Willard

Question
My poor fish Willard has been feeling really bad lately..  He spends most of his time laying around on the bottom of my tank; sometimes even laying completely on his side..  but he's still breathing.  Every so often he struggles to reach the top of the tank to breathe, but then he sinks back to the bottom of the tank right afterwards.  He barely eats, he only does sometimes if the food happens to fall in front of him.  I have a 10 gallon tank with a filter and 6 tank mates.  A cory cat, an albino catfish and four white clouds.  They all get along together great; I've had them all for a while, but Willard started to show signs of disease just recently.  I would really appreciate it if you could help me out with this one maybe.  I've looked online to see what it could be, nothing else really matches all of his symptoms.

Answer
Hi Rachel,
 It sounds like Willard is getting old.  You ddin't say what kind of fish he is.  He isn't a betta by chance, is he?

The other thing is that if you are in part of the country that is getting cooler these days, watch the tank temperature. Colder water makes fish ALOT more sluggish.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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