reed fish

Question
I recently purchased a reed fish, introduced it properly to my 72 gallon community tank, and within 24 hours found the fish dead with dead scale spots on his body. thinking this might be a one time occurance because tat shippment had just been brought to the fish store, i took him back and they replaced him. it has been roughly 24 hours since i put the need reed in the tank and the same scale spots are appearing and the fish has become very sluggish. What could some possible problems be, and hos can i correct them. I have other fish in the tank that have been living for a few months now with no problems, and have an amonia detector in the tank to be 100 percent possitive that there is no problem like that. I thought it was ich but i wasn't sure.

Answer
Hi Andrew;

Ich looks like tiny salt-specks, so it doesn't sound like he has that to me. He could be experiencing shock from a change in water chemistry. In spite of our diligent efforts to acclimate fish, sometimes things are just too "different" in their new home. Doesn't mean our tanks are bad, just different enough to cause stress. Check the pH, nitrite and nitrate. Make sure these are all in the proper range. Compare the pH of the bag water to what is in your tank. If it is more than one-half (.5) of a point different, that could be the problem. Even if we get the pH and other water chemistry "the way this kind of fish is supposed to have", they can still suffer from stress because it is too different from what they have been used to.

Also make sure he has access to an air space at the top of the tank. They need to take gulps of air occasionally. They can suffocate if the tank is too full of water or if other fish harrass them and they can't get to the top.

Reedfish benefit from the addition of aquarium salt. It is possible that there was salt in the water he came from and the fish store just didn't know it. Add one-half of a  teaspoon for every gallon of water to your tank. It is fine for all fish that I have ever kept and it helps them fight disease and stress. You don't have to keep it in there forever if you don't want to, he may just need it to get over his stress. Just let it go away over time as you make regular water changes.

Here are some sites that may help you learn more about them;

http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Other/Erpetoichthys_calabaricus.htm
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/greed.html
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/ropefish.htm
http://species.fishindex.com/species_600erpetoichthys_calabaricus_ropefish.html
http://www.aquariacentral.com/fishinfo/fresh/snake.htm
http://aquaworld.netfirms.com/Other/Erpetoichthys_calabaricus.htm

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins