Caca turned really dark, is he sick?

[DBlauj]

My male cacatuoides just turned really dark as of a few hours ago and he's just hanging in the corner where my canister filter inlet is. He's not moving and I tried to feed him some earlier today but he wasn't too interested. Tested the water and everything is fine so I'm worried since I can't figure out what might be the case. Did some searches online and couldn't find anything. Need help guys, any ideas?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

My male cacatuoides just turned really dark as of a few hours ago and he's just hanging in the corner where my canister filter inlet is. He's not moving and I tried to feed him some earlier today but he wasn't too interested.

Sorry to say it doesn't sound good, very dark colouring is often a stress response. If he looks really emaciated as well? it might be internal worms., and I'd definitely look to see for any signs of Camallanus.

Tested the water and everything is fine

You can't really get many meaningful results from hobbiest test kits, in fact I can't get consistent results for a lot of parameters even with thousands of pounds worth of analytical kit. I'd definitely go for changing more water if you have a good clean water source (RO or rain water).

If you don't have a planted tank plants make an enormous difference to water quality, plants like Java Moss, Java Fern, Ceratopteris, Limnobium will grow in every tank as long as there is sufficient light, they don't need added CO2 or fertilisers etc.

cheers Darrel

 

[DBlauj]

Thanks Darrel, unfortunately he died sometime during the night. Really bummed out since he was my first Apisto. Fortunately i have a few of his fry still. Tank used to be decently planted. Had a lot of vals and crypts but recently took out the vals for some leaf litter(oak leaves). I looked over him today and didn't notice anything physically different about how he looked. Maybe a parasite or something internally got to him, or stress I'm not sure but I'll miss him though.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Sorry to hear he died. A bit of a strange question but was he 2 years oldish, if he was it may just be old age. I've had females live to over 4, but I don't think I've had any male cacatuoides make their 3rd birthday.

cheers Darrel

 

[DBlauj]

He was about 11 months