New Arrivals

valhallan · Post by **valhallan** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:52 pm

I don't know whether to call this an emergency or not. At this stage, I'm leaning toward not...

First things first. I got two new fish today, not adults as I had hoped, but good looking fish nonetheless. Here are some pics -

These two pics are the same fish

And these two are of the other (sorry about the fuzziness)

Side by side

So, here's the story. When these fish arrived they had been in bags for ~21hrs, they seemed to be packed well, with heat packs in a styrofoam container etc. but when I pulled them out of the box, the water in the bags was very cold. Needless to say, the poor little guys didn't look all that active either. I immediately floated the bags in one of my RO reservoirs (82 F) hoping to raise the temp a little, and kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't raise too quick and heat shock them. After a nerve racking 20 minutes or so I pulled the bags out to take a quick look. Well, one of them was on its back...

I tried not to panic, and just went ahead with my acclimation process. Water from their soon to be home was dripped into the bags over the period of about 1 1/2 hours. During this time I kept a close eye on them, hoping to see any signs of movement, especially from the one that had been on its back. After a while, I was rewarded with a tail flick. I continued to acclimate them and finally they were added to the tank after a brief interlude for a photo op.

As I was pouring the water from their container into the tank, the one that had been on its back started to drift and roll before eventually falling into the tank. Once it hit the open water it scooted away fast enough, but this whole thing still has me a little freaked out. It's been about 2 hours now, and they both seem to be moving around and looking for a nice place to hide, so that's allayed some of my worry, but I wanted everyone's opinion. Is this something I should worry about? Is there anything I can do to help it settle in? If it helps any, the one that was having trouble is the one in pics 1 & 2.

Off topic now, I have a question about my fry as well. I have 5 fry in a 2.5G acrylic tank suspended in my 50G zebra tank. There is a hole drilled in one end and it sits just above the water level of the larger tank to allow it to act as an overflow. Water movement is from a spray bar attached to a 165gph powerhead (only half of the total length of the spray bar empties into the fry trap). The hole is covered with a bulkhead strainer that has an aquaclear sponge slipped over it.

Problem is, lately the fry have been hanging around the surface a lot, and just now when I looked at them one actually had its head out of the water. I've seen ancistrus do this, but that was when a heater had busted and the water was way too hot, this tank sits steady at 86F (checked with 2 thermometers). My first thought was DO levels, so I removed the sponge from the strainer as it was quite clogged with food, and added an airstone to try and get some more turbulence in there. This has me a little concerned. Any thoughts?

Sorry for the long post, I'm sure you guys know what this is like though.

Val

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:15 pm

I can't see the pictures, valhallen, maybe the hoster doesn't allow linking?

I had an accident with my CO2 a while ago, the water got too much of it, which resulted in a very dazed L204. He was just floating, I could pick him up with my hands, that's how dazed he was. A large waterchange and 2 hours later he was as good as rain though. I was thinking your Zebra might be suffering from something like that? If that is indeed the case, then chanses are they should be alright, given good water and a bit of time.

As for your fry, have you checked the water parameters? It seems to me as though they come out of hiding whan something's wrong with the water. This can also be used as an indication of how your new adult Zebras feel, if they hang on the glass they're probably stressed and not feeling too good, if they hide things should be ok? I put a questionmark on this as I'm not sure you can rely on this 100%, but it might be an indication.

Good luck, hope they pull through!

valhallan · Post by **valhallan** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 8:50 pm

Hi McEve,

I dumped the old hoster. Hopefully you can see the pics now.

I feel a little better about the new guys now. I think they were just a little oxygen deprived. Not 100% worry free though.

The water parameters in the fry tank are fine. All I have in there for them to hide in is a couple pieces of pvc though. I've got some driftwood soaking that I was going to put in there eventually, maybe I should find something else for them in the mean time.

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:09 pm

How are they doing? Crossing my fingers that they're doing fine!

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 12:31 pm

Hi valhallan,

I think that you did all that was possible for the new arrivals, I would have done the same thing. I suspect that it's going to be a case of wait and see what develops. If they are still alive then I think you may have got away with it. The only thing I would say is to watch out for any secondary infections as they were obviously very stressed in transit. As a result they may be a bit more susceptible to secondary infections for a while. Just keep things nice and stable, other than that I think there is little else you can do.

As for the strange fry behaviour, I too have seen other plecs behave in this way. My gold ancistrus regularly sticks her head out of the water when I'm pumping water back into the tank following a water change. She likes to postion herself right under the water flow. I really don't know what this means, but I doubt that it's caused by disease or anything else for that matter. My ancistrus has been doing this for years.

Good luck with the new guys, fingers crossed that they pull through.

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:42 pm

The day I got my two zebras, in the shop, one of them sucked to the side of the tank and would NOT be moved, even though he'd been scooted above the water line. He just stuck there. It was a real challenge to get him off the glass. Then when I got them home and acclimated them, when it came time to put them in the tank, I could NOT get this one out of the bucket. I'd slowly poured the water through a net and one flopped straight into the net, easy. The other one stuck fast to the bucket and wouldn't let go, even though there was no water in the bucket! I had to keep splashing him with water so he could breathe, but it still took me 10 minutes to get the little devil out of the bucket

. He suffered no ill effects after his ordeal.

My farlowella catfish also doesn't seem to mind sticking out of the water. It's usually just his head, but sometimes he gets on the internal filter and most of his body is out of the water. He doesn't even seem to notice!

valhallan · Post by **valhallan** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:02 pm

When I checked back on them this morning before work they seemed to be doing alright. I could only see one, but I think that's more because my fish room was still dark and I didn't have a lot of time to look. I'm feeling a lot better about it now. I'll probably give them another night before I feed them, just to let them get back into the swing of things some more.

Mindy, my fry did the same thing as your zebs when I was trying to move them into their new trap. They were almost impossible to get off the sides of the old trap.

Adam, thanks for the reassurance. I'm no stranger to acclimating fish, but I think the money invested in these guys makes me a little jittery where I wouldn't be with most other fish.

While I'm at it, does anyone want to have a go at sexing these? Rather than putting up a new post in the sexing forum and wasting more of Rob's bandwidth. They're still fairly small, around 2" (5cm).

Thanks for your help guys.

Val

Adam · Post by **Adam** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:51 pm

Valhallan, sounds to me like they will be ok. I fully appreciate how anxious you must be. After all they do cost an arm and a leg these days that's if you can even find them in the first place.

I figure the sticking to things behaviour is their defense mechanism. They can also lock their pectoral and dorsal fins out when they do this. I guess it's to avoid being swallowed by potential predators.

I really can't tell what sex they are, I wouldn't even like to guess. Perhaps you can take some clearer side shots of them when they settled in fully. Some of the others may want to have a go.