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I've lost four fish today.

First of all, two of my Lemons have passed on. Given their age, I guess it was on the cards, but it's still a bit of a shock to see two otherwise healthy looking fish suddenly expire on me. I have had them for 8 years, so I suspect that old age finally took its toll on the little guys.

Second, I lost an Otocinclus. And the loss was one of those accidents that occur now and again and result in you stopping and thinking. Basically, my bogwood 'boot' has a sort of vertical 'chimney' hole connecting to the caves at the bottom, but this 'chimney' became partially blocked by Java Fern roots. During the water change (to stave off any ammonia spike effects due to the two dead Lemons), I found one of my Otocinclus stuck in the 'chimney', all tangled up in the roots. Not a pretty sight. But again, par for the course for Otocinclus, which like to explore nooks and crannies like this. Lesson learned - the chimney is now umblocked, and I'll be removing all the Java Ferns off the 'boot' to prevent a recurrence.

The one that's puzzling me though is the Cardinal. And wouldn't you know it, it was my brand new Goldback that expired. For no apparent reason. Little guy was snacking happily on live food one day, then gasping at the surface the next. No obvious signs of anything wrong, no disease symptoms, found him dead with the Lemons. Fins were intact and pristine, colour was still healthy, but no movement and rigor mortis. All the more puzzling because if there was a disease outbreak in the Panda Fun Palace™, the Pandas would be the first to show signs of it, and they're in robust, even rude health, frolicking away like mad and only just finished spawning number 96.

Such is fishkeeping life ...

Oh, and water parameters are fine. Quick check (after the water change and deep gravel vac):

Temp : 24.6°C (nice accurate digital thermometer)
pH : 6.7
Hardness : between 2°DH and 3° DH
Ammonia : 0 (despite the corpses)
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : hovering at around 12 ppm.

The remaining Lemons seem to be missing their deceased kin, but are otherwise nice and yellow and healthy, and attacking food with gusto. Remaining Cardinals likewise. Pandas mad and bouncy all over the aquarium as per usual, remaining Otocinclus happily grazing over every available surface and displaying that nice ventral 'fingerprint'.

You win some, you lose eoms.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Sorry to hear of your bad news. It looks like there are a lot of unexplained sudden death happening no matter where you live.
Mine was definiatly traced to a water supply problem. They have closed down our supply dam and now it comes untested from another area.
Have you checked the PH at the tap. I also would do a full test at the tap just to make sure it is safe to use.

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Keith

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And wouldn't you know it, it was my brand new Goldback that expired. For no apparent reason. Little guy was snacking happily on live food one day, then gasping at the surface the next. No obvious signs of anything wrong, no disease symptoms, found him dead with the Lemons. Fins were intact and pristine, colour was still healthy, but no movement and rigor mortis.

that sucks, I lost a beautiful red empress the exact same way. stress it can kill healthy new fish.

Calilasseia,

Sorry to hear that. Old age is one thing, but losing a fish for no apparent reason is depressing. You only had one of these Goldbacks, right? Maybe they are even more sensitive (possibly because of inbreeding to get this strand of Cardinal) to environmental changes.

Otos are an interesting kind of fish that sometimes do really silly (or stupid) things. I always try to do a headcount before I mess in the tank just to make sure I don’t hurt one of these little buggers. But then again, I usually give up counting because it seems impossible to find them all (and I have only 4 per tank ).

My latest Oto antics were their attempts to school with the Harlequins in the 125 after I released them into this new home. One thing I learned in that process was that they are pretty quick.

Once again, I am sorry for your losses,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Thanks everyone.

Oh, and this cheered me up no end :

My latest Oto antics were their attempts to school with the Harlequins in the 125 after I released them into this new home. One thing I learned in that process was that they are pretty quick.

Mine don't have Harlequins to school with, but they do have Pandas to play push hockey with every time I drop in some hikari wafers

Oh, and here's the strange part. I thought I had 6 Otocinclus and was down to 5. I did a head count last night and discovered I had 6, which meant I had 7 originally ... which goes to show that with Otocinclus, it's sometimes necessary to send robot submerisbles into your aquarium to track them down, especially if they have as many nooks and crannies to hide in as mine do




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Sorry to hear of your losses Calilasseia,

If it also makes you smile, my small BN pleco was stuck to the front glass, hardly moving much (lazy) as the otos swam back and forth the front glass, the odd one would park beside and imitate the BN, just stick there and hardly move, for about 5 seconds, then take off... A minute later, another oto would do the same, but slightly different position.. It's almost like they were thinking.. Let's pick on THIS guy !! Of course the BN didn't care less, but he'd be thinkin, 'What the Heck is with these guys ?' Maybe they just wanted to include him in their fun but he really wasn't into it

Regards,
DaFish


Last edited by DaFishMan at 03-Oct-2005 20:03

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