Suggestions For Some New Tank Mates :-)

[Baccus]

I think it will all settle down, the rearrange of the tank should also throw the neon rainbows into a bit of a spin, suddenly the territory they where used to is different and new boundries have to be established.
By the sounds of it your gobies are juvi's but once they grow a bit more they should get much braver and by then the neon rainbows should well and truly lost interest in them.
 
My Finke river gobies where total gluttons and readily came out for all sorts of foods, but they seemed especially keen on Wardly Sinking Shrimp Pellets, they also loved live blackworms, but I learnt it was best to limit their feeding on this because they gladly scoffed a whole colony in less than a day.
 
I went down to one of my local creeks today and caught myself a heap of looks like Empire and Purple spotted gudgeons, they are all juvi at the moment, but I intend to put them and the fly speck hardy heads I also caught into my pond.

 

[alexpb22]

Wow that is so good that you can literally go out and get these fish in the wild where you live. A lot cheaper as well not having to visit the LFS.

Unfortunately I have woken up this morning to one dead gudgeon. I am assuming that he has been stressed and attacked into submission but I'm not 100% as when I was floating the bag in the tank when I got them home there was one I wasn't sure was looking too well so he may have been a bad buy. Having said that, there is only one gudgeon I am aware of, the other two I haven't seen for a couple of days now. They may also be dead somewhere or hiding, these two were particularly small as well.

 

[Baccus]

Rather than possibly disturbing any hide holes they may have found, try checking in the tank after lights out and use a torch to see if they are sneaking out under cover of darkness. Some sinking catfish type foods dropped in after lights out, might also encourage them to show themselves.
 
I hope they are ok, and they probably are Gobies can be very good hiders but usually their stomachs over rule their shyness and they will emerge from their secret places. By checking after lights out there is a very good chance the neon rainbows would have gone to sleep for the night and are not likely to go foraging for food even if you have just added some to bribe out the gobies.
 
I do like my local gudgeons but they can be aggressive and once they grow up anything that fits in their mouths is dinner, since most of my tanks also house small fish and shrimp the gudgeons just are not a good mix in my tanks, hence being regulated to the pond. My Finke River gobies however, while being gluttons never went out of their way to eat their tank mates.....except for the shrimp and blackworm colony.
I need to go to some other local creeks and try and hunt down some pacific blue eyes, they are in the area, but finding the right creek not invested with gambusia and guppies is hard. Iam also looking at getting some more local rainbow fish, which are most likely a varity of Melanotaenia splendida splendida, almost every creek can have its own unique form or sub species.

 

[alexpb22]

Rather than possibly disturbing any hide holes they may have found, try checking in the tank after lights out and use a torch to see if they are sneaking out under cover of darkness. Some sinking catfish type foods dropped in after lights out, might also encourage them to show themselves.
 
I hope they are ok, and they probably are Gobies can be very good hiders but usually their stomachs over rule their shyness and they will emerge from their secret places. By checking after lights out there is a very good chance the neon rainbows would have gone to sleep for the night and are not likely to go foraging for food even if you have just added some to bribe out the gobies.
 
I do like my local gudgeons but they can be aggressive and once they grow up anything that fits in their mouths is dinner, since most of my tanks also house small fish and shrimp the gudgeons just are not a good mix in my tanks, hence being regulated to the pond. My Finke River gobies however, while being gluttons never went out of their way to eat their tank mates.....except for the shrimp and blackworm colony.
I need to go to some other local creeks and try and hunt down some pacific blue eyes, they are in the area, but finding the right creek not invested with gambusia and guppies is hard. Iam also looking at getting some more local rainbow fish, which are most likely a varity of Melanotaenia splendida splendida, almost every creek can have its own unique form or sub species.

Hey Baccus, thanks for sticking with me. You probably haven't noticed my other posts but I have had a right nightmare after adding the new fish. I think actually the original one may have died because he was sick. As of now I have lost four dwarf neon rainbows, a platy and two gudgeons within 24 hours!!! It's crazy, they all went from having mo symptoms to having some symptoms and death pretty much overnight. I had to remove the four neons today and they were totally fine last night.

I have a feeling it's cotton mouth but I have gone from having a really happy tank to multiple deaths. I know I am meant to quarantine before adding but I don't think I am going to continue to use my LFS anymore as it is clearly the new fish that has caused this. At the mo I'm treating with Melafix and Pimafix in the hope that it is jugs a bacterial/fungal thing.

 

[Baccus]

Sorry to hear about the deaths

 . Unfortunately I can not really advise on suitable medications, since what you have over there is going to be very different to what I have available over here.
Melafix and Pimafix are generally good, something else that you should be able to get is Indian Almond Leaves or IAL, these have antiboic qualities and are very good added to a tank.
Something I found on another site, which may give you some insight into how the problem arose and how to fix it.
coralnerd
18-06-07, 05:11 PM
The white cottony growth that you get in rainbows is columnaris, a bacterial infection. Its not fungal. Rainbows are particularly suceptible to it. They all seem to carry it, and you'll often see an outbreak when the fish are stressed. Cold water seems to reduce the fish's resistance, and the stress of capture and transport will often bring it out in wild caught fish.

The good news is that its very easy to fix. Just perform 50% water changes every few days and it should soon clear up on its own. Medications shouldn't be required. 50% weekly water changes are recommended for rainbows anyway, as they're quite sensitive to a buildup of dissolved organics and crap in the water. You'll usually see an instant increase in activity after a water change, and it'll often trigger spawining behaviour.
 
Maybe adding the new fish and potenially a larger bioload on your filter/ tank you have put the tank into a mini cycle and this stress has bought on the illness in the fish. Because you have already started treating with Malfix and Pimafix I would see out that treatment, from memory its something like one treatment every 7 days. Once the treatment has run its course I would start doing large water changes and hopefully then you will have the problem licked and the filter has a chance to catch back up.

 

[alexpb22]

Sorry to hear about the deaths  . Unfortunately I can not really advise on suitable medications, since what you have over there is going to be very different to what I have available over here.
Melafix and Pimafix are generally good, something else that you should be able to get is Indian Almond Leaves or IAL, these have antiboic qualities and are very good added to a tank.
Something I found on another site, which may give you some insight into how the problem arose and how to fix it.
coralnerd
18-06-07, 05:11 PM
The white cottony growth that you get in rainbows is columnaris, a bacterial infection. Its not fungal. Rainbows are particularly suceptible to it. They all seem to carry it, and you'll often see an outbreak when the fish are stressed. Cold water seems to reduce the fish's resistance, and the stress of capture and transport will often bring it out in wild caught fish.
The good news is that its very easy to fix. Just perform 50% water changes every few days and it should soon clear up on its own. Medications shouldn't be required. 50% weekly water changes are recommended for rainbows anyway, as they're quite sensitive to a buildup of dissolved organics and crap in the water. You'll usually see an instant increase in activity after a water change, and it'll often trigger spawining behaviour.
 
Maybe adding the new fish and potenially a larger bioload on your filter/ tank you have put the tank into a mini cycle and this stress has bought on the illness in the fish. Because you have already started treating with Malfix and Pimafix I would see out that treatment, from memory its something like one treatment every 7 days. Once the treatment has run its course I would start doing large water changes and hopefully then you will have the problem licked and the filter has a chance to catch back up.

Thanks for all this, it's been rally helpful and interesting reading.

It is a possibility then that rather than the new fish bringing in the diesease, the stress actually brought it out of my rainbows. I doubt that I would have had a mini cycle because the four fish I added were absolutely tiny (size of a neon tetra) and I'm sure that my tank could have easily coped with that.

I did lose another rainbow overnight, so I'm down to five from ten the other day. The ones that are still there all look OK at the mo and seem to not be showing any signs yet. I could be wrong but it has been going from fish to fish really quickly so I would have expected another to be showing symptoms by now. Unfortunately despite looking everywhere I can't find the dead fish but hopefully that in itself won't screw everything up.

I am definitely going to invest in a quarantine tank now and use that from now on as I can't have this happen again and can't afford it either!!