My honey boy

[jollysue]

My honey boy was busy trying to make nests and hanging around the best spot for it in the morning, I did a water change, and he kept getting in the way. A few hours later he was a goner on the bottom of the tank. His ladies have been croaking for a couple of days. They sound a little like dolphins.

I liked that little guy and looked forward to making his home better. I've tested the water there's no indication that anything is other than perfect. The ph is a fraction above 7 but that's all. There aren't any aggressive fish or any signs of the community not getting on. There are otos and they seem fine as well as new pygmy cories--just in less than a week.

That reminds me, I did add some Coppersafe because I saw a cory doing that twist and swim thing that looks like scraping but could be a protective thing. Anyway if that was it it should be the neons, otos, or cories that took badly to it.

I am not a happy camper about this. But I will wait to get a slightly larger tank before getting any new fellows for the Miniture South Sea Tank.

My honey died

 

[mattbeau]

you too? (though mine is explained)

My male honey dwarf died today probably a few hours ago.

looks like I'm going through a Major minicycle now.... AAAAAAAAAARG

I swaped one of my biowheel 150's for a fluval 2 and am waiting a few weeks to remove the other biowhel. well my nitrites are at like 1 and my ammonia are at like .25 (nothing more than hes been through) but nitrite nonetheless.....

sorry to here you lost yours too.

 

[jollysue]

It doesn't seem like that would have caused a cycle

Your tank should be pretty well established by now. Did you add new fish?

Even so, a minicycle shouldn't have killed a honey. They could probably take it. Today I read some threads from sylvia and she seems to indicate that stress is a honey's big bad--Just keel over>>dead bang!

I wonder if his frustration at his inability to build lasting nests and the new cories--very active little fellows-- got him!

I have heard that overbreeding has created problems for honeys and sparkling gouramis. Caused them to be weak. A friend in betta had her sparklers just keel over the same way--no warning just bang--gone.

The honeys are adaptable to poor water conditions as puddle anabantoids.

I'm sorry, too, I know you loved your boy.

 

[mattbeau]

well the reticulated cory was added abou two weeks ago

he died yesterday, he had issues i could neever figure out

and if the water was that bad I figured the neons or oto's would have problems befoe he did. so maybe it was just stress, I did make the horrible mistake of adding a fluval 4 in the tank for a day

the other thing is two of my neons are qt now because of NTD

the only other thing I added was 4 ghost shrim, but they shouldn't put out much of a bioload I would think and even those are known to be a little fragile in bad water

the tank is very airated, I added a more powerfull airpump and two 12 in air wands on each side.

maybe too many changes gave him a heart attack

 

[jollysue]

I'm inclined to think they come with problems from inbreeding.

I still don't think it sounds like an anabantoid would be bothered by any of the water conditions you're mentioning.

If you really want to go everything and check thoroughly then sylvia is probably your bet.

sylvia did mention crowding his little space as being a honey stressor. I added 7 or 8 pygmy cories that are all over the tank and don't seem to respect space. So that could be mine I guess?

 

[sylvia]

To me it sounds like your fish have some kind of disease and that it isn't just simply stress or bad water quality (those could also probably do it but honeys aren't actualy that bad - colisa chuna/sota that is - dwarf gouramies - colisa lalia - are much, much worse). You've mentioned a cory died of unexplained causes, you have neons with NTD which were presumably in that tank before, you say the cory flashing and now this honey has died. Obviously without more obvious symptoms it would be impossible to treat this hypothetical disease but watch your fish closely and keep their environment as stress-free and healthy as possible. If you do see any signs, obviously you should treat accordingly. Read up on NTD a little as well - is there any chance your other fish may have caught it?

 

[jollysue]

Actually sylvia there are two of us discussing our loss.

My water tests good: no ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. The ph is above 7 but not above 7.4. All my fish appear healthy. A couple of new cory pygmys did flash. I added some coppersafe and have not seen any other signs of ich or any desease. The tank is fully stocked. It is a mature tank, continually in use for almost a year. There are sparklers and 2 female honeys also that seem fine. I thought that the new pygmy cories (7 or 8 of the little rascals) might have stressed him darting around in his corners.

I haven't had NTD or a cory die. I introduced some neons with culumnaris quite some time ago. The treatment was completed several weeks back. That has been treated and there are no signs of it anymore.

I plan to very soon upgrade the size of this tank of minitures. I am inclined to think that is the problem. Although the water is good, it may be stressful from crowding.

 

[sylvia]

Actually sylvia there are two of us discussing our loss.

My water tests good: no ammonia, nitrites, nitrates. The ph is above 7 but not above 7.4. All my fish appear healthy. A couple of new cory pygmys did flash. I added some coppersafe and have not seen any other signs of ich or any desease. The tank is fully stocked. It is a mature tank, continually in use for almost a year. There are sparklers and 2 female honeys also that seem fine. I thought that the new pygmy cories (7 or 8 of the little rascals) might have stressed him darting around in his corners.

I haven't had NTD or a cory die. I introduced some neons with culumnaris quite some time ago. The treatment was completed several weeks back. That has been treated and there are no signs of it anymore.

I plan to very soon upgrade the size of this tank of minitures. I am inclined to think that is the problem. Although the water is good, it may be stressful from crowding.

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Oh sorry I didn't pay much attention to who was saying what as I replied from memory. Still, unless the water change you did that day introduced something to the tank or caused a major fluctuation, it's unlikely that he just suddenly dropped dead from stress. If it's simply over-crowding you can usualy see all sorts of signs long before - lethargy, gasping at the surface, nervous swimming back and forth or up and down along the grass, sitting on the bottom or hidden and so on. Your description was of an active, healthy-sounding fish (blowing bublenests and 'getting in the way' like you mentioned). If it were a dwarf gourami, I might be more inclined to go with the 'overwhelmed-by-stress' idea but honeys are relatively hardy. Just keep an eye on them all. Up-grading is a good idea regardless.

 

[jollysue]

thanks sylvia

There are sparklers in there too, and they are active looking.

I'm a little bummed because he was a cutie and seemed to be good. He and all the other gouramis got through the culumnaris assault w/o a hitch. I didn't expect him to just go like that as he'd been in the same tank for several months.

It is possible that he hadn't felt well for a day or two. He had been hanging in a back corner where his best shot at a nest was. He may not have been as active, but I couldn't swear to it. I only looked for him, because I didn't see him, and he was usually easy to find.

I must admit that I had been doing bucket changes for a week or two, getting new fish and setting up tanks. I didn't like the smell of the filter before the water change, so did that and tried to work with the filter media as the media was only a week or so old. Thing is sometimes I forget to turn off the filter and stuff gets blown into the tank. This happened, so I quickly turned it off and put in new media. It cleared right up, but maybe that was a factor. But he was around the bottom of the tank.

How about t constipation? maybe I was neglegent there? he was a little poo machine.

Like I said, he was the last one I expected to find missing.

A girl named, Elise, just started sparklers. They had been doing good and she was taken with them. They suddenly dropped down one after another. She pm'd me. I couldn't see a problem and told her to go to you. Her lfs gave her two new ones, and she says they seem to be doing good. She's in bettas mostly. She says she's going to pm you, but they are all waiting on a shipment from synirr now. The feeding frenzy there is starting. You could watch for her maybe.

 

[Kopix Nation]

I think honey gouramis are so cute! I wish I could have one. oh well....

claire

 

[jollysue]

They really are dolls

 

[sylvia]

You know when you say you put in new media, did you completely replace the old as that would have caused a re-cycle?

Oh and thanks for telling me about Elise, I'll look into that. I didn't come on here at all yesterday because I cut my hand and ended up in bed all day (I fainted twice- long story - typing right now is rather difficult ).

 

[jollysue]

No recycle. It's a well established tank with a bio wheel. I have tested the water. I have pretty well put it down to overcrowding and am in the process of getting a new tank. Although, if the water tests good and isn't recycling, overcrowding shouldn't be it.

 

[jollysue]

Sylvia, I'm a little distracted by many small and insignificant things. I didn't miss the post about your hand, but to my shame I didn't respond to it.

I'm sorry, I pray it will heal well. I will be gone for a bit, but would like to hear what happened, if it can be shared, and I'm not prying.

 

[sylvia]

Physical overcrowding can still cause stress which, as a result, can lead to a weakened immune system or hightening the effect of fluctuations in water parameters - anything from slightly higher nitrAte levels to a temperature fluctuation (not just ammonia or nitrIte) or even meds in the water.

On another note, my hand's fine (well kind of ). I was cutting some branches up outside and tripped. The saw thing I was using cut (rather deeply) into my palm and I ended up fainting twice as a result (more because of seeing all that blood than because I lost much - though I did feel rather dizzy later on). Anyway, I recovered and I know a woman who's a doctor so kind of called her to my house rather than spending hours at the hospital and she fixed it up. I then spent all of Friday sleeping in front of the TV but it was also an excuse to watch the fish . It seems to have damaged some nerves or something because my fingers were aching more than the cut itself and I still can't realy use that hand to type (though I'm getting used to using one hand) as two of my fingers are rather unsteady. Luckily it was my left hand so I can still write and it should be completely fine in a week or two anyway. So, yeah, that's the story but it's nothing serious.