Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Came back from work to unusually see my some of my young S. decora group in full view, sprinkled in white dots, pretty sure this is my first ever case of ich. Noticed a similar sprinkling on the upper half of my juvenile Ilyodon xantusi.
The tank (48x12x15) contains:-
Synodontis (decora; nigriventris; congica) [added 4 newly purchased nigriventris two weeks ago to exisiting group]
Microsynodontis polli(?)
Steatocranus casuarius "dad" [moved away from Lionhead nursery tank after killing the biggest male youngster and shreading "mum"'s fins at the end of last week]
Ilyodon xantusi [including 7 fry]
Misgurnus anguillicaudatus
So far I have raised the filter spraybar completely above the water level and increased the 300W Rena Smartheater to 30C, which will no doubt take a while to reach that temperature from 22C.
Would anyone advise using Waterlife Protozin?
If yes, at normal or reduced daily doseage?
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
N0body Of The Goat wrote:Would anyone advise using Waterlife Protozin?
If yes, at normal or reduced daily doseage?
I have used Waterlife Protozin in tanks with plecos, Syno brichardi and Corydoras (and various other non-catfish). I followed instructions, which I believe is full dose, but I can't remember the exact details.
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Thanks for the input, Mats, I added a half dose of Myxazin last night (because of having Ilyodon fry, who are roughly 3-6 weeks old).
Just before going to bed, one of the decora looked dead, but upon removal from the tank it twitched so I returned it to the tank. I've not had a good nights sleep at all, worrying about what I might wake up to, hence I'm up in the middle of the night. I popped my head into the lounge a few minutes ago and there are no dead fish out in the open, I just hope that is definitely the case, I'd be devastated if I have a tank wipeout.
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Given the laboured breathing, I'm now wondering if I am dealing with velvet rather than ich. As the temperature rose above ~26C, the decora were unusually active, trying to stay in the water surface current.
The water temperature seems to have levelled out at 29C, I'm now thinking in light of the rapid deaths that maybe I should let the temp naturally drop and wait to see what MartinS and MatsP think tomorrow afternoon.
Bought a new bottle of Protozin today, just in case the old bottle was older than 12 months, added day 2 half dose.
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Came back home from work to find two more decora and Steatocranus "dad" (who even last night showed no signs of symptoms) dead.
Either side of dinner, another decora and a nigriventris (who looked in an awful state earlier this afternoon) found dead.
Down to my final (largest) decora youngster of the six who were destined to join my ~18cm specimen. The irony is that the decora group and "dad" so nearly got moved to the 5x2x2 two weekends ago.
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
Myxazin is formalin, Protozin is a mix of malachite green, formalin and copper.
EDIT: Steatocranus? The cichlid? The catfish may be sensitive to malachite green & copper, but a cichlid should not be sensitive to either myxazin or protozin - unless you overdosed the medication your water quality or dissolved oxygen must have dropped low?
-- Disclaimer: All I write is strictly my personal and frequently uninformed opinion, I do not speak for the Swedish Museum of Natural History or FishBase! --
Interests: African catfishes and oddballs, Madagascar cichlids; stoner doom and heavy rock; old school choppers and riding them, fantasy novels, travelling and diving in the tropics and all things nature.
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Mike, I used Protozin, initially at half dose [3.75ml] because of having the Ilyodon 3-6 week old youngsters in there. However, after a ~75% water change yesterday afternoon with plenty of excess Seachem Prime (the API ammonia looked higher than the yellow 0 but less than the lime green 0.25), I then did a second dose for the day [4ml]. So overall yesterday, 7.75ml were added, but I would have lost most of the initial half dose because of the water change, so in effect there was ~5ml of Protozin present after the water change and second dose.
This morning I have dosed to 7ml, taking account that the 140l is ~20-30l below capacity. Over the course of today and tomorrow, I am going to add table salt to a final concentration of 0.5g/l, as per MatsP's recommendation when he visited with MartinS yesterday afternoon.
MatsP has used full dose Protozin with Synodontis brichardi and felt that in his experience, given I am losing fish at an alarming rate, I should start using full daily doses.
There are no signs of new deaths overnight, but the one fish I desperately want to see alive is the remaining decora. I might have to be ruthless and pull out the bogwood for a "head count" soon, as much as this will stress out everybody, the final decora is the biggest fish by volume in there and if he/she is a rotting corpse the water quality will plummit.
sidguppy, the oxygen drop at the high temperature or bad water from the decora deaths are both things I have considered too. He was acting very unusual on Monday and Tuesday, water surfing at the very top of the tank and sometimes I could hear him break the water surface, but at no point did I see a single spot on him. His colouring upon death was odd, mostly his normal slate grey colours, but there were blotchy white/grey areas near his gills.
The spraybar comes from an All Pond Solutions 2000EF by the way, giving a real world turnover off ~1200lph, so over 10x water turnover in this tank. But ultimately, water surface turnover will only increase the odds of the water reaching its potential oxygen saturation, so over the course of the last few days the potential has gone from just above to just below 8mg/l.
I do have two powerheads that I could move over if people feel the extra water rippling is worth a shot, namely a Koralia 1600 and a more powerful Aqua Medic Nannoprop 5000 (settings from 2000-5000lph).
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
If the options are "stress fish by moving bogwood" and "stress fish by having corpses laying under the bogwood", I know which I'd prefer if I was a fish in the tank...
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Been attending to the tank since my last update and the worst has happened... Found the last and biggest decora youngster dead. This one had grown so much since September, picked up at ~4cm TL... it had grown to ~12cm TL ,at least quadrupled in depth and girth
One or two of the nigriventris are showing little bits that look like a layer of "lose skin" near their pectoral fins, but nowhere near the extent of the one that died yesterday.
I've done another water change with plenty of excess Prime, vacuumed the whole gravel floor and refilled to a lower level so that every spraybar hole is now above the water line.
Waterlife suggest dosing on days 1;2;3;6, but given how I only half dosed on Thursday (with old bottle, probably >12 months old) and Friday (with new bottle) and then effectively ~66% yesterday after adding Protozin either side of a water change, I'm left wondering how to go from here. Today is the only day I have added a full dose of 7ml to ~100l of water, then added ~0.6ml to the fresh 10l (after removing ~20l during the gravel clean)...
Unless anyone suggests otherwise, I'm going to call today "day 2." Does that sound reasonable?
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
Interests: Sim racing; cycling (ideally not into the back of stationary dustbin lorries located on blind sweeping bends in wet weather, with rim brakes like chocolate teapots)
Just a quick update to write that I'm hopeful things have taken a turn for the better, no new deaths in the last two days, after four consecutive days of tradegy. While I'm still gutted to have lost the whole decora group; Steatocranus "dad" and one Synodontis nigriventris; I think the timing of MartinS and MatsP visiting me on Saturday and passing on the valued opinion has drastically improved the odds of everyone else surviving.
My Microsynodontis cf. polli gave me a scare on Sunday night, spending the whole night midwater in the front corner, behaviour of a similar nature to that of my very ill decora. However, he/she shot off under bogwood when I opened the curtains and it has been spotted alive this afternoon.
It seems the fish are mostly if not completely spot free now, I'm struggling to see any, so the Protozin and 0.5g/l of Sainsburys Coarse Sea Salt should hopefully work their magic when the "free swimmers" emerge from the tank floor.
Dreaming of a full-on 5x2x2 Zaire River rapids biotope...
