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Ok i bought 3 new rummy nose tetras on thursday and i wake up this morning to find out two of them are dead! My new flame dwarf gourami...also introduced on thursday seems a little nasty and it might be him doing the killing...iam not sure...are these gouramis aggressive?? if this is my problem what should i do? By the way the surviving rummynose is in the empty net breeding compartment and the gourami is waiting for him to be released....uh-oh!

Could this just be a water issue and the gourami is picking at them after them dying?

TIA

Last edited by Peter17 at 29-Jan-2005 19:27

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

definately test your water conditions just to be sure that isn;t it....


You could be having one of many problems....

1) Your gourami could indeed be killing them some gouramis are tmid and peaceful - some think they are green terrors

2) Did you make sure to properly acclimate the fish to the tank? A sudden pH, tempurature or other shock may have been fatal.

3) Some fish just can;t handle the stress of moving and die - maybe they had a disease that you wer enot ware of... any number of things could have killed them

4) is there anything else besides them and the gourami int he tank/ Maybe soemthing else is ticking them off....

How long has your tank been running and what size is it?

Its a 10 gallon and in ther are two peaceful cory's...two cherrybarbs, and a snail..

20 GALLON LONG CURRENTLY EMPTY ~~~~ 10 GALLON W/ STRIPPED CONVICT

Numbers, Peter. Check ammonia and nitrite and post the numbers.

General Rule: Any physical or behavioral change - the first thing you should do is to check your parameters and rule out cycle related toxins.

Rummynose Tetras are a more delicate species and would be more sensitive to even mild ammonia or nitrites. Anything but zero is not ok.

Good point made above about acclimation and pH. Another good rule is to find out what the pH is of the tank from which you are purchasing fish and compare it to your tanks pH. pH in any tank can drop over time due to aging so it is good to check before buying fish as a sense check. I like to know what temp they keep their tanks at too.

I don't know enough about gouramis to know if he could have attacked the rummies. But it seems to me that the rummies could easily outswim any gourami. Keeping the last one in a net is probably stressing the rummynose, in addition to not having more of his buddies. The rummies could have stressed too from not being in a full school of 6 or more.

Another hidden problem with fish acclimation could be salt. Some fish stores heavily salt their tanks to ward off disease and parasites. We take them home and put them in a salt free tank and they end up with what is called osmotic shock or a sudden change in salinity within their bodies. It is good to ask the fish store if they have salt in the tank. You can predissolve a lesser amount, like 1/3 dose so that the fish isn't shocked into a zero salt condition.

Rummies are particularly e to transport shock. They need more careful acclimatising than many other Tetras. Plus, some of the Singapore ones are hot-housed at 40°C as fry, then shipped over here and dropped down to 25°C with precious little acclimatisation. It's a wonder they don't drop like flies.

Get a good local bred batch, then the transport shock will be lessened because they'll have lived in the local water all their lives. Furthermore, the transport shock can be minimised by [1] making sure that they are in complete darkness while being transported; [2] making sure that they are introduced into the new aquarium with the lights off; [3] when they finally get some light, drop in a bagful of live Daphnia to perk them up. Works wonders. Always helped acclimatise mine!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I think with rummies another factor can be school size. When I 1st got rummies I tried to keep a school of 7 and had the apparent usual die off. Even when I added more I still had about the usual 50% die off.

The one day a LCS had a good price for rummies that I could pass up. That brought my school up to 15 and I haven't loss any in well over a year.

They seem to be happier the more you add and they are the best schooling fish around.

Maybe I was just lucky with my last batch, but I think rummies need larger schools then 6.

Rummies are one of those fish species you need to check the provenance of before buying, and avoid 'hot housed' ones.

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I've had great success with rummys having only lost one of a school of eight in 2 years.

Weekly water changes, warmer temp seems to be good for them.

My Scapes