Female White Cloud Mountain Minnow Observed Lying On Gravel

[Kaidonni]

Observed some very peculiar behaviour from the female White Cloud Mountain Minnow this morning (I've had her almost three years now). She was in the far corner near the filter, lying partly on the gravel but at an angle, with her body erect and her tail curving upwards. She wasn’t headstanding. I thought she might have died sometime in the night, but when I tried to get a closer look, she sprung into action, swimming about. She did have a see-saw motion as she swam, and looked slightly bloated (I fed flake food last night). She seemed to want to keep low, close to the gravel, and resumed a stationery position on top of the gravel shortly afterwards. Possibly constipation? Or something worse (hopefully not!)? She does seem to experience trouble sometimes after I feed flake food, and I endeavour to feed de-shelled, de-frosted pea once a week, mushing it up and cutting it into tiny pieces (I don’t blanch the pea or cook it). The two male White Cloud Mountain Minnows were fine this morning.

I have no reason to suspect water quality issues, I am careful to ensure next to no flake food drifts to the gravel (there will always be the odd flake or two, but I have observed the Minnows scouring the gravel for leftovers in the past). Water temperature fluctuations are anywhere from around 22c-23c to 24c-25c, heater is unplugged (so any warming is from ambient room temperature increasing/the tank light). A 50% water change each week, and my water tests last weekend prior to my weekly maintenance left me with no cause for concern (did not test nitrates last weekend, but the previous testing about 3 weeks ago gave me 30-40ppm). Total Dissolved Solids might be a little over 300ppm currently, and I have noticed an upwards trend over the last four months, but there’s little I can do about that (except perhaps be a bit more restrained on the use of Prime during water changes, and use less warm water in my attempts at temperature matching - I don't think I'll be going for reverse osmosis filtration).

 

[Kaidonni]

This morning, I also noticed a small, light brownish-mass floating in the general areal, could have been some dead plant material, fecal matter or even a bit of flake food that hadn't been eaten. No idea if it came from the female Minnow. She seems fine this evening, not bloated.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

A 50% water change each week, and my water tests last weekend prior to my weekly maintenance left me with no cause for concern (did not test nitrates last weekend, but the previous testing about 3 weeks ago gave me 30-40ppm).

 
This seems high for 50% changes every week. Do you have nitrates in your tap water?

 

[Kaidonni]

Yes, I do. The most recent report available for my area (2013...they haven't released any results from more recent tests) puts them at between 19.3-33ppm, and tests I carried out at the end of last year seemed to agree (Nutrafin gave lower results than API, I'd say 10-20ppm for Nutrafin, 20-30ppm for API). I think I carried out some earlier this year, around January/February, and the API result was in the 20-30ppm range. I haven't tested the tap water since then.
 
I only have the three fish now, plus live plants, and feed every other day - not exactly a nitrate factory. It used to be higher, over 40ppm, but a health issue with some fish back in May led me to doing emergency 50% water changes back-to-back, which no doubt made a dent in my previous nitrate levels. I do say 30-40ppm for the tank because the tests aren't all that accurate, it could be around the 30ppm or even slightly below (but I hedge my bets and assume higher). Also, as you can appreciate, the closer my tank is to the tap water, the less impact even 50% water changes will have on lowering nitrates (I do believe it might be as high as 52-54%, it certainly looks a little more than 50% when the water level has dropped).

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

I've never had to deal with Nitrates in my tap water, so this is a new concept for me and I totally understand that you cannot eliminate them with water changes. It's a fair assumption that the levels in your tap water might vary slightly but since the levels are reported, I would count on them being at or near the levels that you tested them at and save the testing for the tank water. I feel bad for you. Those levels, while not dangerous, are close enough to have concern. If you were to have a spike, you would have no choice but to do a major water change to just bring the levels down to an acceptable level, no chance of 0.
 
It is possible for a tank to process Nitrates. That might be something for you to look into. In your case, if you were to achieve that, you would probably need to do smaller water changes a lot less often in order to keep the levels down. How contradictory does that sound to what you know?

 

[Kaidonni]

I'm going to say quite contradictory, but I can easily imagine there's some biological fact that explains it perfectly.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

Mother Nature likes balance. Left to her vices, she can do some amazing things.

 

[Kaidonni]

I fed some de-shelled, de-thawed pea tonight, and she is experiencing problems right now. She is basically struggling to keep her balance as she swims about, with a see-saw movement and her front higher than her tail (she's angled slightly upwards). She's also settling on the gravel from time to time.

It's entirely possible I didn't de-thaw the pea for long enough - I was in a bit of a hurry to get things done - or picked a pea that wasn't as soft. I generally mush it up and cut it into little bits, although some pieces are still a bit big, and possibly not moist enough. I even wet the pea additionally with a bit of tank water as I mush it up (or, at least I'm taking to that as part of the preparation, and did that this evening). I don't blanch the pea.

I can say it is definitely connected to feeding time, as she was absolutely fine this morning, and was fine prior to feeding. I know I feed every other day, but did consider fasting them tonight and feeding the pea after my weekly clean tomorrow afternoon. Maybe it would have been better, or maybe that isn't going to cut it this time. Part of me wanted to test the nitrates tomorrow before the weekly clean (not urgent, but I do get obsessive and latch on to things, and I thought testing after feeding the pea would have been the most sound approach - not that it would have much impact on nitrates, but I never rule anything out).
 
As an aside, Minnow fry do keep popping up in the tank. I believe my weekly clean's are too much for them, so generally they just disappear after that (unless the Minnows nom-nom them, possibly during the tank maintenance...). It is therefore possible she is egg-bound, perhaps it is even a combination of factors (egg-bound and constipated?).
 
A tropical fish specialist I have been in touch with has also suggested colic as a possibility. I think that using aquarium salts would be a good idea at this stage, so I'll mix them in with my water change tomorrow. Possibly 2g/litre.

 

[Kaidonni]

My observations over the past week have pretty much confirmed my suspicions. Since I dosed last Sunday - 2nd August - with 1.5g/litre of aquarium salt, I observed no issues at all with the female Minnow. I proceeded to feed some microwaved pea on Tuesday 4th August, no issues. I then proceeded to feed flake food on both Thursday 6th August and Saturday 8th August, soaking it in fish tank water beforehand to soften it/allow it to absorb water and expand prior to consumption by the fish - in both instances, no issues.

Last night, I did much the same, except one of the male Minnows was filling his face with a large flake and the other was rather clueless, so the female had the opportunity to hoover up the flake food I put in. she was like Miss Packman, bloomin' literally - despite the males not having eaten much, I decided to put a stop to adding any more flake food apart from the small amount that I did put in because the female was eating practically all of it, and within seconds of it being added to the tank. This did cause her some trouble later in the evening, with her lying on the gravel from time to time, and doing the see-saw movement as she tried to retain her balance when not lying on the gravel. Once again, she appears to be largely back to normal this morning, although she did appear to hang at the surface a little (tank temperature is registering at 25C). Aquarium salt levels are now at 0.75g/litre due to my 50% water change/weekly maintenance on Sunday.

I use plastic cups and soak the flake food in tank water, then pour it back in a little at a time. Looks like I'm going to have to pour it back in even slower, especially with her appetite. I won't be feeding Wednesday, and will feed microwaved pea again on Thursday, and then will proceed to be even more cautious with the pre-soaked flake food than I already have been.

I did perform water tests for samples before and after my weekly maintenance on Sunday, ammonia and nitrites absolutely fine. Nitrates registered on Friday at about 35ppm as best I could read, possibly 30 - API test very difficult to read, especially at 7pm of the night. On Sunday, API nitrate test appeared about the same, so that means that, as a 50% change hardly budged it, my tap nitrates are at least 20ppm if not greater (2013 report backs it up, listing 19.3-33ppm as the range). Nothing more I can do there.

I actually did four nitrite tests on Sunday...one with a sample taken from before my 50% clean, three with samples taken after (the last two were because I thought I mucked the first two up, and the last one because I thought I mucked the third one up...not sure how many more I can do). I even redid the ammonia tests yesterday under what I consider questionable lighting conditions (at 6.30-7pm, daylight is not completely conducive to being able to read the tests clearly, but I scraped by), the API being the hardest to read; from what I can tell from the way both Nutrafin and API work, my ammonia/ammonium readings could be anywhere between 0ppm and 0.25ppm, although definitely not 0.25ppm, possibly virtually 0ppm. I do note that the 5ml mark on the test tubes is not 5ml, it is less in at least some cases (but regardless of this, I still fill to the 5ml mark and not above on both Nutrafin and API test tubes).
 
I even conducted a nitrite test this evening under less than favourable lighting conditions (artifical lighting, flourescent and otherwise, going from the kitchen to the laundrette to compare), and I'm pretty satisfied with saying it's a 0ppm reading (regardless of this, I'm well above the 0.1g/litre aquarium salt quantity needed to render nitrites harmless). When I compare against untested tank water, I swear I see an ever-so-faint difference in colouration, as if there is some colour development there in the nitrite test - the difference would be so faint as to be virtually undetectable, if there is even one there at all. Either my eyes need looking at, or they are extremely good.

 

[Kaidonni]

I ended up feeding a small amount of flake food instead of pea last night, and although the female Minnow didn't get very much to eat, what she did eat, she just wolfed down. And she had problems again (not quite as severe, but I didn't take a good look last night, and she still had some difficulty swimming this morning). Maybe I didn't soak the flake food for long enough, or she ate too large a flake. I will be feeding the pea tomorrow, but beyond trying to switch to a live food diet, I'm not entirely sure what else I can do. I obviously cannot use aquarium salt long term, it is currently present at a concentration of 0.75g/litre). The issue with the female Minnow is definitely directly connected to feeding, it completely self-corrects the following day (case in point, she had absolutely no problems Tuesday through to yesterday evening, even for a short while after feeding).
 
Could egg impaction have any effect at all on the situation? Could it be made worse during feeding? There have been Minnow fry in the tank, so she has laid eggs from time to time over the last couple of months (not seeing any fry this week, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough, or she hasn't laid any more eggs yet).

I did start to worry when I looked at the female Minnow's abdomen and saw a dark mass inside of her, but I figure these are her internal organs - the two males have dark masses inside of them also, around about where one would expect their internal organs to be. Maybe hers are more visible for whatever reason, but still, I'm going to hold back on the panicking there.