cardinal Strugglling

marknash · #1 05-27-2010, 03:46 PM

our benggai cardingal has not been eating for close to a week now, kind of hanging out at the bottom of the tank.. then we noticed his two fins are all shredded up and he had a small hemmorhage spot beside his gill. we thought maybe he got into a fight with something else in our tank... now that spot beside his gill kind of looks like its getting necrotic .. kind of rotting. hes breathing hard. I think hes maybe got an infection of some type.. but im not sure what it is.. or what to do about it... And heres the kicker.. we have no qt tank.
any thoughts?

marknash · #2 05-27-2010, 04:23 PM

after looking at him a bit closer... he's got tears everywhere. very mangeled looking. we do have another cardinal and watch to make sure there is no fighting going on.. they just kind of hang out together, and seem to get along as well when the lights are off. Do you think this sounds like hes being picked on? what else could cause all the rips in his fins? hes sick anyways and i dont know what to do for him.

marknash · #3 05-27-2010, 04:54 PM

have any of you ever heard of a Fire Shrimp being a bully? I was just staring at our tank for a while trying to figure out what to do about our cardinal.. and noticed that our dragon goby has a big chunk out of him as well. And the only thing i can think of.. is our fire shrimp.. as he is kind of a jerk sometimes, sometimes we noticed him lunging out of his hole at some of the fish.. but i didnt think that he could hurt them. would this make any sense?

BlueWorldAquatic · #4 05-27-2010, 05:33 PM

Without picture it is VERY hard to diagnose your problem.

Soundls like a parasite, this would explain the mangled look. It is posibly scratching itself on the rock.

The fireshrimp is still a cleaner shrimp, it my be trying to help, but never seen smaller fish allow them to get too close.

May be too late, but if it is a parasite, you may be able to use a freshwater dip on it.

Ken - BWA

4lti7ude · #5 05-27-2010, 08:42 PM

You should take that guy outta the tank asap, instead of trying to figure whos hurting him right now.

It sounds like its now or never.
If the fire shrimps can smell dead or rotting flesh and will eat it off the fish. Its very beneficial for the fish.
I dont think they would ever attack it unless they were just trying to clean it up.

marknash · #6 05-27-2010, 08:47 PM

No, no scratching on the rock. I didnt notice any spots on him that looked like ich or anything.. Im not sure how to get a good picture of him.. all i get is glare when i try with my camera.

marknash · #7 05-27-2010, 08:49 PM

We have no place to put him. yet another reason to have a QT Sigh..

gobytron · #8 05-27-2010, 09:15 PM

It sounds like there is a definitive possibility that you have some sort of crab or predator in there...
Most likely small, as if it were large enough both damaged fish would be gone.

A parasite could certainly be the case as well though...

If you post some pics, some of the hobbyists on this site could assuredly help you to figure out which is the problem in your tank.

then at least you will know what, if anything can be done...

You can use virtually anything as a qt btw.
Something as simple as a bucket, heater and airstone would suffice.

marknash · #9 05-27-2010, 09:56 PM

oh, i thought it had to be way more complex than that!
in the mean time i will try to get some pictures of him. just having a hard time getting a good image.

marknash · #10 05-27-2010, 10:06 PM

cardinal.jpg heres the best pic i could get.. he looks worse in the tank.. you can only see a bit of the red in the pic.. and you cant see how bad his fins are either.