Had my first run in with fish health problems, still new to the hobby but learning.
Keeping african variations atm, i have 12 atm in a 180-200L tank.
No live plants limestone rocks and some slate,
mixture of gravel and about 5kg of limestone sand
aqua one 2500 air pump
Sicce whale 500 external filter.
Over the last week lost 5 fish, one of which a suicide, through a hole no bigger than an inch! and he was a healthy one!
Blue peacock (suicide) idiot!!!
Obliquidens zebra
Altolamprologus (gold compressiceps)
bristlenose cat
peppermint cat
Im assuming due to stress from treating the tank for white spot and bacteria.
All fish were still feeding and being active, apart from the Zebra.
feed twice daily, mixture of cichlid gold and spirulina, started giving them frozen food only fed them a few times so far on this once a week.
previously %25 water changes weekly
Water tested weekly at LFS, all good outcomes with tests never any issues other than a lower PH around 7.5
last test was done on tuesday and all was good apart from the lower ph @ 7.6 and slight ammonia increase, assumed from the dead fish in the tank. No ammonia issues since cycling the tank.
I was away for the weekend so the dead could have been in there for more than a day, they were picked to pieces.
tank bumped upto 30.5 deg
Water changed %30 every three days with the white spot treatment. currently on its third treatment.
Also treated the tank with melafix for two weeks prior to the white spot treatment.
and put in some PH up over period of a couple weeks
never saw any loss till i started the white spot treatment.
First Noticed the white spots on my little borleyi a little over a week ago when i started the white spot treatment.
Then i noticed them on my Zebra Obliquidens after he was acting sick for a week or two, much longer than any of the others (also had a sunken belly) i had a feeling he was on his way out. Im thinking my obliquidens had the spots for longer but was hard to notice them on his head.
And now the borleyi looks to have a bit of a sunken belly.
Would i be right in assuming the Zebra he was the culprit of the infection?
Now my rescued fish, some sort of blue peacock species was kept in poor conditions, had a sunken belly which i thought was from malnourishment that has slightly improved but seems to be a healthy fish. He was dull when i got him but has gradually put on more colour. Probably the most active of the group.
Could he have a problem or just have a sunken belly? could he have given it to the others?
And with the last two, my fav altolamprologus and the peppermint. They were bought from the same store, had them for two weeks before the tank went cuckoo. Absolutely no signs of stress, no spots, no sunken belly, nothing and they were the first to go, could they have been the infection??
They were of the smaller fish in the tank, around 3 cm but not the smallest, possibly subjected to stress from the other fish?
Not sure but i do remember another customer taking home a bristlenose, while i was there they returned and said it was gone by the time they got home, sick fish possibly?
And last the bristlenose, had him from day one, seemed fine growing well, my wife noticed him grazing the day before, and the next, gone!
Is it normal to expect some loss when treating a tank like this?
All others seem to be doing well and improving, Fingers crossed!!