lethargic fish

[lellison]

Okay guys, I have posted before about my keyholes being stressed, but it has gotten worse. They seem really lethargic. They eat when I feed them, but their color not normal and they just hide out behind things in the tank and sit on the bottom. I have tested the water and everything is normal except for the pH. Normally the pH out of my tap from our well is about 7.0-7.2, but it is much higher now. Not sure why, but I am wondering if that is the problem. I have some driftwood in there that obviously has not made a big difference since I tested the pH of the tank and of the water straight from tap and it is the same. I have some "pH 7.0" powder junk by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. I am a little weary of using it though. Should I use it and see if it helps or does anyone have another idea of what may be going on with my fish? Other fish in the tank ( pleco and panda cories) are doing fine. Thanks in advance!

[Jim2982]

I would use the "pH 7.0" stuff but only to treat the new water during water changes, don't treat the entire aquarium at once. I'm not sure about anything else, but I'm sure somebody will be able to help. I hope they can, anyway! Good luck.

[fishwithteethlover]

Ok your fish have the hardest symptom to accurately diagnose, but here are some starters. Heater is it working, the weather has changed and if the heater is not working this will be the first fix. Second, have you done a massive cleaning, introduced fish, or cleaned anything with bleach. Any of these will drastically decrease the amount of beneficial bacteria in the water and cause an ammonia spike which will cause this symptom. You have tested pH, swings in pH can also cause this. Finally, if all these have been checked or eliminated you "could"(rare if fish have not been introduced) have a possible parasite. Also fear of lethargic fish sometimes makes us overfeed the fish which only makes the problem worse then better. I would stay on top of water changes and make sure the new water introduced is the same temp and do not add buffers this could worsen the problem, making the pH swing one way or another. If this does not help I would assume early signs of sickness that will show itself with time and will let you more accurately treat it. I hope this helps.

[ElijahTurtle]

Yeah my first thought was to consider the water temp.

[lellison]

temp is stable at 78. No massive cleaning, no bleach. pH is super high compared to normal. I wrote above in case you missed. normal pH from my tap is 7.0-7.2 and now is way too high, like above 8. That is why I was wondering about adding the pH chemicals, though I am afraid of using it. All other fish in other tanks are in same water with no porblems. The last fish that I added to the tank were the cories, but that was several months ago. I have now moved the keyholes to the 55 tank just by themselves thinking that they are staying stressed also because the cories are very very active. Got them some live brine shrimp. Female has a little better color, but they both stay hid out.