Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 I have a group of 6 neolamprologus similis that have been in my aquarium for about 8 months with no issues until now. I’ve got them in a 40 and they have spawned twice (that I know of). I’ve got one set of fry that are about 3 months old and some others that just became free swimming. All of a sudden, the older fry have stopped eating as much and they have been spitting out live baby brine shrimp, which they used to eat like crazy. Have you ever experienced that before? I found one dead juvenile yesterday while doing a water change so I’m starting to panic a little bit. It has been a blast watching the colony grow and I am hoping I don’t lose any more of them. The only change I can think of is that I added floating plants two weeks ago but everything else has been consistent. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer! pH 7.6 nitrites 0 nitrates ~10 hardness -magenta on co op test strip kh temp 78 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 What kind of plant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 On 3/8/2024 at 1:35 PM, Tony s said: What kind of plant @Tony s just a handful of hornwort to help with soaking up nitrates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 Well, that shouldn't be an issue. I use that all over the place. There are reports of pothos vines being toxic when allowed to rest in water. But hornwort should be good. are they snacking on it? I assume sand substrate and lots of digging, so nothing like a hydrogen sulfide build up. Maybe pull it for now, in a bucket with an airstone to keep it alive. water change then observe for a couple of days. If it straightens out, it could have been the hornwort. or something on the hornwort. Keep a close eye, if it's not the hornwort, they will continue to show symptoms 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 8 Author Share Posted March 8 On 3/8/2024 at 1:50 PM, Tony s said: Well, that shouldn't be an issue. I use that all over the place. There are reports of pothos vines being toxic when allowed to rest in water. But hornwort should be good. are they snacking on it? I assume sand substrate and lots of digging, so nothing like a hydrogen sulfide build up. Maybe pull it for now, in a bucket with an airstone to keep it alive. water change then observe for a couple of days. If it straightens out, it could have been the hornwort. or something on the hornwort. Keep a close eye, if it's not the hornwort, they will continue to show symptoms @Tony s uh oh… I didn’t consider the pothos. I’ve had some in a hanging basket on the side of the aquarium but it has been there for 2 months or so. I was wondering about the hornwort having something on it because I bought it at my LFS. I didn’t realize that pothos could be toxic because I see it in other aquarium photos all the time. I love the way it looks but I guess I’ll have to pull it if that’s the culprit. Thanks for your reply! I appreciate it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 8 Share Posted March 8 the roots are fine. but the leaves and vines sitting in the water leaches out a toxin. Luke from Luke's Goldfish lost a tank of fancy goldfish that way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Are you having any luck. appears i may be wrong on the pothos. hopefully. was just wondering how things were going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 On 3/11/2024 at 5:53 PM, Tony s said: Are you having any luck. appears i may be wrong on the pothos. hopefully. was just wondering how things were going. @Tony s thanks for checking in. The juveniles keep dropping off one by one which has been disappointing. But the adults seem to have resumed eating like usual Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 So sorry to hear that. hopefully your adults stabilize and the colony is able to recover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 11 Author Share Posted March 11 On 3/11/2024 at 6:26 PM, Tony s said: So sorry to hear that. hopefully your adults stabilize and the colony is able to recover. @Tony s thanks I’ve been keeping up with extra water changes and feeding lots of live baby brine so hopefully everything will work out. Appreciate your advice and support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 11 Share Posted March 11 Yeah, no problems. wish I could be more help. I have had problems like that before. you start losing fish for no apparent reason. It's completely maddening. Took me ages to figure it out. turns out I cross contaminated a couple of tanks with a red thick form of blue green algae. The only way I stopped it was by treating everything with erythromycin. But the questioning and hair pulling of not knowing is insane 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/11/2024 at 6:42 PM, Tony s said: Yeah, no problems. wish I could be more help. I have had problems like that before. you start losing fish for no apparent reason. It's completely maddening. Took me ages to figure it out. turns out I cross contaminated a couple of tanks with a red thick form of blue green algae. The only way I stopped it was by treating everything with erythromycin. But the questioning and hair pulling of not knowing is insane @Tony s I think I may have figured out the problem… my wife just told me that she had this rooting hormone in the mason jar where she was propagating the pothos that I put in the aquarium. I am so mad at myself for not thinking about that ahead of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 That’s a big possibility. But I have no idea what rooting hormone would actually do. But it’s probably not good. Did you end up pulling it out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 8:14 PM, Tony s said: That’s a big possibility. But I have no idea what rooting hormone would actually do. But it’s probably not good. Did you end up pulling it out? I pulled it the other day and did a water change. Going to do another big water change tomorrow and hope for the best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Have they stabilized after you pulled it, hopefully? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 15 Author Share Posted March 15 On 3/14/2024 at 8:17 PM, Tony s said: Have they stabilized after you pulled it, hopefully? @Tony s it’s tough to tell. They have still been spitting brine shrimp but they are eating hikari vibra bites that I have soaked in garlic extract. They were showing breeding behavior and I haven’t seen two of the females ever since so I think they may be guarding eggs in one of the shells Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 15 Share Posted March 15 Well that’s mostly good news then. Little bitty things can cause a whole world of problems doing this. Stuff you wouldn’t even think about. But hopefully you got it figured out now, and your colony can rebuild 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 On 3/14/2024 at 8:24 PM, Tony s said: Well that’s mostly good news then. Little bitty things can cause a whole world of problems doing this. Stuff you wouldn’t even think about. But hopefully you got it figured out now, and your colony can rebuild 😀 @Tony s update: I lost an adult fish and the others are still not really eating. I have noticed one of the males doing a strange shimmy so I’m thinking it may be an internal parasite of some kind. The masked julidochromis I have in my quarantine tank waiting to go in with the Shellie’s has also stopped eating and has been rubbing up against his small rock cave. Dosed both aquariums with API General Cure and I’m hoping for the best. I’m starting to think that maybe it wasn’t the pothos afterall, but some sort of parasite hitchhiked with the hornwort that I picked up from my LFS. This is a truly awful experience 😞 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Yeah, so sorry man. I've had tanks go down before and sometimes it's just baffling. and heartbreaking. @Colu would you check over this thread for Mattlikesfish. Apparently i started himdown a rabbit hole. my fault, but it's what i was hearing. He may have a disease issue that I'm unaware of 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Loss of appetite and spitting food out can be signs of a parasitic infections I would treat following @Odd Ducktreatment protocol for a parasitc infection @Mattlikesfish36 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 On 3/19/2024 at 2:42 PM, Colu said: Loss of appetite and spitting food out can be signs of a parasitic infections I would treat following @Odd Ducktreatment protocol for a parasitc infection @Mattlikesfish36 @Colu thanks for all of this info. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Wish me luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 On 3/19/2024 at 1:06 PM, Mattlikesfish36 said: The masked julidochromis I have in my quarantine tank waiting to go in with the Shellie’s has also stopped eating i would probably add him now. or just do both tanks actually i would probably do both tanks anyways. just to eliminate the parasite from both Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 Have you recently tested your KH and GH if there to low that would also affect your African cichlids Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattlikesfish36 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 On 3/19/2024 at 3:05 PM, Colu said: Have you recently tested your KH and GH if there to low that would also affect your African cichlids @Colu my GH is at the highest level on the aquarium co-op test strips but KH is on the lower side (4-5 degrees on the API test kit) I have crushed coral coming in the mail tomorrow which will hopefully help to boost things up. It’s just strange because they were all fine for 8 months or so but now they are all having issues. Is KH something that can change abruptly after being fine for several months? What kind of symptoms will show in African cichlids if they are impacted by KH levels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 (edited) KH Will drop over time because of the build up of organic mater and fish snails and plants will deplete KH over time with liverbears and african cichlids that like hard water it can cause them to get chronic health issues affecting there immune system cause them to essential fall apart Edited March 19 by Colu Typo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now