L046 Plecs Dying

MalawiBob · Post by **MalawiBob** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:07 pm

I have a group of 6 L046, I have put in 2 groups of Discus into the same tank as the L046 now i have lost 3 in the space of 1 day. There is not a mark on them they are just dead, they stop trying to hide and are really slow to move then they just die, They are nearly 2 yrs old and i fed them a raw prawn for the first time, so i am unsure what has happened, water parameters are 30 C PH 6.4 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 0 Nitrate If anyone can shed some light on this i would be grateful

civicr · Post by **civicr** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 5:43 pm

omg thats no good id do a 1/4 water change instantly also maybe the water parameters are far to diffrent from were the fish came from?

i wouldnt sya it was the prawn myself

were in scotland are you im dundee

Jamie24 · Post by **Jamie24** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 8:41 pm

if you got discus in there theres obviously not a lot of flow, and is going to be pretty warm, so id say theres lack of oxygen content in the water and lack of flow in the tank and lack turnover with the filtration.

stick a few air stones in there, turn the filters up full blast and get the discus out of there, otherwise they wont like the strong currents and they will strat to die.

any info on your tank size and perameters and conditions/ layout of the tank would be helpfull

hope this helps, J

paulvh · Post by **paulvh** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 9:42 pm

You don't mention oxygen levels but my guess is this is the problem, especially if you don't have much surface agitation or air pumped in. I have lost these fish before in these conditions. I would also take the big fish out and get more air in the water.

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:34 am

I have kept 2 zebras in a tank with two larger discus for almost 2.5 years now. It is a small tank- 25 gals, and is filtered with a sponge filter and an AquaClear 150 gpg. I have never had any issue with the plecos though the current discus duo has been in there almosy a year. One previous discus was moved and one died. The water is pH 7.4, the temp 83-84 (about 28-29C).

It can be done successfully and O might not be the issue. A red light always goes off for me when I see the phrase "for the first time". Two things happened simultaneously here- 2 presumably healthy discus were introduced and raw shrimp fed for the first time.

My money is on the shrimp. I would get any still in the tank out and not feed it again. I have no idea what sort of nasties raw shrimp might carry, so I have no idea if there is anything you could medicate with if any more zebs start acting poorly.

However, it can't hurt anything to up the surface aggitation to be sure O isnt the issue.

Post by **Barbie** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:27 am

I've kept discus with zebras numerous times. Discus will handle more flow than you might think, no problem, and zebras do fine with almost none (a friend breeds his with only air driven sponge filters in the tank, period). There is not a hard and fast rule.

Honestly, that sounds like they choked. As someone that choked 10 small zebras with one feeding of bloodworms, I can say I've seen the symptoms. That's just too bad, but I would definitely rethink your feeding regimen if you're going to keep them together.

How do you get your nitrates to 0? How warm are you keeping the tank? The more information you can give us about the set up, the more we'll actually be able to help you. I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. It's such a complete bummer to lose these guys for any reason!

Barbie

Caesars · Post by **Caesars** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:28 pm

The discus introduction is more likely than not a co-incidence. Even if the fish were ill, it would take more than a day to start experiencing deaths.

Prawn: more than likely it was no good. I don't believe the fish chocked on it, they are 2 years old. We feed ours shrimp, prawn, mussel and cockle once they hit the one year mark and never had an incident.

One thing to take into account: Ammonia is widely used to freeze / preserve fish in boats. This fish goes for human consumption. Always wash frozen food throroughly after thawing and discard water.

OliverKahn · Post by **OliverKahn** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 4:10 am

i believe that choking is the real reason as the food for discus could easily choke the zebra which, in my opinion, does not eat as much meat as many people proposed... if you look at the teeth of the zebra you know what i mean...

Irene0100 · Post by **Irene0100** » Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:05 pm

sorry you lost them, what a shame.
I often give mine frozen , defrosted, washed, prawn, in a clip. but it is not 'raw' prawn, I used the pink ones which have actually been cooked before freezing. like we would eat in a salad. was it one of those you used? or was it really raw as in grey colour, uncooked, cos this could carry bacteria, especially if it was not even frozen (freezing kills a lot of baddies.)
failing that I would go for the oxygen theory.

how are the remaining zebs doing?

L046 Plecs Dying

L046 Plecs Dying

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L046 plecs dying