Sick Pacu

Question
Came home this evening and my pacu, Who is eighteen inches in length seems weak, faded color, generally not his normal aggressive fast action self,Always begging for treats. He is a very active fish, and he is sitting more on the bottom unless I sit next to the tank with him. The tank has been going through some Bio changes and my local advice has been that it will find it's balance witch I know is true referencing my other tank that went through a similar time. Please help if you can.

Answer
Hi Jim,

Get the water test kit and test parameters and if you don't have one, assume something's wrong.  Generally, it's the nitrites/ammonia.  When they go to the bottom, lose color, there are generally 2 reasons.  Toxic water, or heating issues.

the thing is, this is an 18" Pacu, so I would like to add another possibility.  Has he ever run into the glass?  It's a very common Pacu issue.  They are excitable adn run into the glass for some reason.

Check water.  If the water is cloudy or shows yellowing or greenish tint, get it changed asap.  Change 25% tonight and every day til it's spotless.

Water test strips are inexpensive.  It would be very important to test the water.

If you run a canister filter, clean it asap.  This could be the issue, because people assume they only need cleaned every 3 months, but the truth is it's a monthly to bi-monthly filter, only.  After that, it just feeds the poop back into the tank and causes ammonia to spike off and on.  

Fish owners with canisters write me often.  They ask why their fish are continually having issues, and then the issues stop, then they return...well, it's all because of a chemical process in the canister filter which isn't maintained properly.

I truly hope this helps.  If you don't have a test kit, take a bowl of water out and put it in a white bowl.  Check it for color.  Even a minor tint is a sign of ammonia's toxic level.

Jim, feel free to write me back anytime.

Happy fish-keeping and I will cross fingers for the big Pacu.

Renee