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So you only got the fish 6 weeks ago? This sounds a lot like what I have been through with my new CPDs. I had one that held on for a long time too but in the end I put her down because she was getting worse. If they are new and were not in very good condition then I would guess it’s not that unusual to have problems like these, if you have had them for longer then I would be more worried.
@In2wishin wrote:
I know the shrimp and the CPD’d are known for eating each other’s babies but right now I just want them to feel at home.
From what I have read from others experience the CPD eat shrimp babies but not the other way around. Interestingly I have a whole bunch of baby cherry shrimp growing up my CPD tank and they don’t seem to have eaten any, I think they just haven’t caught on yet.
Thanks Tom. I have 7 left and they have settled in well now. They are much fatter and friendlier now. Perhaps my tank was not mature enough. I hope that will be the end of my troubles, although there is still one with some swim bladder troubles.
It looks exactly like the new arrivals I lost recently. The clamped fins are more just a general sign of bad health or unhappiness I think and can have many causes, maybe some one else can help more. Hope she gets better.
Well I didn’t loose any during the night, which I’m happy about.
@AquaGirl wrote:
How old was your newly set up tank before putting the fish in? It could be that the tank was not aged enough?? Just a thought.
The tank had only been set up for about a week but I took everything out of a well established tank, and all levels test well so I don’t think that is the problem.
@ballpc wrote:
Well unfortunately it’s all but impossible to diagnose fish sight unseen over the internet.
Yes, one of the limitations of the internet. I appreciate your input anyway. I don’t count myself as an expert but I think I’d be able to work out any of the more obvious causes, I’ve kept tropicals for almost 10 years and I’m very interested in reading about them on the net. You have to sit and watch them for a few mins to see that there is something not quite right. One has a clamped anal fin, one has a slight swim bladder problem (it wasn’t like that in the store) and one has a back end that droops slightly. They are all pretty lively but those are the same symptoms the ones that died had so I’m paranoid now. Then there is one from the first lot that has been hovering about on her own she has a clamped tail fin and has lost weight. She is the most obviously unwell but actually looks a little better today.
It’s too bad the guy at the store is obviously clueless about CPD’s.
Obviously CPD do fine above PH of 7. He said the breeders from India had given him that information so it is possible they were raised in a low PH which made it harder for them to adjust. Of course that is if he was telling the truth at all.
Will they eat for you?
Yes, all but one are eating like pigs. I’m feeding them Hikari micro pellets. It took a couple of days for them to get into them, they were used to flake food, but they like them better now. I also let a bunch of of cyclops(the tiny type) go in the tank and they enjoy chasing them. The skinny one wasn’t eating for a couple of days, she wasn’t skinny when she got to me. She looked a little more lively this morning so when she didn’t eat the pellets I tried flakes and she ate some. LOL, am I the only CPD owner trying to get my fish off flakes?
PS: There is an article on the home page called “Home Sweet Home”. It’s about CPD’s in their natural environment, it contains water parameter info taken at the sight where these fish were first discovered.
That’s the page that led me to this site in the first place, best info on CPD on the web here!
Again thanks so much for taking the time to help.
On a brighter note a pair were showing spawning behavior this morning. It didn’t last long but no no doubt what they were thinking about.
They had been in the store for a couple of months, not new arrivals. I couldn’t get them right away because I needed to set up a tank for them. The guy in the store said they are farm bred in India.
On the whole they didn’t look terrible but there were a few in the tank that didn’t look good, When I got home with the first lot there were already two with problems and a third very small one, all three of these and one more died, leaving two healthy ones and one that is still struggling. I went back for a second lot and this time was very careful to get healthy active ones but some are still showing the same symptoms, although not as strongly. It’s been two days and none have died yet but I’m not counting my ‘chickens’ yet, I think the next 24hrs will be critical.
Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are perfect so it only leaves me with two theories. It could be disease, that came with the fish or that was passed on from a filter I used from another of my tanks, I have had no problems with my fish but you never know if they could be carrying something the CPD are sensitive to. The guy at the store said not a single one of his had died, but I do find that hard to believe out of about 100 they had.
PH shock seems to fit the symptoms. The guy from the store said they mix with RO water because CPDs must have a PH below 7 or they will die, when I tested their water it was closer to 7.5. Our water seemed only slightly higher but the shades of green the test kit has are hard to read so there could be a bigger difference than I thought, I need to get a better kit. I do know that my water is hard which it seems is more important than PH as it’s really osmotic shock rather than PH shock that kills.
I’d be worried about the dosing seeing as you started recently. Some thing could be building up too much. Perhaps stop for a few days or cut back to half dose. Are you sure you have been using the right amount according to the volume of water in your tank(-glass, gravel, wood etc)? Small tanks are easy to overdose.
I don’t know much about CPD from personal experience yet so some one else may have better advice.
Just an update, all the fish developed a clamped tail and three more died, two are looking all better again and coloring up nicely, they seem to be a male and a female at least. A third one still looks a little iffy, It is swimming around with the others but still has the clamped tail and is a bit thin. I don’t know if it was the stress of changing tanks or if they got some type of infection or something. I acclimated them slowly and tested ammonia and nitrites (both 0).
Thats good to know, the little guy is hopping around the tank pretty happily, so you never know. Bad news this morning the one with the droopy tail is dead but the part I’m more worried about is two of the others have a clamped tail now. They still look healthy, still swimming well but it worries me, can’t be a good thing.
I honestly thought that she would be dead the first morning and got up early to take the body out of the tank before my husband saw (he’s more squeamish than me) but was surprised to see some improvement. Today she is swimming around the tank much more but still has the droop tail.
The CPD have been in the LFS in a bare tank eating flake food for a couple of months now so I think they have been under too much stress plus most of them have been sold so the ones left were not the first pick. I also ended up with one that seems to have swim bladder trouble, I have a feeling that one will die in the long run. I saw that one in the tank before and was trying to avoid it but they are so small it was hard to keep track when the guy was getting them out of the tank. He also got one tangled up in the net rather awkwardly so maybe the droopy one was injured. The store already offered to exchange the sick two for me but I don’t really want to put them through the stress of another tank move, which is bound to finish them off, so I think I’ll just take my chances.
Thanks, I don’t trust meds either. She does a little burst of swimming once in a wile and looks almost normal but for the clamped fins, the effort seems to make her tired though. At first she would actually sit on the bottom of the tank but today I haven’t seen her do that, she just hangs out in a quiet spot for a while with her tail drooping.
