Botia Almorhae

[holmesotters]

* Type of fish that are affected (common name and latin name if possible - common names vary worldwide, latin names don't!).
Botia almorhae
* How long has the tank been set up for?
9 months
* Size of tank (dimensions and volume).
4ft X @ft X 18ins
* How is the tank being filtered?
Eheim ext eco 300 + Fluval U2
* Water temperature.
29C Planted tank
* Your maintenance regime (e.g. how often water changes are carried out, what percentage of the water is changed each time, how often you clean your filter/s and how do you do this?)
Weekly 10%, fine filter washed in tank water, changed every 3 months
* Has anything new been added to the tank recently? (fish, plants, live food, decor etc).
Temp increase recently whilst 6 Discus are being moved to new tank. Am feeding lambs heart once a week in a small chunk.

* What other fish are in the tank?
Golden sucking loach 3", 10 Rummy nosed tetras, 3 Cory Julii

* As detailed a description as possible of the symptoms the fish are exhibiting (remember a photograph can speak a thousand words).
No outwards signs of injury, no pre signs of health issues, paling of colour around organs behind pectoral fins otherwise fish growing and appear healthy
* How long ago the affected fish were added to the tank, and how long the fish have been displaying symptoms.
Two deaths in the last week both unexplainable

* Your current water parameters - ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20ppm reducing by extra water changes, pH 6 tapwater 6.8 and low ph due to bogwood Phosphate 2ppm also reducing with more frequent water changes
(please don't say 'my water is fine, the levels are ok', we would like actual numbers from the test results).
The Discus will be moved asap to new tank
The botia are quiet aggressive feeders and although started with 7 now down to 4

Many thanks,

Any advice would be appreciated

holmesotters
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Emma Turner

Posts: 8901
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:07 pm
Location: Peterborough, UK

[Bas Pels]

most likely, the given value * Size of tank (dimensions and volume).
4ft X @ft X 18ins

is 4ft X 2ft X 18ins (I have @ and 2 on the same key in m keyboard)

More to the point, I would not feed lambs heart - it is not a food source fish would encounter in nature. This can be hard to digest, and aggressive feeders might be able to eat more of it than they should, resulting in bloat-like symptoms.

But this is the only think I could find

[mikev]

Hard to make sense of the post indeed .... but I notice that 10% weekly water changes is low. And yes, agree on lamb's heart.

[holmesotters]

Thank you for your comments, will stop feeding Lambs heart unfortunately two more died today - erratic swimming,gasping, loss of colour and eventually death within a few hours. All other fish seem fine

[Diana]

I would do larger water changes, focusing on removing water from lower in the tank, among the plants, even if you have to get in there with small tubing. Air tubing would be too small, too slow, plug up too often. Slightly larger would flow faster, and suck in more debris, yet still to small enough to get in between the plants.
It is not so much any debris that I would target, but microorganisms that might be causing this problem.

Loaches are bottom fish. If there are disease organisms in the tank the Loaches will be right there, where the microorganisms are waiting to find a host. So they get infected first. Yes, I also see Cories on the list. For whatever reason, the Loaches are more susceptible to whatever this is. Since breathing issues appear to be part of the problem, and one of the recent events was a rise in temperature, I would suggest that the fish may have had some infection at a low level. Slightly compromised respiration. When water gets warmer it holds less oxygen. So when the temperature was raised the Loaches with a problem getting started got worse faster because of low oxygen.