Twitching Firemouth

[mrs biffster]

Do you have any rocks in your tank because the ph is pretty high and i'm trying to figure out why. 7.2 is normal for tap water.

 

[drufly]

Yea i have about 15 to 20kg of natural rough slate, aquired from the building site my dad was working on. This has never been a problem b4.

Heres my setup

280ltr fresh water with live plants, 1 Echinodorus(red special) 2 Echinodorus bleheri 1 echinoduorus osiris 2 cryptocoryne x willisii 2ludwigia glandulosa. Not using any ferts for these.

the slate. play sand sub, fish in sig minus 2 fm's.

roughly 50 to 60 ltr water change every week, water treated with 'nutrafin aqua plus' 15ml dose.

running a ehiem 2215 filter for near 3 yrs, cleaned every 6 months

Lights are 2 t8's on for 6 hrs a day

Think thats bout it, anything else i missed?

 

[mrs biffster]

Everything seems fine but prior to that did you buy anything new before your problem with the firemouths.

 

[drufly]

Only thing i bought was 2 jewel cichlid. one of which died a short time after. That was about 3 months ago.

I just ph'd the tank water when it was half empty there and its now reading 6.

Completly baffling me, which is leading to frustration. GRRRRRRRRR
#

 

[mrs biffster]

Like i suggested before try black water extract it makes all the difference.

 

[drufly]

Need to try something! Lfs could be in for a lot of returns till i get sorted.

 

[mrs biffster]

Where do you buy your fish from? Is it a multi national company or a small petshop/aquarium?

 

[drufly]

Its not multi national no. think they have a couple of shops in n. ireland. My local in lisburn and another in belfast. I have been buying fish off them fo 4 5 years. Some lasted a few yrs , some last a few days. Buit they are a biggish outfit. Grosvenor tropicals is the name of it

Ok just checked them out online they are bigger than i thought, suppliers from europe, asia and the far east

 

[mrs biffster]

I tend to buy fish from small aquatic shops because they don't use RO water just ordinary tap water.

 

[WILDER]

Bent spine can be due to injury, birth defect, internal parasites, fish tb, vitamin deficiency, old age.

What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Is the anus of any fish enlarged, red and inflamed.
Do any fish look skinny or bloated.
Any fish show signs of a sunken in belly.
Do any fish swim on there sides.
Do any fish spit food out and not eat.

 

[drufly]

SOme of the fish have a solid poo but most is normal.
No inflamation on any anus
all the fish look healthy, no visable difference
all bellys are full(lol)
swimming straight and normal
most fish in tank eat food and spit some out, always have. I thought they were just fussy

 

[WILDER]

Keep a look out for long stringy white poo, or clear mucas poo.
Worms sticking out of the anus.

Could the bent spine been an injury.
How old was the fish with the bent spine.

 

[drufly]

RO water?

Just did a test on todays water

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph 6

Everything seems ok today, fm's are swimming around happily, eating well. Just fed the tank their treat of a cube of mysis, daphnia and artemia brine shrimp. Scoffed the lot in no time.

 

[drufly]

THe fish that had the bent spine is now no longer with us. But its spine only bent slightly as soon as it took bad.

Not too worried now as everything is back to normal. Not going to buy any more fish for a long time, till no the tak is completly safe.

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
You might want to think about worming your fish internally.
It's best to worm fish anyway.

Bless Him.
R.I.P.