Hello, all. I'll try to keep this brief, but provide info that might be relevant.
I was gifted three juvenile albino bn, July 2014. As of today, the male is a really attractive egg yolk color, standard fins, about 7cm long. The two females are much paler, long fin, about 5.5cm. They are currently in a 20long with a large floss filled box filter and an HOB with a sponge over the intake. The tank has been up for over a year, stable nitrogen cycle. Temp 76-80. I have very hard, alkaline well water--I use it as it is other than adjusting for temp. Water changes of 40-50% once a week. Half of tank has a sand/gravel substrate and half is bare. Have a few rocks, clay pot pieces for caves, a hollow piece of driftwood open at both ends, and a 6" piece of 1.5" pvc that I sanded inside and out to give it a little "texture" and closed off one end. Bunch of hornwort floating on the top. Only other inhabitants are pond snails and a colony of red cherry shrimp. I feed zucchini, cucumber, bell peppers, green beans--all from the garden so I know there are no contaminants. I also drop in flake food every couple of days or 4-5 cichlid pellets that don't end up in the other tanks.
Early September they had their first spawn. Discovered the male fanning two clumps of eggs at the mouth of the pvc tube. The two clumps got further and further from the tube and the male finally abandoned the tube and didn't pay much attention to either clump. I let them be. Six days later, I had wrigglers--I'm going with 20-25. Many of the fry scattered around the tank, though the male did guard a group of them that took refuge under a rock. I switched routine to 20% water changes every 2-3 days. They seemed to be growing fine. The fry that were out in the tank did appear to grow more quickly, however, than the one's that finally emerged from the protective corraling of the male.
Three weeks in and all at once one morning I discovered about half of them dead. Some of the ones that were still alive were wriggling around kind of like how worms wriggle in the water (best way I can describe it). They'd wriggle a couple inches off the bottom and end up back on the bottom, sometimes sideways. I did a 50% water change. Throughout the following day the rest died as well.
All adult plecos seem normal as ever. The RCS seemed unfazed by the entire event, though they made quick and efficient work of eating the dead fry.
Ideas, thoughts, critique welcome. One thing I've wondered is if the RCS maybe eat so much of the microfauna that it wasn't in abundance for the fry. Or I've read that too much protein early on (perhaps from the flake or pellet remains) can cause problems? Maybe not enough green algae or zucchini skin? Maybe too many water changes? Also, the three adults may be siblings, but I'm not at all certain. There's hopefully a way to improve on 100% mortality.
I was gifted three juvenile albino bn, July 2014. As of today, the male is a really attractive egg yolk color, standard fins, about 7cm long. The two females are much paler, long fin, about 5.5cm. They are currently in a 20long with a large floss filled box filter and an HOB with a sponge over the intake. The tank has been up for over a year, stable nitrogen cycle. Temp 76-80. I have very hard, alkaline well water--I use it as it is other than adjusting for temp. Water changes of 40-50% once a week. Half of tank has a sand/gravel substrate and half is bare. Have a few rocks, clay pot pieces for caves, a hollow piece of driftwood open at both ends, and a 6" piece of 1.5" pvc that I sanded inside and out to give it a little "texture" and closed off one end. Bunch of hornwort floating on the top. Only other inhabitants are pond snails and a colony of red cherry shrimp. I feed zucchini, cucumber, bell peppers, green beans--all from the garden so I know there are no contaminants. I also drop in flake food every couple of days or 4-5 cichlid pellets that don't end up in the other tanks.
Early September they had their first spawn. Discovered the male fanning two clumps of eggs at the mouth of the pvc tube. The two clumps got further and further from the tube and the male finally abandoned the tube and didn't pay much attention to either clump. I let them be. Six days later, I had wrigglers--I'm going with 20-25. Many of the fry scattered around the tank, though the male did guard a group of them that took refuge under a rock. I switched routine to 20% water changes every 2-3 days. They seemed to be growing fine. The fry that were out in the tank did appear to grow more quickly, however, than the one's that finally emerged from the protective corraling of the male.
Three weeks in and all at once one morning I discovered about half of them dead. Some of the ones that were still alive were wriggling around kind of like how worms wriggle in the water (best way I can describe it). They'd wriggle a couple inches off the bottom and end up back on the bottom, sometimes sideways. I did a 50% water change. Throughout the following day the rest died as well.
All adult plecos seem normal as ever. The RCS seemed unfazed by the entire event, though they made quick and efficient work of eating the dead fry.
Ideas, thoughts, critique welcome. One thing I've wondered is if the RCS maybe eat so much of the microfauna that it wasn't in abundance for the fry. Or I've read that too much protein early on (perhaps from the flake or pellet remains) can cause problems? Maybe not enough green algae or zucchini skin? Maybe too many water changes? Also, the three adults may be siblings, but I'm not at all certain. There's hopefully a way to improve on 100% mortality.
