battle of the sucker mouths???

[Magnum Man]

I curiously lost my Zebra Oto's lately both died the same week... they were thriving, and even seemed like they might be spawning... the only thing that changed, is my increased water change routine... all the other fish seem to be liking the increased water changes... this is reducing some of the tannins from the tank the water is starting to clear... I don't think the zebras require "black water" to survive, and the water change water is RO... I'm wonder if the King Tiger Plecos, that also seem like they may want to spawn, maybe battled over one of the caves ( I found the body of a zebra at the mouth of a cave ) with the tiger eating it... I know plecos can, and will eat on dead fish, but I'm not sure it killed it??? some of the other African Tetras are hard to keep, and all are still thriving, so it seems unusual to lose both zebras the same week... I've not lost any other fish, since increasing the water changes... I've heard increasing water changes can induce spawning, on some fish that spawn in the rainy season... I'm not particularly trying to get any fish in my community tanks spawning, just trying the make the water quality better... thoughts???

 

[MaloK]

Are you still using pure RO to do your water changes ?

 

[Magnum Man]

yes... but the water in the tank still has color to it, just not quite as dark, so there are3 still remnants of the other solids, as the PPM reading is between 200 & 300

 

[MaloK]

Did you test your GH and KH individually ? It's the only way to have your basic reading, without them it can be very erroneous.

All my tanks have the same GH and KH, but TDS vary up to 200 ppm in them. My most populated tanks maintains a higher level of dissolved matter.

Every changes I use water that has been remineralized according to what I need in the tanks. I top off evaporation with pure RO to prevent buildup, but at some point I need to add a little more KH.

Failing to use water that has similar hardness and alkalinity cause deadly chemistry swings at lower % of water changes.

For example: Forgetting to remineralize the water for a 50% water change = everybody dead in 24H.

So for the last time bud... Stop cutting your tanks water with pure RO... Even more if you're cranking up the size of each changes.

Make sure you have water that matches the parameters you want before using it. In the long term water deprived of minerals have has much impact than having too much.

Fishes certainely dont react as fast as some crustacean, but I'm sure, cutting 50% of minerals in a tank during a water change, has consequences, might not be instantenous but can be really harmful.