My royal just in the last two days has stopped hiding in his usual spot and started sitting in the front of the tank. He doesnt look too good as his belly is slightly sunken and his eyes look a bit pale. He isnt touching the cucumber i leave in the tank over night but i cant find the spirulina discs i put in at night so hopefully hes still eating. I havent done anything to the tank that i dont normally do when changing water etc, all other fish are happy as. Temp is about 27*C. Has anyone had the same thing happen or does anybody know what could be wrong?

Cheers for any advice

Does it have plenty of wood to eat? They need to eat wood to help them digest food. Try some JBL Plecochips (they contain wood and algae).

Yeah sorry i meant the discs are the pleco chips. There is quite a bit of wood in the tank so it should get more than its fair share. I'm stumped....hopefully it will perk up rather than just die. Thanks for the thoughts mate

Perhaps do a good water change and make sure there is plenty of water turnover at the surface - they need well oxygenated water. Good luck.

hey, are you still using rain water ? may pay to check yr GH and PH value sounds similar to the royal whips you sold me could be its being harrassed off the food what else is in that tank of yrs ? stilll got the L47?is it male or female ?

He is breathing heavily now but water turnover isnt too bad and there is an air pump running on it too. might chuck another one on just to be sure though.

Yeah still using rain water which hes been sweet in for 3 years now so im stumped. Hes the biggest and most agro fish in the tank...till he started sulking...so always got plenty of food. Theres 4 discus, a bichir, fire eel and my L102 in the same tank...theyr all sweet. Stuff like this is soo frustrating

Yeah i still have the L47 no idea what sex it would be though. Someone else may be keen on it but if your interested in it too then ill get onto them to make a decision

Thanks guys

OK the tips of his body spines have started to go whitish and it looks as if it's teeth have fallen out, still breathing heavily aswell so i have done a couple of big water changes in the last few days and cranked up the water flow.....anyone have any ideas on this? especially the missing teeth part

This is him in the second pic on here - http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/has-an ... 24326.html

about a week before he went down hill, awesome fish and will be extremely gutted if i lose him

cheeks bristles have disappeared in the last day, No one has any ideas?

could try asking on http://planetcatfish.com/

best of luck

You just have to go back to basics - put some cycle or filterstart in your filter, do more regular water changes, and make sure that whatever you collect your rainwater in hasn't been contaminated with something.

is his belly like this?

this is what happen to one of ours, i reckon he didnt like eating the wood, so changed the wood in the tank and the belly went back to normal

Yeah have bin doin more regular water changes and hes still there sittin in the corner and he doesnt look like he is gettin much worse....i hope. Although his poo has gone like a jellish green which i dont like the look of.

Cheers evil_elmo, his belly isnt sunken though. Its not just the wood they need, they are just massive eaters in general so if they dont get enough of either then their bellys will 'sink'. Glad he's all good now mate