14 March 2014

oto update 4

Sparky survived the night! He is moving around the tank a bit (I had a hard time finding him this morning because he was on the "castle" with Otto- blends in well there). The redness in the body is fading, his overall color looks better, and he's not breathing as fast. Holding the fins a bit more alert, too. Dorsal not clamped down all the time. I repeated what I did last night- changed out half a gallon of water (with meds in the new water so it won't be diluted). Otto continues to look okay. I can't quite tell because the meds color the water a bit opaque.. But it does look like Otto has a slightly round tummy. Again, they didn't touch the spirulina tab, but I put a rock in there that was beginning to show film of algae, so hopefully they ate some of that. Another rock is just starting to turn green, I'll put that one in tonight.

I managed to avoid any temperature variation when I did the water change this time. My method before had been to adjust the tap while the water was running into the bucket, and stir to distribute, and measure with thermometer during the process. It was sometimes off by a degree or two. But with sick, stressed fish have to be more careful. This time I ran the water into the sink, tested the temp of flow before putting bucket under. So it was exactly the same. When I added to QT the thermometer on tank side didn't budge at all. Better.

Sparky, resting on top of the heater. Maybe he can breathe easier up here. Still doesn't look good, but at least alive. Too thin, though.
Otto looks a little plump again. I think he did eat- see the thumbprint mark of intestines on his underside? That shows when their bellies are full.

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