Demise of my SAE

[Franz]

Hey Bros,

Anybody have cases of mass death of SAEs? All my 3 SAEs died one by one within 1 day. Sniff, they are all more then 3inches long

2 days ago I introduced some hairgrass, is hairgrass poisonous???

I checked the water, PH stable @ 7, KH @ 8. Don't think it is the water conditions since my shrimps and my guppy fries are still happily alive. Any1 have any idea what causes the death?

[yokogi]

mine also dead leh! 2 times, i introduced 2 SAEs. within 2-3 days only i found 2 corpse, only i donno which 2 from which group died. 1 otto also died.

1 SAE is the best - zigzag all over the tank, crashed into my plants, then finally banged the glass wall. afterwhich it did a VERTICAL freefall and had been sitting in a corner the rest of the afternoon. next day no more black stripe, then died at night.

the nickname "Flying Fox" doesn't apply to my SAEs at all (

[taz_boy]

i experience too....
3SAEs, died in a span of 3-4days,
but that's because of my outbreak of ich in my tank...
sad, cos i thought SAEs would be hardy enough to escape the calamity,
but too bad, they died, they were rather big, abt 2inch at that point of time

[yokogi]

last night another SAE died. so far 2 of them were laying next to hairgrass before & when they die. is there really a connection?

[robin]

When planting the HG, did you dig up a lot of the substrate?
ammonia may leech out of the substrate thus poisoning your bottom dwellers.

Regards
Robin

[michael lai]

Hi Franz,
I agree with robin, might not be the ammonia though, what kind of base fertiliser you using? I had this experience, I was using Dupont-mix and jbl as base. When I planted some new plants, I stir up some of the substrate.The next day, all my yamatos(about 100) were wipe out it also took out about 7-8 young ottos. I'm not saying it's a poisonous mix but I think the problem arise from there.
Maybe some of you guys have the same problems, care to share.thanks

[Franz]

Hmm, thing is i dun use substrate. I'm using some volcanic soil. Can't remember what isit. some clay like pallets about 5-8mm diameter.

The thing is, all my shrimps are ok, my cory is also ok, some guppy fries at the bottom also ok. But all 3x3inches SAE died almost 1 after the other.

Will snails kill them? They don't eat snails, so I dun suppose they will choke on it and I've never heard of any snails attacking fish.

[yokogi]

I use JBL (Aquabasic, i think?) fertilizer. Sure, i do stir up some rubbish along the bottom - melted plants, uneaten frozen brineshrimp, but i think not so much of substrate cos my gravel quite thick.

My 4 Rams are also ok so far, only have their "pearls" lost since i brought them home.

[mordrake]

whenever you have dead fishes, try to see whether there are signs of disease or external injuries.
if not, check your water for ammonia spikes and pH crash.
SAEs are hardy only after they have become acclimitized to your tank.
when introduced, if you see them going nuts, something must be wrong.
usually the water conditions vary too much from the tank that they came from.

[Franz]

Mine is a cycled planted tank leh. And they have been in the tank for a while. They look so healthy when they died, felt like deep frying them :P

[michael lai]

maybe its the whale thing or the SAE cult thing

[JeromeZ]

hmmm, i bought 3 SAE's from some LFS a month back. when they were netting the SAEs from the tank,they were stirring the water so badly as though they were making milo or something. i was shocked and asked them for the net and I DIY. When I returned home and tried to settle them into the tank, they were still very stressed. Within 48 hours, they were either dead or airborned.

I think SAEs are very prone to stress or sudden climate changes. I have two happy SAEs in my tank now, which I bought from a far more professional LFS.

[mozesyap]

hmmm i have also experienced this sudden SAE death syndrome....
I had 2 SAE which also died from no apparent reason, all other denizens are healthy. They were fine for almost 2 months... then suddenly... kaput... But I can't remember if I did anything to the tank before they died....