Something strange but rather amazing

[peterkoh]

Hi folks,

Abt 2 weeks ago, I bought 6 Cardinals and 1 Ram from Petmark. Unfortunately, the cardinals started to die. Not only that my 5 fav. rummynose which I had for more than 3 mths and were very healthy all along started to die too. Today, I only have 1 left. And all my cardinals were gone. Most of the bodies were not found and I attribute it to cannibalism and the SAEs and flyign foxes which look bloated.

Fish-wise, what is interesting is my neons which are supposely to be more fragile than cardinals and rummynose are doing fine. What could have caused my rummunoses and cardinals to die one by one ??

Plant-wise, what is amazing is they are growing very fast ! From Riccia, to water lettuce, blyyxa, marble queen and ludwigia. Esp my glosso which are growing taller and spreading it's roots. The accelerated growth seems to happen only a few days ago when I started to use an airstone with an airpump midweek to aerate the water as I suspected it's excessive ammonia or some unknown toxin/bacteria that cause my rummynoses and cardinals to die. Some plants grow like 1-2 cm over 2 days. I'm not kidding ! I tested pH, NO2 and NO3 and all look fine. I don't have any ammonia test kit. NO2 is 0 and NO3 is about 12.5 mg/l. Could the aeration (nothing I've changed except for 50% of water midweek) have contributed to this accelerated growth ?? I know from books and experts that aeration and surface water agitation will drive CO2 out but let's air also contains CO2, nitrogen, oxygen and other rare gases. Btw, my DIY CO2 has been running for 3 weeks already. Any clue what happened ?

I don't think I will add any more fish for the next 2 weeks even though I'm very tempted to and wait for the tank to settle down first.

Many Thanks.

[wks]

Hi peterkoh, from my experience cardinals don't survive well in newly set up tanks although some of our members may beg to differ. I do not know the real cause and ppl speculate this fish is probably more vulnerable to new tank syndrome than other fish.
My fist batch of cardinals died out leaving 3 behind after I intoduced them into my then 2 month old tank. After that bad experience I waited for another 3 months before introducing another 50 fish. This time I also added black water extract to play safe and all of them survived. Once they established themselves, they are very hardy and some have since grown to about 3cm long!

[bclee]

I too have experience that neons are very hardy and more adaptable to changes. Mine used to surfive for 1-2 years or more...

BC

[juggler]

In my newly upgraded planted tank, I added 30 Cardinals after a few days and all are still alive today after 3 months. But then again, I re-used the filter from the old tank. Only some Otos died though.

[peterkoh]

thanks guys ! I did a massive water change and plant re-arrangement 1 week earlier before I got the cardinals. none of the fish in the tank died even though the water was very murky for 1 day or two after that.

this incident dealt a heavy blow to my fish population. all in all, i lost 4 rummynose, 6 cardinals, 1 golden loach and 1 otos in my 2 ft tank . I've had the loach, oto and rummynoses for at least 3 mths already

whatever the cause is, somehow my plants are doing extremely well. i hope it's not something shortterm and i still have no clue what causes the tremendous growth. only thing i've cnaged is water and added in aeration using an airpump.

[NinjaFly]

Hi,

In my experience, both the Neon and the Cardinal Tetras are very fragile when you first place them in a newly setup tank. However, if you quarantine them well, both species of tetras will be real hardy.

However, it is true that the Neon tetras are more prone to dieases...

[joestoys]

maybe it help by add some ocean free anti bact- T1 everyday ... I am doing like everyday add a small dose... for prevention....

[bclee]

IMO, not neccessary to add any anti-bacteria if your water condition is good... zero NH3, NO2 and low NO3, etc. Good diet and water will do the job. Doctors don't ask you to eat anti-biotics everyday to prevent sickness...

Furthermore, some of those anti-bacteria stuff screws your bio-filtration or N-cycles. No good.

BC

[peterkoh]

even those blue coloured general aid in mild dosage ? i believe lfs uses something like these to prevent a breakout. ideally, it's best not to use any medication at all ... but you will never know what the new fishes carry and many of us don't bother with quarantine.

[bclee]

I have read a few instructions of those medications. Most of them advice that we make a water change after the whole thing. Some recommend that we use filter carbon to remove the residual medication. Some specifically advice you to disconnect the filter to run it in a bucket to prevent the good bacteria to be wiped out causing NH3/NO2 spike.

BC

[DEA]

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On 4/30/2002 4:38:34 PM

even those blue coloured general aid in mild dosage ? i believe lfs uses something like these to prevent a breakout. ideally, it's best not to use any medication at all ... but you will never know what the new fishes carry and many of us don't bother with quarantine.
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low levels of anitibiotics over a long period of time will cause resistant bacteria to be predominate in the tank

any med that has dye in it is suspect
meth blue and malachite green are not filter friendly
if you read the interpet manual that comes with the meth blue it tells you it will destroy your biological filter

[barmby]

It could be fungus. Tetras are tiny fish, and fungus hit them so fast that it kills in matter of hours.

I have personal experience.... .....colin

[peterkoh]

thks guys ! the water turns a little cloudy after i've added the oceanfree anti internal bacteria. the fish looks lathegic. but after a 30% water change, the water is much clearer now and the fish are active. i will continue to monitor the water quality by observing the fish. won't be adding new fish for the next 2 weeks.