My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by naturalart »

Viktor, what if you pull her out and isolated her in a fry holder or something in the same tank? That way the males can beat up on the container instead of her until her hormones drop off. These are artificial systems we set up; in the wild she may not encounter quite this amount of harassment? I mean this would aid in preserving her health?
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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Thank you, I appreciate the thinking and suggestion. Having never lost them to spawning activities, I chose to allow them to do whatever they want in this regard. This behavior has completely subsided in couple hours as stated, and all females fed in another hour. Then the next day it had picked up again, and again the females happily and greedily fed after all this stress.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

9yo 24in/60cm rescue TSNxRTC hybrid catfish Greta passed

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

One time is a fluke, two is a pattern. We lost Floyd the same way as Bruce, except Floyd lasted about 10 months versus a couple for Bruce. Same symptoms of heavy swelling over the entire body points to the same pathogen, perhaps the same old columnaris introduced into our tanks in 2018. Three year old, 1ft Floyd:

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

One's a fluke, 2 a pattern, 7 a law. We lost 7 bullheads over the last 5 years, 2 brown northern, 2 brown southern, 2 snail, and now 1 yellow, all from 3yo to 5yo, to seemingly the same bug, as can be judged by the same symptom of great swelling and overall length and progress of their last illness, supposedly a bacterial pathogen, maybe columnaris that infected our systems and fish in 2018. The final victim is the 4yo 15in/37cm yellow bullhead.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

1+ month ago: 4ft RTC a-female turned upside down
2-3 weeks ago: same happened to 3ft a-male & to lesser degree to 3.5ft b-female

Nothing's changed, younger 3ft b-male seems ok. The only thing that unites the 3 sick RTC is the origin
(rescues from Dayton Ohio Mar 2016) and age ~9yo. a-male and b-female participated in courtship two times this summer.

Water, egg/milt binding, feed causes have been discarded. Must be the bacteria finally got to them, perhaps columnaris. Must get a vet pathology lab service now for sure!

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by naturalart »

Very sad to see. Hang in there Viktor.
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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Thank you, brother. This is a painful but learning experience.

***

The a-female continues to stay right side up.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Desperate attempt: injecting 750mg of erythromycin antibiotic into each of 3 gravely ill RTCs 9yo 3ft-4ft:

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Chronologically speaking:

- we got both Peru piraibas in 2017 at 5in.
- As soon as they were placed together in a growout 240 gal, one of them turned much lighter color and stayed that way.
- The darker one dominated the lighter one but it was tolerable.
- After a year or two, both went into 4500 gal, where the darker a-piraiba dominated the lighter b-piraiba too viciously at times that I feared for the beta,
- so took it out and kept in a 240 gal for a couple of years.
- Then about a year ago reintroduced it to the 4500 gal and the a-piraiba dominated the beta but tolerably. By this time the a-piraiba had a few inches and 50% more body mass on the beta.
- Now starting from 2 weeks ago, b-piraiba has been turning tables on a-piraiba and attacking it, damaging especially the dorsal and top caudal fins. I don't know why.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Sept 28 (I misspoke, sorry) 2022 cat 4 hurricane Ian packing 155 mph winds has been spinning around 30 miles from us off shore for the whole day. 50mph sustained wind with 70-80 mph gusts all day. No power, no water, no AC, no internet.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Sept 28 2022 cat 4 hurricane Ian packing 155 mph winds with its eye swirling around 30 miles from us off shore for the whole day. Hurricane force winds only 5-10 miles from us, we got tropical storm force winds - 50 mph sustained wind with 70-80 mph gusts all day. No power, no water, no AC, no internet, poor phone service for 5 days. Fish tanks ran on two gasoline generators, nineteen 400W pumps and some smaller stuff consumed 50 gal of gas daily, had to refill with 10 gal of gas every 6 hours.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by bekateen »

Wow, that's not good but it could have been so much worse. Take care Viktor, and good luck.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Thank you Eric so much!

***

After Hurricane Ian we were 5 days with no power, water, AC, internet. The fish tanks ran on 2 gasoline generators, nineteen 400W pumps, couple canister filters, fridge, freezer, couple lights, all in all probably 10K-12K watts. At 50 gal a day we used up 250 gal of gas, had to refill 5 gal into each generator every 6 hours.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Chronology of the problem / experiment:
- Dorado catfish Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii 5yo 2ft/60cm was rehomed from 240 to 1800 gal.
- It started doing a lot of unusual tail standing (swimming in one place vertically, head up, near a wall or not, ~6 inches below the surface, having never done in in 5 years with us before), which led me to think maybe the dissolved oxygen was too low for its need.
- Thus, we opened lids and in a week or so we doubled the flow & the stirring in the 1800 gal via a 48,000 l/h or 13,000 gal/h powerhead.
- It hasn't changed the dorado's behavior immediately, so I thought the tail standing was just still settling into the new tank, being such a nervous and high-strung fish as it is.
- The fish has not fed for 2 weeks in the new tank either.
- Yet, gradually the tail standing ceased and the fish started doing only regular horizontal laps around the tank and feeding very well.
- A month or two later, Hurricane Ian blew out our power for 5 days Sept 28 to Oct 2 2022 and we had not enough generator power to also run the 50W quadruple powerhead.
- The dorado catfish resumed the occasional tail standing! While feeding well though.
- Tentative conclusion: dorado catfish seems to have an unusually acute demand for dissolved oxygen vs its 50+ very diverse, motley crew tank mates, who have never shown any change in behavior with or without the powerhead and the lids open or not.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

The second female vulture that had been sick for 1.5 months died on Sept 29 2022, the day after hurricane Ian. The fish had seemed to improve then worse then improve then got much worse toward the end. I believe from the disease process and the symptoms of erratic swimming and loss of sense of direction that it is the same bug that has been plaguing our fish since 2018. It took out both females. Unusual that gender mattered.

The males have been on a hunger strike too for a month or two but now they are back to feeding well. So we only have 2 males left and they live in the 25K.

8 years old, 29 inches / 73 cm:

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Without power and water for 5 days due to hurricane Ian, we had to let the three sick RTCs go.

Final stats Alpha, a-female, 46"/115cm, 9yo
Feta a-male, 37"/93cm, 9 yo
Half & Half, b-female, 40"/100cm, 9 yo

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Tentative conclusion (more likely): the catfish needs better current, more water movement and not necessarily more oxygen.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Five of seven Cuban gars have grown from 9" to 21"/52cm in 13 months, that is ~1"/month. Here we feed them Peru glass minnow / anchovy. I wonder if they are ready for 4500 gal. I always want to give each fish the biggest tank possible out of what we have but have been burned more times than I care to remember, where newcomers couldn't handle the new larger tank mates. Sometimes I could save them, other times I couldn't. Hard to gamble with the precious Cubans - they are very rare and expensive.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

Post by Viktor Jarikov »

Sharkie the black shark was downgraded almost 2 months ago from 1800 gal to 240 gal. In the first weeks it had been receiving a non-welcome from the common pleco resident, which would chase it away from its whereabouts, especially during feeding, by trying to suck up to the shark, and the shark would escape quickly without answering back. Nowadays all is well and the pleco doesn't bug Sharkey in the past weeks, not that I noticed anyway.

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Re: My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

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