Lost 5 plecs & 2 panamense WTF??

[Krener]

Hows everyone doing
Just wondering if someone can give me some advice as I am totally lost as to whats going on here.

Ok so here's the low down.

Established new tank in Sept last year 4x2x2.
Plan is to be mostly discus but you HAVE to have some plecs in there otherwise it's just 'boring'.
Cycled the tank just as I have done many times before.
Prior to adding fish parameters were
pH 7
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Temp 26

It is planted & has Red Sea Flora Base included into the substrate.
It is a stepped substrate with Lexcen polycarbonate plastic acting as a retaining wall.
Substrate has been fixed to the plastic & a white polystyrene background I made with West Systems epoxy.
This epoxy has been used by quite a few fishos to make backgrounds without any side effects.

Now everthing was going fine for 8 weeks or so, then I noticed 1 of my albino BN had passed on.
Kinda figured this was a once off & monitored the other 2.
Next thing I know a 2nd albino BN started to show involuntary 'twitching' every now & then, & then soon passed (maybe 36 hours later)
I immediately removed the 3rd fish but it soon showed same symptoms & died.

No sign of anything out of the ordinary on any of the fish or in the tank, parameters remained the same.

Now I thought it may have been the rainwater I collected (never can be to sure)
I changed out the water & started again with treated tap water(no cycle needed) & placed some mollies & standard goldfish in the tank.
All fish doing fine, no losses.
Some weeks had passed & I aquired 2 Sturisoma Panamense & placed them in.
2 weeks later SAME SYMPTOMS, I lost them both.

More water changing & cleaning.
Check parameters again, everything fine, existing fish healthy, had some bronze corys in there for about a month.

Transferred my pair of common BN & 1 Mogurnda Mogurnda.
The BN passed away inside 1 week , all other fish healthy.

So in effect 5 months have passed & the same issue still exists in my tank.
Short of a complete strip & rebuild I have no idea why they died, or as to why it was only these 2 species.
Any insight would be appreciated please.
Thanks in advance.

Sean

 

[jamous91]

It cant be that bad aka the water cos if it was teh discus would of died

 

[FF MkII]

Bad enough to have lost some plecs.

Could be that the filters/water just weren't mature enough for the plecs as most do best in well established tanks. The rain water could also be the culprit.

If all the other fish are doing well I'd be inclined to leave it as it is for awhile before adding any other fish, other than that I can't really help.

 

[Lornek8]

Do all the plecs come from the same source, ie lfs?
Do the other fish come from there as well?
How good is the lfs with plecs?

 

[Krener]

reply

No, the plecs have come from different sources.
The other fish have come from the lfs & are fine.
However the panamense were ordered in & never left the shipping bag until I acclimatised them, of this I am certain.
Lfs is really good & doesn't mess around.
Actually is a good friend of mine & we help each other out whenever needed.
Even he is stumped as to whats going on.

It really makes no sense bar the fact the deceased are raspers.

 

[D-MAC]

It sounds like toxic poisoning. Do you have any caves that have an open bottom? If you move some of the substrate do you get bubbles being released? My thoughts at the moment is toxic gas being released from the gravel or some item you have used is toxic to the sucker cats as they graze off it.

 

[Breamlegend]

Any driftwood or were they eating the background?

 

[Lornek8]

It sounds like toxic poisoning. Do you have any caves that have an open bottom? If you move some of the substrate do you get bubbles being released? My thoughts at the moment is toxic gas being released from the gravel or some item you have used is toxic to the sucker cats as they graze off it.

Was my first inclination as well as its quite common with mysterious bottom-dweller deaths but the fact that corys are in there as well made me question it.

 

[Mooo]

Sorry to read about your losses :cry:

 

[BENNO]

sorry to hear i hope you get to the bottom of this
mystery...

 

[ccole]

Best thoughts going out to you and hope the problem has gone away as quick as it happened.

 

[Irene0100]

oh dear. tell us more about the whole tank.
what filtration, what temp, ornaments, what type of substrate and how deep,
what are you feeding them on? how much?
post pic of tank if you can.
sounds like something is not quite right.
how many discus in there?
did you add discus wormer - when ? etc

 

[Krener]

oh dear. tell us more about the whole tank.
what filtration, what temp, ornaments, what type of substrate and how deep,
what are you feeding them on? how much?
post pic of tank if you can.
sounds like something is not quite right.
how many discus in there?
did you add discus wormer - when ? etc

Filter is an Eheim 2228
Temp 26
No ornaments
75mm substrate, Flora Base & 3mm gravel
Algae wafers & Community frozen, & only enough for inhabitants to eat in short span of time. Keep em hungry, keep em keen I reckon.
There aren't any discus in there atm, I was wating till everything was OK, but clearly it isn't

The only thing I could put it down to was the background I made.
So now I'm stripping down & starting again once I get back from my NUMEROUS bush trips for work (some REALLY outback places even for a desert bloke like me!)
Will start with a different make up for the background using a different bonding compound that won't effect the raspers.
OR I'll buy a ready made job, once it greens over noone will tell.

Thanks for all your support guys, really appreciate it.
Once I'm back up & running I'll throw some pics up of my hopeful success.

 

[macvsog23]

http://www.backtonature.se/


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