pleco fry population explosion = cory death...

[wolverine2031]

ok guys since my BN dropped there fry I seem to be losing my Cory with sudden death, did wonder if it was due to increase in temp due to hot weather.....

or if it was due to increase in waste......

i run two filters, both fully cultured, and my tank as 10/20% water change each week.....

i know my 26 gallon now as too many fish in due to pleco explosion this week...

but my test strips show that all things are ok with the water Safe...

and futher info here.....

i keep the temp of all three tanks perfectly set at 79/80....

since i used to have 6 guppy and 2 baby molly, and 3 BN plecs... and the few cory below....

however due to the severely hot weather here in south yorkshire, the temp as increased in all tanks to about 82/83....

in the last three weeks I have lost 6 panda cory (though no more than 5 cory in the tank at any one time), and 2 albino cory, 4 guppy... all quite young......

my other tank paramters appear ok....

see below--

NO3=10
NO2=0
GH=8
KH=6
ph=7.2
Cl2=0

water temp today is 82, though thats with the heater off as were in a heatwave right now. I currently do a 15-20% water change once a week as the new baby BN have increased the population of my 26/27gallon tank. I dont doubt the tank is currently over populated, since the BN have been heavily mating, and in another week 30 fry will be two months old, and another 70 will be 4 weeks old!

So can't wait to off load some BN cheap if you know any local LFS what require a nice supply....

This afternoon I found a gravid guppy swimming eratic on it's side, now removed that to a separate fry tank for protection.

I did wonder if it's due to the male BN protecting his new young as... things seem to have gone weird since he started mating.

I have sand substrate which is cleaned via syphon once evry two weeks, and the tank is run by 1xFluval 4 and 1xFluval 3, of which I clean one half of the filter media once every 4 weeks.

The fish are fed on flake twice a day, and occasional pleco pellet, and algae wafer....

It appears the only fish that are with standing right now are - 1 very mature 9 month old bronze cory.....and the pleco population..

regards

LJ

Any thoughts would be helpful right now....

 

[scatz]

impossible to pick a reason in the poll without some background info.
i assume you are having issues with cories dying?
-what temp is the tank?
-what stock do you have in there?
-you might have an aggressive BN but its more likely to be a water issue
-hard to say if its environment thats killing them without knowing any water parameters, nitrate/nitrite/ammonia readings, cleaning routine etc
-you'll need to test the water and post the results, then, with some background info as above, we might be able to have an educated guess.

 

[wolverine2031]

all the questions you have asked are answered in the thread as far as I know...

I posted a long thread along with the poll, and when i view the poll on my laptop it also shows the thread.... lol

have you been drinking this friday night...lol

I am not new to this....... I have been keeping fish 20-30 years, though would like some helpful input

so if you click on my profile and look at my threads then all your questions are answered....

I am in no way responsible for the poll not showing my attache thread when I entered them together?

 

[scatz]

ah, ok.
you have it set that we need to thankyou for the post before we can read it

 

[scatz]

ok, i think your problem is:
a) you are overstocked now with the BN breeding
and
b) with the increase in temperature comes a drop in the O2 levels in the tank, combine drop in O2 with increase in bioload and i think you have your reason for the losses, the best solution would be to get another tank for the breeding BN and their fry

 

[wolverine2031]

thankyou..

I also noted that I have two fluvals. both set to max and one with a venturi attachment......

I have a spare pump and air stone = though not set up yet....
from your advice I take it the extra pump would greatly help...

only reason I did not put the pump and air stone in is the fluval 4 is a greater filter than required and I have the venturi attachment blowing large amounts of air in the tank?

thank you once again.....

 

[wolverine2031]

and sorry about the poll not showing the thread it is the first time i have used a poll...

and is it possible to adjust the poll... or thread to fix the issue

 

[Doodles]

and sorry about the poll not showing the thread it is the first time i have used a poll...

and is it possible to adjust the poll... or thread to fix the issue

Sorted and removed the thanks given:yes: The post is now fully viewable as normal.

Inclined to agree with scatz about the tank and deaths. Also with the load you have I would be doing at least 2 water changes every week plus when you syphon the sand, make sure you give it a good stir around as this prevents lethal gas pockets.

 

[wolverine2031]

doodie doodles

thanks for the help....

I have been stirring the sand substrate with a 2 foot ruler to release the gas, I will increase the water changes to twice each week until my fry mature and some are unloaded or until I get another tank for them...

temporary measure now under way....

1-- water change every 3 days instead of every 7.
2-- just added a new upgraded air pump with one air stone ring, and a air wall for extra oxygen.

Hope this increases oxygen and decreases bio load some what....

The sand is pretty clean though if you use sand you will know it is alot harder to maintain than gravel, though better for the cory's can be a pain when you have the number of pleco's in that I have right now...

At least the test's show it is ok for now....

And with the added O2 the baby pleco's are going wild.....

Shame I could not save the cory's in time.....

Living in a small terraced don't help as I have a 3 foot tank on hold at a friends but it will not fit in the house....lol....

 

[Doodles]

If you like snails, malaysian trumpet snails are good for sand. They travel through it and keep it 'turning over'. I have loads lol.

I also lift the tank lids up when its really hot as it helps prevent the tanks from heating up plus I use a fan to blow across the surface of the water when needed.

 

[wolverine2031]

i like snails...

yes i do like snails but after my last two plants i added to the water created a snail infestation, and then 2 yoyo loaches i bought to treat the infestation decided to kill my prize collection of cory's off about 6 months ago, that kinda put me off the snails...

then the loaches eat too many snails and one loach got a snail shell stuck in its stomach and exploded in the tank .... yuck... that was horrible...

it took me 2 months to get rid of the snails.... cost me 9 cory's in total, and one dead yoyo loach and the killer loach i had to return to the lfs for a refund...

and un be known to them they did not even know they were terrotorial in small groups until I introduced them to a loach breeder....

so word of advice if you get a yoyo loach and it starts to change colour that means it is due to get aggressive so return it to the lfs or isolate it in the tank till the snails are under control...

thank you about the lids..... I usually shut them to keep the midges out in this weather, but will lift them up will it is hot....

i would be interested in snails as long as they dont breed, and dont increase the bio load too much....

the fan is a good idea, but now having two pumps going and three tanks is killing my budget.... fans will have to wait till my income gets better....

thanks doodles

 

[Doodles]

I had two yoyo's, they are pretty cool but as you said they do need to be in a fairly large group. I gave mine to someone who had yoyos already, if I had had a larger tank then would of got more.

Keep an eye out for fans at argos or b&q, sometimes they do really cheap deals.

 

[Irene0100]

I would try and w/c every day if you have loads of BN fry.

 

[GrubbyGirl]

with all thise BNs you need to be siphoning the substrate more than once every 2 weeks. I'd suggest twice a week and 20% water change each time

 

[macvsog23]

This is the old chestnut ov over stocking.

We are keen to keep fish we know we cant over stock but it creeps up on us

I have the same problem.

In nature these fish are living over 100,000 of miles
I would doubt if the area we give each fish in the best conditions is 1/10000 of the natural space

 

[Andrew]

The fish will do much better with daily water changes and cleaning the substrate daily.

 

[wolverine2031]

substrate now being cleaned every two days, and water changes now every two days as from tomorrow...

thanks alot guys...

 

[GrubbyGirl]

Good luck, hopefully that will make all the difference

 

[Doodles]

Good luck, hopefully that will make all the difference

:yes:

Keep us updated.

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

hmmm

im not too sure about the overcrowding issue... i've kept up to 500 b/n in a 70 litre tank plenty of times without any issues... (3cm size)

when your testing for ammonia pull water from the very bottom of the tank...
ammonia builds up at the bottom of your tank first....

and most catties live on the bottom and hence will be exposed to ammonia very quickly if you get any sort of ammonia spike...

and next will come a nitrite spike a day or so following an ammonia spike... and nitrite is ten fold more deadly than ammonia to fish...

if you suspect ammonia spike add prime straight away... it will neutralise ammonia,nitrite to make it safe for fish... follow label for quantity to add...