Fattening up Schisturas

[zmo63]

I moved my Schistura savonas out of quarantine and into a new tank yesterday, and now I'm second guessing myself.

They've all been through at least three rounds of levamisol (I got 6 at first, then another 6 later from the same person, so some have had six treatments, and some have had 3 treatments). They were all skinny when I got them; two of the skinniest loaches died in quarantine. Although most of them have filled out nicely, now that they're in the big tank and I can see them better, I realize that there are at least two who are still terribly skinny. They seem active, but I'm worried that the skinniest ones can't compete for food, and they might have trouble with the current in their new tank.

So what's the best way of getting these guys fattened up? Feed extra? Feed more often? More frozen foods? Garlic? All of the above? I've got some Seachem Nourish, which I added to some flake, and they promptly ignored. I might try it again mixing it with blood worms or something.

I'm also having a hard time figuring out how to feed in a river-ish tank. Everything I throw in gets blown around by the current, and then more likely than not, sucked up into the filters.

Some pictures:

Fat and healthy...





and skinny skinny...



I really hope these skinny ones pull through.

[Diana]

If there is any way of removing the skinny ones I would isolate and feed separately, frequently, and rotate meaty foods. Offer vegies, but I am not sure these fish eat vegies.

To feed: Can you put one or more of the pumps on a switch (such as a power strip) so you can easily switch them off at feeding time, then switch them on a few minutes later?

[Cup]

Diana; do not worry. These fish can actively grab food right out of the water column.

My only thought is that the skinny fish just don't like what's being fed to them. It took me a loooong time to acclimate a few of my savonas to pelleted staple foods, or even, for that matter, certain frozen foods such as mysis.

[zmo63]

Diana, I'm not sure I can get them back out of the tank at this point, but I'll try. It was dumb of me to transfer the whole group in the first place, but I was thinking that since the savonas were the only fish in there, it wouldn't be much different from the Q tank, and it might be a healthier, more stimulating environment. There are only two that look bad, and the one pictured is the worse of the two. I'll see if I can catch them out at feeding time.

Cup, you're right about these guys being able to catch food in the current - the healthy ones are hysterical at feeding time! I'm just a little worried about the less active skinny ones. I think I'll experiment with shutting down one of the pumps and see if they eat more.

You're also probably right about them not liking their food... anything you recommend? I've got all sorts of flakes, sinking pellets, freeze dried tubifex, frozen mysis, cyclops worms, bloodworms, bbs, and adult brine shrimp. I know they love the bloodworms, but not sure if I should feed that every day. I haven't tried fresh veggies, but they didn't seem interested algae wafers at all.

[Diana]

Yes, these fish are adapted to do just that: grab food as it sails by.
I think there are more bugs that sail by than anything else, which is why I do not think these fish will be much of vegetable eaters.

I would continue to rotate all the meaty foods you have, and get more frozen ones. Try one of each sort of frozen that is available in your local stores. If you can figure out that they like a couple of them, rather than just bloodworms that will help.

Try the Omega One product line. They make a good shrimp pellet that many of my fish eat, even after it has fallen to the floor of the tank the upper level swimmers will chase it down and eat it off the substrate.

[plaalye]

I've had similar problems with my s. savona. I bought 6 about a year ago and now have only 2 left. One by one they got sknny and eventually died. I've treated with levamisole, kanamycin, and Furan-2. Nothing has helped once they get that thin and it seems to happen rapidly. Mine are also ferocious eaters and seem to eat anything that I put in the tank. Sorry I can't give you any answers as i'm still scratching my head. Good luck with them.

[zmo63]

this is no good, plaalye! Most of mine fattened right up after levamisole, so I'm really hoping they stay that way. I never thought my sids were going to make it - they were little swimming skeletons, but they did pull through.

did yours start off fat and get skinny, or did they fatten up and then get skinny again later? How are your remaining two doing?

Diana, thanks for all your advice - I'll go back to the LFS and check out what other frozen foods they have, and look for the Omega One brand as well - I mostly have Hikari and Sera, so it would be good to shake things up a bit

[plaalye]

I agree, it's "no good"! Sorry though, I didn't mean to imply that yours will have the same fate.
Mine were all fine and growing well and then one at a time they got skinny and perished. The two that are left are fine or now. One is very gravid. I also lost two gastromyzons from this tank in the same way.
I hope yours get well!

[NancyD]

I have 7 savonas still in quarantine & notice 2 that don't seem to have gained as much weight as the others. I've only done 1 tx of levamisole so far. But I did cut back just a bit on feeding especially the frozen. I was worried about water quality deteriorating the last week, I was both busy & ill.

Some prepared foods I've tried they seemed to really like Hikari micro pellets & carnivore pellets. Frozen rotifers, daphnia, cyclops & bloodworms shaved into small bits. There hasn't been anything they won't eat but they're spoiled for choices except veggies, I wanted to fatten everyone up.

Their behavior has changed in the month I've had them. Some hide more & there is less hyperactivity. They're in with very young histrionicas who are less shy now & faster to food than they were. 2 or 3 savonas lounge in the floating plants a lot & look for food along the waterline. My crimsons did that too.

How often are you feeding them? I was doing 3-4 times a day but only 2-3 last week. I don't feed all my fish that often, once or twice is more usual.

Have you treated with anything other than levamisole? I have some Parasite clear I may give, I think chefkeith & Dianna alternate those tx in quarantine. I usually just do the levamisole for 3 tx.

I'm more worried now that both you & plaalye have lost fish

[zmo63]

plaalya, wow, you weren't kidding about her being very gravid! It would be great if something came of it

NancyD, I hope yours do well. I've only done levamisole. I did antibiotics on my sids when they were so skinny, because after the levamisole I could see red swollen bellies. I don't see anything like that on the savonas - they just look skinny. It hasn't been long since the final round of levamisole, so I'll wait and see if they fatten up before I do anything else.

New development yesterday though! One of the biggest and fattest savonas now has a big bloody patch on his side, between the gill and the pectoral fin. I had the powerhead on a timer with the lights, because I have CO2 running through it (temporary situation). I think he must have gone into the powerhead overnight, and got injured when it came back on. I feel so terrible for not thinking about that! I covered the opening with a small piece of stocking, but that's really cut down on the amount of current. I remember reading about this on the forum ages ago, so I'll do a search for other ideas. It might not even be an issue if I leave the powerhead running 24/7 - I don't THINK they could swim into it against the current...

Anyway, it doesn't look like a terribly serious injury, just a wee scrape. I'll watch it and do extra water changes... unless everyone thinks I should do some antibiotics as well?

[NancyD]

zmo, I use a piece of the red plastic mesh onions come in rubberbanded over the PH opening. I had a crimson & a histy use different PH as a cave. Even after I knew they did it I almost lost the histy down the drain! The mesh doesn't look good but it works.

Hope your little guy heals quickly.

[zmo63]

One of these savonas is either incredibly unlucky, or incredibly lucky - depending on your point of view.

I noticed today one of the savonas trying to swim upstream into an aquaclear HOB I had on the tank to help jumpstart the cycle. I shoed it away and thought I'd better take down the filter before someone got hurt. You can imagine what happened. I took apart the filter and was cleaning it with hot water in the kitchen sink, when I looked down and saw a loach in the bottom of the filter.

I rushed him back to the tank and dumped him in. Turned out to be the same one that had gotten cut up by the powerhead before I covered the opening. He was breathing hard for a while, but seems ok now. The cuts seem to be healing too.

Then I started worrying that these little guys might be small enough to squeeze into the intake for the canister. I opened it up and didn't find any fish, but I put a sponge over the intake just in case.

I hope this is the end of the drama - I can't think of anything left they could get into!

[NancyD]

Oh my, he's trouble ! I just checked my HOB even though the water level is down a couple inches. Glad he's healing.

On a sad related note, I found 1 of my savonas dead a few days ago. Not a thin 1 either, nothing obvious,

[zmo63]

Oh, I'm sorry for your loss My skinny ones seem to be fattening up, thankfully, but I can't find the injured one again. It's really hard to keep track of all of them, so I'm not too worried yet, but with his track record, who knows.