What to do if only one fish having issues with co2 levels?

oliverpool

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I have been slowly increasing my co2 bit by bit as I and still battling slight bba issue. My lp ate are growing well, pearling well. I have bunch of oto, Malayan shrimps, tucanos, clowns killie, hastatus and 3 red coral pencilfish. Everyday for the last week or so, one of my three pencilfish, will start being at the top of the water. Seemingly struggling with the level of co2. The rest of my 30-40 fishes does not even seem to be having issues. I am a little puzzled what I should do now. The penclfish does is struggling seems to be al right but I dun want to torture the little guy any longer. How can this be anyway?
 

Matt F.

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I would back off on the co2 till your pencil fish are comfortable. Then SLOWLY increase over a period of time. Give them time to adjust to more co2. In the meantime, spot dose the BBA with seachem excel or glutaraldehyde. This will kill the BBA, and you will enjoy watching it turn pink. Also introduce a surface skimmer if you don't have a wet/dry running. The Eheim Skim350 is excellent at removing the film that could hinder degassing, etc. Most of all, increase surface agitation. This will increase O2. In a pinch, >50% water changes work to quickly reintroduce more O2 rich water. WCs are great in an emergency. Make sure you use Prime water conditioner, though.
 
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oliverpool

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Matt F.;119483 said:
I would back off on the co2 till your pencil fish are comfortable. Then SLOWLY increase over a period of time. Give them time to adjust to more co2. In the meantime, spot dose the BBA with seachem excel or glutaraldehyde. This will kill the BBA, and you will enjoy watching it turn pink. Also introduce a surface skimmer if you don't have a wet/dry running. The Eheim Skim350 is excellent at removing the film that could hinder degassing, etc. Most of all, increase surface agitation. This will increase O2. In a pinch, >50% water changes work to quickly reintroduce more O2 rich water. WCs are great in an emergency. Make sure you use Prime water conditioner, though.

Thanks Matt for your reply.

I have been using the Ehiem Skim350 for months now. I have it running on a timer for 1 hour twice a day. Once just as the lights go off and once around 2 hours before the CO2 starts. The water surface has been crystal clear since I started this routine.

I backed off my CO2 quite abit yesterday as I see some Hastatus also seemingly swimming around frantically. As I am travelling this weekend for a week, I will tweak my co2 a little back up to comfortable levels before I leave and up it again when I am back and can monitor it properly. I just want to make sure I do not have that pencilfish or some hastatus dieing on me when I am away.

Did the Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate test and all are fine with around 25ppm nitrate. Been spot dosing with excel on the BBA. Yes BBA sure looks good in pink colour :p However I have to be careful with excel in my tank. My Mini Pellia just does not seem to like it and if I dose too much (still within the normal dosage indicated by seachem), some of the Pellia will start to turn brown.

I use prime exclusively as my water conditioner. Cheap and works great.
 

gsjmia

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I have had the same situation with some Cory's, there was one that always seemed to go upside down while the others were totally unaffected. Then later the same thing with one Cardinal Tetra. Both eventually died-they must have been sick or just intolerant of that level of Co2.