Major Apisto losses

[oskastolz]

Hi - it's been a while since I have been on here.

I have experienced some major losses in the past month - they include

1 x pair of German bred Blue Rams
1 x pair of A. Veijita
1 x pair of A. Agassizi (beautiful breeding pair, the male was around 9cm long)
1 male Inka 50

Pretty much everything I had in a dedicated dwarf tank (4 foot heavily planted), I only have 2 x female inka 50's left, and they aren't looking too good either

Water conditions pretty normal although the pH did increase to around 7.2 whilst I was away on holidays, not sure why, have since gotten the pH back to around 6, did numerous water changes, added salt and raised the temperature to 32 for a coupla days when several fish took to dragging themselves along the bottom of the tank

From my observations several of these fish looked to have had dropsy i.e. bloated body and greying off in colour

Pretty heartbreaking.....

In the past week I moved an angel to the tank at the same time as the agassizi was ill, I have noticed red shreads protruding from his rear end (thread worms) - I am now thinking perhaps the fish may have been suffering from this (without it being obvious to me)

Any thoughts?

Oska

[Th0mas]

Sorry to hear of your losses.

While the pH has gone to 7.2, that should still be tolerable to most apisto. When was the last water change before you went away, and how long were you away for? Any feeding when you're away?

Adding salt to apisto isn't going to help much either, apisto don't like salt.

The dropsy is normally a sign of secondary infection, so it is difficult to say what is the initial trigger.

Did you move the angel before or after the death? And the infection is in the aggie or angel?

I'm just a bit loss with the description - no offense intended.

[oskastolz]

Hi Thomas,

No offence taken. I was away over Christmas for 3 weeks - I did a 30% water change the week before leaving.

My housemate was feeding them while I was away.

The salt was only added after I had lost the majority of fish and was done in an attempt to save the agassizi (I spoke with Chris aka wickedglass re this)

The salt treatment and raise of temp was only for 3 days before a 50% water change. During this time I added the angel who was having a hard time in my other tank. The angel has since developed thread worm, so I guess I am wondering if the thread worms have come from the apisto's and this has been the cause of so many deaths

I have been doing weekly water changes in an attempt to save the other 2 inka's

Sorry if my explanations are not that clear

Oska

[fishgeek]

the red worms will definitely be some cammallanus species coti or such

they should be treated , in my experience they cause slowly progressive debilitating disease
protein loss associated with low grade intestinal inflammation maybe a cause of ascites(abdominal fluid distension)

are the fish eating?

can you get a faecal sample looked at under a microscope

and i would be iclined to treat for the neamatodes( i prefer levamisol 2mgs/litre of water) shortly

maybe more than one issue for you

andrew

[oskastolz]

Thanks for the reply Andrew,

I lost one of the 2 remaining Inka females last night, the fish had been eating - only sparingly though so have dropped the amount of food going in to the tank quite dramatically (only feeding them a small amount every second day)

I ordered Levamisole yesterday so will treat over the weekend - it's all abit too late unfortunately..

[parkap]

oska,

mate i'm right there with you mate. it really sucks. i've gone from a great apisto population to just one or two female inka 50's.

it's pretty heartbreaking. i share your pain. :)

p.

[oskastolz]

Peter

They don't call us apistophiles for nothing - I will let my tank settle down for a couple of weeks and try again, I have it from a few sources that there is still some good quality fish around the place down here..

Back to the drawing board :!:

[Robdog]

That's all part of the fun of keeping Apisto's! Mass suicides :roll:

After something ripped through my tanks a little while ago I'm down to a few random females.

[Robdog]

I have it from a few sources that there is still some good quality fish around the place down here

The apisto scene seems to have gone a little quiet up here. Good luck with the restock

[oskastolz]

Cheers - will take it a wee bit easy this time round - some nice aggies around, really bummed about the veijita's & Inka male, bit trickier to track.....

Will get on to me ol matey Chris and see if there is any over his way, got the last ones from him.

Will post something in a couple of weeks when i take the plunge

[Th0mas]

And if you're really keen, I do have some that can be send down.

[fishgeek]

better quarantine and net/hand etc sterility issue's to stop crosss contamination should reduce larger loss's

fish that live on average only 2 years are going to be dying regularly if you have any numbers
24 fish average's out to 1 a mth unfortunately