Finfern honest freshwater care

🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Lambchop Rasbora Vet-Prep Sheet

Fish vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it and keep it by the tank.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it's a vet trip yet? Run the symptom checker or the water-parameter interpreter first — many worries turn out to be a water or husbandry fix.

Finfern honest freshwater care · finfern.com
Lambchop Rasbora — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find an aquatic / fish vet — before you need one

  • Search the WAVMA aquatic-vet finder (the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association) — or search "aquatic / fish / exotics vet near me".
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: "Do you treat fish?" Few vets do — and ask the exam fee while you're on the phone.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of a crisis.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it by the tank.

My fish vet
My lambchop rasbora
What I'm seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

Act promptly — starting with a water test — if you notice any of these:

  • Fish gasping at the surface, clamped fins, sudden hiding, or deaths soon after adding them - stop, test the water immediately for ammonia and nitrite (both should be 0 ppm). Any reading above 0 usually means the tank wasn't fully cycled or is overstocked; do a water change and address the cycle.
  • Colour washing out to pale/grey, constant skittishness or fish scattered and hiding - most often too-small a group (add more to reach 8-10+), too-strong flow, or no cover. Review shoal size, flow and planting before assuming illness.
  • White spots like grains of salt (suspected ich), fuzzy cottony patches, red streaks, ulcers, rapid breathing, or a bloated/pineconed body - these signal a health problem. Check and correct water first, quarantine if you can, and seek advice from an aquatic vet or an experienced fishkeeping community. (Triage only - this is not a diagnosis.)
  • Fish jumping or found on the floor - confirm you have a tight-fitting lid; startled lambchops can jump.

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Test your water NOW — ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature — and correct the obvious (a big source of trouble is ammonia / nitrite).
  • Keep the fish in its own stable, dechlorinated tank water.
  • Move it to a hospital / quarantine tank if you already have one set up.
  • Keep the tank calm and dimly lit — stress makes almost everything worse.

⛔ Don’t

  • Don’t tip in OTC, aquarium-shop or forum “cures” blindly — many are harmful or just mask the real problem.
  • Don’t make a big sudden water change or swing the parameters.
  • Don’t add salt or medication without knowing the cause.

🎒 What to bring

  • A recent water-test result — ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temperature. Water quality is the root of most fish illness and the first thing a fish vet asks about.
  • Clear photos and a short video — it may not show the behaviour or symptom in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • Only if the vet advises transporting the fish: the fish in a bag or tub of its OWN tank water.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Temperature
23-28 C / 73-82 F (SeriouslyFish). A stable temperature around 24-26 C / 75-79 F is ideal; they are tropical and need a heater in most homes.
pH
5.5-7.5 (SeriouslyFish). Soft, slightly acidic to neutral water is ideal; stability matters more than chasing an exact number.
Hardness
Soft to moderately soft: GH 1-10 dGH (SeriouslyFish); other keeper guides cite ~2-11 dH, which agrees. They tolerate a range but colour and long-term health are best in soft water.
Minimum tank
Keeper-facing minimum: a 60 x 30 cm footprint tank, roughly 54 L / about 14 US gal (11.5 imp gal), per SeriouslyFish. You will see pet shops say "a 10 gallon (40 L) is fine for six" - it technically survives there, but the honest, bigger-is-better reality is that this is a shoaling swimmer that looks and behaves far better in a 54-75 L (14-20 US gal) tank with open swimming length. Prioritise LENGTH (a longer, shallower tank) over tall tanks - they cruise side to side, not up and down.
Filtration & flow
Gentle to moderate flow. SeriouslyFish suggests turnover around 4-5x tank volume per hour (e.g. a filter rated ~215-270 lph on a ~54 L tank). Avoid strong currents - a small internal, sponge, or baffled hang-on-back filter suits them well, and a sponge filter is ideal if you ever want fry to survive.
Diet
Omnivorous micropredator. In the wild it eats tiny insects, larvae and zooplankton.
Tankmates / temperament
Very peaceful and non-aggressive (SeriouslyFish describes them as "very peaceful"). Slightly timid - they may dart for cover if you approach the glass suddenly, especially when kept in too-small groups.

⚕️ Most fish illness starts with water quality, not infection — bring a recent water test; it's the first thing a good fish vet will ask about. Fish medicine is specialised and few vets treat fish, so call ahead. Many aquarium-shop and OTC 'cures' are harmful or simply mask the real problem, so tell the vet exactly what (if anything) you’ve already added, and treat a sick fish in a separate hospital tank rather than dosing the whole display.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you treat fish? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my water or setup be the cause?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?