zmo63
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Hi katkin, you’re right, I definitely don’t know how old they are. I’ve had them for just under a year, and they were in the store a long time before that. They were wanting $25 per fish, but after many months and a lot of employee turnover (chain store), I took the whole lot of them for $4. Seven originally, but three died in quarantine.
Old age is definitely not out of the question – I just didn’t want to jump to that conclusion if there were anything wrong in the tank that I could correct. If thats it though, I’d still think it strange that they declined so rapidly after spawning. Maybe it just took a lot out of them?
In an odd way, it’s kind of encouraging that no one has an obvious answer – I’d like to think it means I’m getting to be a better fish keeper.
I did remove some driftwood, and did a lot of pruning. I’m also doing 10-15% water changes every other day. The two remaining females are appearing on occasion, but I have yet to see them eat. They’re still very skinny.
I’ll continue with two more rounds of levamisole, and report back if there’s any improvement. Fry are still growing, so that’s some consolation!
thanks everyone – feel free to jump in if anyone has more ideas.
I didn’t change their food after the fry appeared – just used hikari first bites powder in addition to the parents’ food. Actually, the first death occurred the same day I started feeding live baby brine shrimp. I wonder if that’s significant? I was feeding all the tanks the same bbs, so I don’t think it could have been a bad batch.
The pH has stayed constant at 7 – same as it comes out of the tap. I haven’t checked the gH or kH, but we have very soft water. No CO2 in the tank. I had been dosing Flourish and Flourish Excel, but stopped at the first sight of fry.
I didn’t condition the adults on live food, but once i started feeding a lot of frozen, I saw a big difference in their color, and they really bulked up. Never had a problem with them turning down any food though – as long as it was small enough to fit in their mouths
That’s an interesting idea – not one I’d thought of. I have let it become very overgrown – been trying to keep my hands out of it as much as possible with the fry in there.
The adults hang out right by the filter (aquaclear 30), and the babies hover above them in the same general area.
I’ll do some trimming tonight and maybe reposition some of the driftwood to get some more flow in the rest of the tank. Even if it’s not the culprit, it’s a good idea.
