Deaths.

[Jimbo]

Hi. I’ve now lost 5 CPD’s since I bought my first batch of 5 back in February. I’m curious if anyone has also had any deaths and what were there suspected causes. I pay a lot of attention to water quality and there has never been any ammonia and nitrite visible when testing. Mine are as follows:

1. Day after purchase. Soon after adding aquarium salt to reduce stress.
2. 2nd day after purchase. Acclimatisation Stress?
3. Day after purchase. A male from the 2nd batch of 6 I bought.
4. She didn’t shoal with the others and just stayed in the corner of the tank at the surface before dying.
5. Found in Java Moss this afternoon. May have been there some time as covered in fungus. Batch and sex unknown.

The first batch I bought were VERY small compared to the second and third. I had not seen them in the flesh before so didn’t know any different when buying. I’ve lost 3 of the first 5 (1, 2 and 4). Of the remaining 2, 1 seems to be going the same way as death number 4 so i’m quite worried. Anyone got any ideas why i’ve been so unlucky with them? Thanks!

[katkin]

Hi Jimbo, what are your water parameters? I’ve only lost one of my original and I think that was due to stress as it didn’t shoal with the others and didn’t colour up like the others did. Within days it was dead. The only other losses were 14 fry which got fried by my faulty heater!

I don’t add any salt to the tank, and don’t know that you need to. What are you feeding them? What planting have you got? Temperature? etc….

Not sure that I’ll be able to help any, busomeone might be able to given all your stats, routines etc.
K

[Crazedpuffer]

Aquarium salt is best used to aid treatment of disease. I never heard of using it for stress, I’d personally do a water chang eand try to get all the salt out of there. Also what are they eating? Do they have sunken in bellies? What color is there poo?

[Jimbo]

Hey. I don’t use the salt anymore, it was bought for aiding stress reduction when I had a suspected whitespot outbreak in my Rio 125. I’d read it helps in stress reduction generally so thought i’d give it a try. I’ve done loads of water changes since and reckon there’s none in there now. Plus the CPD’s were moved to their own tank a few weeks later which I hadn’t bought when I got the 1st 2 batches. Their tank has never had any salt added. Anyway, water parameter:

Ammonia – 0ppm
Nitrite – 0ppm
Nitrate – 10-15ppm
pH – 7
GH – 160
KH – 80

The hardness i’ve not checked for a while but i’m pretty sure it’ll be the same. I’ve been feeding them live daphnia, but run out. So, now they’re back on broken up TetraMin Crisps, Frozen Bloodworm, Baby Brine Shrimp, Freeze Dried Tubifex. I’ve been trying different things as a few had sunken in bellies and also they weren’t taking to some foods. As for plants, there’s a blanket of Java Moss and lots of floating Elodia. Temperature is 24 degrees. Poo… i’m not sure. Looking pretty normal I guess. That female I mentioned is not looking so good at all. She’s spent most of the day just resting on top of the Java Moss and not swimming around. I might even freeze her if she’s not improved by the morning as she appears to be suffering. Hey stomach is very shrunken. Any suggestions?

[Jimbo]

Just to add, I found my 1st fry on Sunday so I can’t be doing that much wrong.

[Jimbo]

Just to add, I found my 1st fry on Sunday so I can’t be doing that much wrong.

Also, I add Flourish and Flourish Excel to fertilise the plants. Very precisely dosed with a 1ml syringe. Not sure if that would have any effect.

[katkin]

Going by your stats, I can’t see any reason why you are having deaths. The only thing you might want to try is cutting out the flourish for awhile and see if that’s what’s causing the deaths. It would be a shame if it is, as I was planning on doing the same when I set up my next tank(specificly for the cpd’s)
If you are finding fry, than perhaps, you’ve just been unlucky and the cpd’s have just been unwell or weak before you received them.

I’m sorry that’s not really much help.
K

[Crazedpuffer]

Sunken bellies is a sign of Internal Parasites. If they have white poop then they def have IP’s. Most meds should be soaked in food half an hour before feeding and I think most brands on the markey don’t work. I know there is a medicine that can be added straight to the tank and work. If you’d like I can get you the specific info on good name brands and such.

[katkin]

Can you use Epsom salt baths for internal parasites? Not something I’ve ever tried, but I’m sure I’ve read about it somewhere.
K

[Crazedpuffer]

@katkin wrote:

Can you use Epsom salt baths for internal parasites? Not something I’ve ever tried, but I’m sure I’ve read about it somewhere.
K

I don’t think so. I’m not sure a full on SW bath would help either.

[Jimbo]

Hey. I checked on the thin looking female this morning and unfortunately she had passed on. :cry: So that’s 6 losses out of 16. Hmmm. 4 of which I know for definite were from the 1st batch which were very small as previously mentioned. The rest seem fine though. They’re all very alert and active plus the 3 fry are doing well in their net. I’m going to dose the tank with flubenol – http://www.flubenol.co.uk/ – just to be sure. I was planning to do this anyway with feeding them the live and frozen food. If I lose anymore, i’ll let you know. Thanks!

[Crazedpuffer]

Yeah Flubenol is the way to go! Hope all works out.

[Jimbo]

Ok, now i’m worried. I noticed another small male looking thin and i’ve been trying to get him and the other fish to eat different foods. Now he’s just resting all the time like the others were before they died. :cry: I don’t know what i’m doing wrong.

[Jimbo]

Still finding more fry though. It doesn’t make sense.

[Jimbo]

He is now dead. :cry: So that’s 7 losses out of 16 purchases. Great. However, i’ve just bought some Hikari Micro Pellets as the Hikari Micro Wafers i’m waiting on haven’t arrived due to a postage strike. The annoying thing is I phoned the shop I bought the Micro Pellets from asking if they had Micro Wafers and the lad told me they had them. When I asked him to check they were wafers not pellets he said “oh no sorry, they’re the pellets”. On visiting the shop after deciding to buy some pellets aswell I discovered they had wafers behind the pellets anyway, on the same rail, which would’ve saved me an ebay purchase and saved me a few quid, along with my latest CPD loss maybe. Grrrrrr. Dumbass idiot. I hate that shop! Anyway, they seem to take to them more than other foods. Tank now dosed with Flubenol. Fingers crossed I don’t lose any more.

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