Frustrating illness in C. schultzei
Posted: 26 Apr 2014, 14:21
I've been having trouble with a batch of c. schultzei. I got the adults at one of my LFSs early last year. One of the males (4m, 2f) got sick with what only seemed to fit an internal infection - reddish fins (not streaky) which were folded a bit, darker colour generally, listless and losing weight/condition. I treated the tank with Interpet's anti internal bacteria and it took a couple of weeks, but he did regain health.
Last autumn the group spawned, and I had over 300 fry from it. Shortly after that, the above male suddenly went sick again and died. The fry grew well to about 1/2" then I started losing them.
Since then, I've had waves of whatever this is - I only have 9 fish left from that spawning and am in the midst of another bout now. Not as bas before though. Each time it's the same - the affected fish go dark, fins redden and fold, weight is lost and they get listless. But, they still eat just fine.
During the last bout I asked for help elsewhere and someone had had success treating what appeared to be the same affliction with Protozin so I tried that; it did help somewhat although I lost the worst affected fish then (one in particular very quickly went down with pop-eye and severe dropsy, although she is the only one I've seen go that way).
I can't get a decent picture unfortunately but I can tell you that there is no spotting, growths etc, nothing indicative of ich/velvet/fungus. This time around a couple of the fish that have died have lost their tails but they didn't appear to have finrot - the tails just eroded and evenly too (from the join of the two lobes of the tail outwards).
Parameter wise, ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrate is currently around 40ppm. That has been a problem - my tapwater comes in at 30ppm so it's been a battle to keep down but I am on top of it now.
I suspect this is something possibly genetic - in the tank with the remaining juveniles (now around 3/4-1" long) are two juvenile bristlenoses (added when I thought I'd finally gotten on top of the problem a couple of months ago), and they have always been in perfect health so this appears to be restricted to the cories. In the adults' tank there are other young bristlenoses and 7 cherry barbs and again, none have been affected - and when I lost the first adult male, they were in a different tank with different fish and same again, only that cory was affected. I have also lost another of the adult males, not long after the spawning that produced these fry happened. Very sudden, same symptoms. Interestingly, I noticed the other day that the healthiest of the remaining juvies look like they are females. I'm back to the Interpet treatment now as whenever I try to find answers, it all points to an internal infection. I can't get medicated food (none available locally and too expensive to ship over).
Does anyone have any ideas? I won't be saving eggs from the adults again although the remaining four are in excellent health, and the remaining juvies won't be going anywhere either. I have the space and filtration to accommodate any or all that survive and I don't want to potentially pass this problem on to anyone else so they will all be staying with me.
Last autumn the group spawned, and I had over 300 fry from it. Shortly after that, the above male suddenly went sick again and died. The fry grew well to about 1/2" then I started losing them.
Since then, I've had waves of whatever this is - I only have 9 fish left from that spawning and am in the midst of another bout now. Not as bas before though. Each time it's the same - the affected fish go dark, fins redden and fold, weight is lost and they get listless. But, they still eat just fine.
During the last bout I asked for help elsewhere and someone had had success treating what appeared to be the same affliction with Protozin so I tried that; it did help somewhat although I lost the worst affected fish then (one in particular very quickly went down with pop-eye and severe dropsy, although she is the only one I've seen go that way).
I can't get a decent picture unfortunately but I can tell you that there is no spotting, growths etc, nothing indicative of ich/velvet/fungus. This time around a couple of the fish that have died have lost their tails but they didn't appear to have finrot - the tails just eroded and evenly too (from the join of the two lobes of the tail outwards).
Parameter wise, ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrate is currently around 40ppm. That has been a problem - my tapwater comes in at 30ppm so it's been a battle to keep down but I am on top of it now.
I suspect this is something possibly genetic - in the tank with the remaining juveniles (now around 3/4-1" long) are two juvenile bristlenoses (added when I thought I'd finally gotten on top of the problem a couple of months ago), and they have always been in perfect health so this appears to be restricted to the cories. In the adults' tank there are other young bristlenoses and 7 cherry barbs and again, none have been affected - and when I lost the first adult male, they were in a different tank with different fish and same again, only that cory was affected. I have also lost another of the adult males, not long after the spawning that produced these fry happened. Very sudden, same symptoms. Interestingly, I noticed the other day that the healthiest of the remaining juvies look like they are females. I'm back to the Interpet treatment now as whenever I try to find answers, it all points to an internal infection. I can't get medicated food (none available locally and too expensive to ship over).
Does anyone have any ideas? I won't be saving eggs from the adults again although the remaining four are in excellent health, and the remaining juvies won't be going anywhere either. I have the space and filtration to accommodate any or all that survive and I don't want to potentially pass this problem on to anyone else so they will all be staying with me.
