Jump to content

Rummynose Tetras Dying! Help!!!


Crabby

Recommended Posts

Hey all,

so I was at an aquarium store yesterday with a mate, and they had a giant school (150+) of rummynose tetras in a tank that caught my eye. Now I’ve been thinking about getting rummynose since I started in the hobby, and this impressive and beautiful school just pushed me over the edge. I got 10, but didn’t pick them out individually as it would’ve been quite the trouble for the store employee. They all looked happy and healthy in the bag. But by the time I’d got back to my mate’s place I had 2 belly-up in the bag. Still breathing, but lethargic and still. So we slowly acclimated them to his QT tank (assuming it was the water that they didn’t like), using a drip acclimation method. By the time this was finished another fish was belly-up. So we put the 3 bad ones in a breeder box in the QT tank, and let the others swim around. We also had measured pH and ammonia from their bag, which were 7.0 and 0.25. The QT tank was 7.2 and 0. We also medicated their water with blue Planet multi cure, which has malachite green, methylene blue and acriflavine as active ingredients. They stayed in there for a few hours, and we monitored them. When I left I bagged them all up, with the floaters in a seperate bag so I could tell if they got better. Unfortunately I think one was dead by that point. At home I very slowly drop acclimated them to my own QT (which just finished cycling, but I couldn’t risk putting sick fish in with all my healthy ones in another tank). The process took around an hour, then I checked them all to see who was okay and who was not. I had 2 dead, 3 okay and 5 belly-up. I did all I could to make the tank as safe as I could, and medicated the water. I removed the dead ones, and let the ones still breathing stay in the tank in case of a miraculous recovery. This morning I turned the lights on and could only see 2 swimming. I looked all around to find the missing one, and it turned out he was inside my cholla wood! I can’t tell if he’s still respirating or not, so I will get him out of there. I can’t see gill movement from any other fish but the 2 swimming. All (but the swimmers) have lost colour in their noses. I will remove them now, as they do look dead to me. The ones that still live look to have fin rot.
Does anyone know what might have caused this? Was it just bad stock, or did I do something wrong? And how can I save the ones that are still alive? 
Thanks in advance.

 

 

095444C7-907E-408E-884E-F30F4BE62140.jpeg

66262125-B5FB-4CD3-927D-0DF0F0B00C98.jpeg

F38F322A-E4C4-4FF8-943C-E5716A448FA0.jpeg

C3B3D6E1-10AD-46C9-B4CE-F949783E5488.jpeg

2CE4408B-8FF8-4F24-9545-435ACED74D33.jpeg

AC3649D5-DB1F-4AA6-91FB-A826B6136343.jpeg

A6C4381C-D5CB-41C4-9E62-B44A8EDFE54F.jpeg

775C1FC7-DBF5-4B82-BCE3-FB5A74E499ED.jpeg

DEC8D67F-F68A-4F6E-A0B9-C186128A4F70.jpeg

Edited by Crabby
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So on a follow-up question to the previous post: what do I use to treat semi-serious fin rot? Will the multi cure I'm already using work for the fin rot, or do I need an erythromycin antibiotic to treat this? And can I use them in conjunction? Or is the multi-cure unnecessary at this stage?

I will hugely appreciate any input or help.

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear about your problem with the new fish. I don't know what meds you have in Australia but we have a few which are supposed to be for 'fin rot' but any aquarium place probably stocks at least 1 fin rot medication I expect. Usually though the medication can be fairly expensive (especially in relation to the cost of the fish)  so whether you consider it worth doing for just a couple of fish when it may not work anyway is a decision only you can make!

I don't wish to be too harsh but I would just quarantine the few that are ok,/left or carry on as you are, and they will either die or survive at this stage. It is quite common in my experience that you will lose a few in the first few days when you get new fish from a shop, it has happened EVERY time with me anyway, though not to your severity! It is stressful for them to be moved and transported and they are simple/fragile creatures anyway! You should probably only get fish from a shop when you plan to then take them straight home and into the (quarantine) tank ASAP, within an hour if possible. The loss of colour is normal when you buy new fish and that is a result of stress as well but usually they colour back up in a day or so if all is well and they are happy! If it is mild and you keep them in a well maintained tank once they settle down and feel calmer it can just clear with a bit of time - it has happened several times to me with betta, including my current one, to the point I just ignore it as a norm now with a newly acquired fish that is stressed and getting used to its new environment! If you have a magnifying glass it is worth taking that when you buy fish so when they are in the bag (before paying for them) you can see better what condition they are in at that point - also saves a lot of time/hassle!

Fish sent through the post are a different subject and one I have never done but very tempted to try, but obviously that can take a lot longer so the packaging is completely different. All my shrimp have been through the post successfully.

If you do go for meds, don't forget to remove any carbon from the filter system (if you have any) whilst doing the treatment! I have heard a lot of good things about this products IF it is available in Australia? I've never tried it myself though as mentioned above.

https://www.pro-shrimp.co.uk/health-support-treatment/3562-waterlife-myxazin-100ml-5018438009309.html?search_query=fin+rot&results=932

Hopefully someone from Australia may be able to give you better info about meds in Australia?

Simon 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Simon.

I've decided to just return them to the store as they were sold to me as diseased fish (fin rot has progressed too far for it to have been my fault) and as you said the cost for the medicine is more than that of the fish. The fish really aren't doing well, so I think it'll save a fair bit of work. Hopefully the store can do a better job at keeping them alive now that I can make them aware of the problem. Even though I am sort of giving up on the fish I have certainly learned some lessons through this experience. The whole thing shocked me a bit, as this is a problem I would have expected when I first started out, but not now, just as I'm getting comfortable with the hobby. In hindsight it may have been my being comfortable that caused this mistake. Anyway, thanks for the advice Simon. Hopefully I won't have to ask a question like this again, and I can learn from this unfortunate situation.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hope you manage to get your money back without any hassle.

We all suffer from impulse buying, especially with this hobby. I don't think we ever stop learning either with this hobby. Maybe the challenge is part of the appeal?

Ask as many questions as you want!

Simon

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...