Reply With QuoteI have 5 zebra otos in 2ft tank. I dose 1/5 capful of Excel every 3 days. Still lazing around and munching on algae wafer when I dose. Having say that, my tank is not heavily planted. Hope it helps.
Is zebra oto sensitive to seachem excel. I have 4 normal Otos and I dose seachem excel weekly in capacity of 4ml into my 2ft planted tank. None of them exhibit discomfort. On Friday I added 4 zebra Otos into my tank and they are swimming actively. The following day I conducted a water change and dosed the seachem excel as usual in the morning. In the evening, 3 of them were lying on the ground breathing profusely. Eventually they died. Currently, there is left with one zebra oto. This piece does not seem to be affected.
I had done a proper acclimatization and they were swimming normally before my weekly water change.
I noticed that those dead had blood strains around their head.
Apart from seachem excel, I also added seachem phosphate, lushgro micro and macro. None of my live stock was acting unusual except the 3 dead zebra Otos. My question is whether they are sensitive to excel or does anyone have any idea?
I have 5 zebra otos in 2ft tank. I dose 1/5 capful of Excel every 3 days. Still lazing around and munching on algae wafer when I dose. Having say that, my tank is not heavily planted. Hope it helps.
they are not sensitive to excel with normal recommended dosage unless the excel happens to 'hit' them before it gets diluted in the tank water. i have 1 zebra oto in the tank, the highest dosage of excel that i've did for spot nuking is about 30ml in a 3x1x1' (80+L) tank. None of my livestocks shows any discomfort except 1 of my bristlenose, who happens to swim into the 'nuked zone' and died few days later. had the same symptoms as your 3 zebra oto before it died.
that aside, i noticed that you can actually "try" to keep it alive in a hospital tank (i used tupperware) with few airstones bubbling away at max air pump output, it seems to get better until i put it back into main tank
The 3 of them showed the same symptoms. They stick to the wall and slid down and lay bellies up. I can see them breathing but they seem too weak to turn over. They remain lying till their last breath. All 3 died in a span of an hour after the first showed such sign a few hours after the water change.
One thing that comes to my mind is that these 3 often swam up to the surface to grasp for air which the 4th surviving didn't.
The zebra otos came from my stock so some background on their previous tank conditions might help... their tank for the past year was a non-Co2 injected 2ft planted tank, but it had Seachem Excel dosed at 2ml daily so probably Excel itself may not be the sole issue.
From the tank specs in your other thread, its most likely the combination of Co2 injection + water change + a larger dose of Excel (which is a reducing agent and can reduce oxygen in larger doses), this combo all done at the same time probably created a sudden change in the Co2/O2 levels that those particular zebra otos had trouble dealing with (the constant gulping of air and blood streaks on their head do seem to suggests problems with internal O2/Co2 exchange)... the other fishes and otos in the tank are probably all already fully acclimated and adapted to those changes over a period of time so they have no problems with it.
I think next time when adding new fishes into the tank, it'll probably be better to spread out the water change and excel dosing regimen (maybe do each separately on different days), so that the new fishes can adapt to those conditions over a longer span of time.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 10th Nov 2013 at 14:24.
Lesson learnt. Lacking of o2 sympton seems to tally with what UA had described.
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