Ideas on odd behaviour

L

lilacamy931

Member
Oct 22, 2009
78
0
6
Bournemouth
Hey all
I had 6 pygmies, had them since october and they were doing extremely well as a breeding group. Over the week there has been some odd behaviour and have now lost two :cry:

The behaviour was in one where he was at the top alot and ended up swimming around the tank upside down..Netted and isolated him, but then a second one did the same. So it was suggested to treat all of them wiht a anti internal. The water stats were perfect except after a dead pygmy. since then found two dead (probably because of the med now I think of it). The original one is still alive and kicking, a little faded and stressed from being separated in a breeding trap, so last night added him back to the group remaining and have done a good water change today.

One of the things that is odd is I bought a singular pygmy from this particular guy who the original group were brought from and he was doing it. (When I got him, put him separate to the others). I have now 5 new pygmies, in a separate tank, and they have been wonderful, zipping about.

So sorry for my ramblings, are they affected with something or could it just be old age? As the originals the guy didnt know when he got them in or how long they had been there (previous fish were a year old!). Any thoughts really appreciated
 
stannyblade

stannyblade

Member
Nov 5, 2009
99
0
6
Sheffield UK
Sorry for your losses.

Where abouts do you live? Here in South Yorkshire (UK) there have been quite a few of us in the club that im a member of who have had a few unexplained deaths. I think there may be something in the water at the moment that isnt being picked up by the water tests.
 
D

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
2
36
Your best bet is to ring the water board and ask if anything different or extra has been added.
 
L

lilacamy931

Member
Oct 22, 2009
78
0
6
Bournemouth
I havent managed to get around to the water board yet but for a little while everything seemed ok. Then yesterday morning lost another and now a bit fearful as lost one of the new ones in a separate tank. Here is a pic incase I have missed something. I find it so odd as have pandas, habrosus, gold stripes, caudimaculatus as well as senstitive shrimp and none of these are affected (touch wood) just the pygmies
 
D

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
2
36
Whats the ph of the tap water?

which meds are you using?

If the other fish are unaffected then im not sure that it is a water change that has triggered this as pandas are quite sensitive to water conditions.

What do you feed them?



moving to the health forum
 
L

lilacamy931

Member
Oct 22, 2009
78
0
6
Bournemouth
Our PH is 8 and the pygmies we have sourced have been reared in similar conditions (thought wild or further afield might be affected).

The have a diet of shrimp pellets, crushed flake, crushed brine shrimp. (I have tried them on the likes of bloodworm but they never eat it). Oh also dried daphnia as well as the occasional treat of live dapnhia and brine shrimp. I have tried slow releasing tabs as well as bottom feeder cory specific tabs and they just dont take!

The only med I have used is No 9 Anti Bacterial by Interpet as didnt want to use anything in combination etc on sensitive fish. Just been keeping up on water changes more frequently and dosing full course.
 
D

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
2
36
If you have RO available, it might be worth using a 50/50 ro/tap mix in the tanks anyway to bring the ph down to 7.4-7.6 or even 60/40 ro/tap

The thing is with fish, anything that isn't healthy to them is called a stressor, they can look and seem fine but it can only take one extra stressor to make them ill or die, whereas fish in an enviroment that is stress free will fight against anything that stresses them. Fish in a stressful environment however have such low stress levels they can't fight or cope with any more.

I appreciate that the pygmies may of been raised in high ph water but it isn't what is native to them, anything that is wrong parameter wise will be causing some degree of stress.

Just out of interest how deep are the tanks they are in?


Theres a pretty good article around about stressors, ill have to dig it out.
 
D

dw1305

Global Moderators
Staff member
May 5, 2009
1,396
0
36
Wiltshire nr. Bath, UK
Chloramine

Hi all,
Not sure whether its relevant but Bournemouth is an area where the water treatment is with chloramine, so a de-chlorinator that deals with it is a "must have" if you are using tap water.
cheers Darrel
 
L

lilacamy931

Member
Oct 22, 2009
78
0
6
Bournemouth
Thanks for that Darrell definately have decholrinator that deals with those elements, good to know it is definately for a reason!
Thanks Doodles, they were in a small 5g for breeding purposes where they did fine and then went into a 10g tall, they are now back inthe 5g where I think they may stay. Some good news havent lost any so hopefully the remaining 6 will recover. Thanks lots Doodles for that, will try with the RO water to bring down, still learning so will read through the article.x
 
D

Doodles

Retired Staff
Apr 8, 2009
8,786
2
36
No worries:D

When you introduce the RO, mix it with dechlored tap water when you do a water change. Not too much of a water change at a time to prevent them from further stress.

I would also really monitor the water parameters ie ammonia etc as its really easy for things to go haywire in small tanks and ammonia is much more toxic in water with a high ph and temp.

Theres some info here about that

http://www.ornamentalfish.org/association/code/quality/ammonia.php


Keep us updated as we are here to help if we can:yes:
 
L

lilacamy931

Member
Oct 22, 2009
78
0
6
Bournemouth
Thanks so much Doodles for all the help and useful links. Touch wood day 4 of losing no more of the now 6 so here is hoping for better future for them
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom