Looking for some advice
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Hello, I am new to the forum as well as new to CPD keeping. I mail order purchased a group of 7 about 2 weeks ago. They arrived looking pale, but other wise very nice, I was impressed with them as I had never seen them in person. Initially I placed them in my 46 gallon community tank. Moderately planted with peaceful inhabitants. I have slowly, almost one by one lost each of them. When I finally caught on that something was amiss, I would see them with clamped fins staying hidden most of the time. I removed the remaining 4 to my QT 10 gallon that was heavily planted and have lost one more, though I had expected that as it had clamped fins when I moved him. As of yesterday, I moved the last 3 to another planted tank, because I am breaking down the 10 gal. This is to be their permanent tank. One has been hiding since the move.
My water pretty hard, right outta the tap and my ph is 7.8 outta the tap. I normally don’t try and mess with the parameters, as I have never purchased fish that required different params. However, i really like the CPD’s and would like to get more. That being said, I do not want to purchase more only to watch them die off one by one. That is never fun.
Any advice would certainly be appreciated as well as any insight on keeping these little ones from kicking the bucket. I’m at a loss.
(I also purchased 6 Dario Hysginon and 14 Boraras brigittae from the same vendor and haven’t lost any of them)
Hi tlyons01, welcome to the forum!
Sorry to hear about your losses. It’s been my experience that unless you have a very large group of CPD’s they do much better in smaller tanks. Also, if you happened to get wild caught fish, they may need some special attention to feeding starting out. Have you noticed them eating? What have you been offering them to eat?
Dennis
Dennis, Thank you for your response. Honestly I have no idea if they were wild caught, but I would say the chances are pretty high. I had been offering them a basic flake food, and I have tried frozen daphnia on 2 occasions, one of those being yesterday. I just received a sample package of Something Staple S that they seemed to like. My tanks have been running for quite a while so I would suspect that there are the normal micro stuff for them to hunt. The last 2 that I am watching seem to be doing very well. There is a third that I cannot find today yet, but will hunt that one out when it is feeding time.
Do you think that having hard water might have anything to do with it? I tried to acclimate them over a period of 12 hours or so. I am waiting to hear from one of our LFS on whether or not they can order some for me, I will only get from them if they can leave them bagged when they arrive since their tanks ALWAYS have ich…I definitely want more, but if my water isn’t good for them, I will not order any more.
What do you suggest for feeding? I do not have any worm cultures and though I think it’s icky, I might get into that if it would benefit them. I would need to research them out first though…Again, Thank you
Regards, Therese@tlyons01 wrote:
Do you think that having hard water might have anything to do with it?
Unless your water is just “off the scale” hard, I wouldn’t think that would be the problem. They are very hardy and adaptable little fish. I always quote the report of water conditions from Mr. U Tinwin of the Hein Aquarium when he visited one of the original collection spots, “the water where these fish are found is crystal clear with a pH of 7.3 and the conductivity of 250 micro siemen”. That puts the water at the upper end of “soft” very close to “slightly hard”.
Here in Ohio, my well water is very hard. When ever possible, I try to soften it up a bit with rain water, but I have kept CPD’s in my very hard water without problems. As I ship these fish all over the country, I try to keep them in what I call neutral water conditions with the pH around 7.2-7.4 and TDS around 250. The thinking being it will make it easier for them to adapt to other water conditions with proper acclamation.
@tlyons01 wrote:
What do you suggest for feeding?
With out going into live foods, I try to feed them food that sinks to the lower levels of the tank. Algae wafers, shrimp sticks or pellets. I also feed something called Golden Pearls on a regular basis. I get mine from Kens Fish, here’s a link with more info;
http://www.kensfish.com/moreinfo/golden-pearls-100-200-microns.htmlDennis
PS – Thanks for the comment on the YouTube video!
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