Lethargic Cory And Botia Histionica...

[Jo and Gra]

Got the fish listed in our sig..........

Lately the botia and cory haven't been quite so "lively" and hiding quite a bit. and not seeming to come out to feed like they were.

earlier this week we had a mollie die, and this morning a cory julii......

thing is, the water seems fine, though nitrates are low, but nitrItes and ammoina are zero.....

we also noticed earlier in the week that the botia were laying on their side?to the point that i nudged one with a net to make sure it was still alive, it moved, but not exactly fast.


so what could be wrong?

we do weekly partial water changes, which involves two buckets of water coming out, and obvioulsy two buckets going back in. we remove the water via a gravel vac. though we try and vac as much gravel as possible, when i replace plants on just smooth the gravel back out again, there is still A LOT of debris left in the gravel. could this be the problem? have we got too much gravel in there? how can we change this? undergravel filtration?

may day may day here!!...before all the fish fade!

 

[ncjharris]

Could be several things.
Will need to know more to try to diagnose.
What kind of water movement do you have in the tank and whats you temp at?
What and when are you feeding?
Any visable changes to the fish - loss of colour, marks on their bodies etc?

 

[WILDER]

Sonething is definately not right, he shouldn't be laying on his side, does he look bloated or skinny, change of colour, what does it look like when he goes to the toilet.

 

[Jo and Gra]

not sure about the toilet issue as they are bottom dwellers, its obvioulsy difficult to see it. however, they do look a bit bloated (belly area), in as much as we thought they looked a bit fat.

 

[WILDER]

Is the fish still eating if so try some shelled peas and frozen daphnia.

 

[Jo and Gra]

Could be several things.
Will need to know more to try to diagnose.
What kind of water movement do you have in the tank and whats you temp at?
What and when are you feeding?
Any visable changes to the fish - loss of colour, marks on their bodies etc?

water movement is provided by a fluval 2+ filter running on "full"......and a six inch water stone being fed by a seperate small air pump.

feeding twice daily. a pinch of king british tropical flake food for the mollies and gourami, and a pinch of catfish pellets of which we are not sure of the make. also, after most weekly water chages we teat the guys to either frozen daphinia or blood worm. we also every days or two give them some hinkari (spelling?) catfish tablets.

we used to use king british cat fish pellet, ran out, and are now using this other brand. could it be this that is causing the lack of interest in food? could it be as simple as crap pellets? (purchased from wyvales (fins aquatics braintree)


no visible changes to the fish, as said the botia seem a tad fat, but then they have been for a while, and that was before the pellet change. the cory all look fine, until obvioulsy we found a "floater" this morning.

as a carp angler, i'm aware certain foods dont break down in the digestive system of fish, could this be the case with the new pellets?




suggestions?

Is the fish still eating if so try some shelled peas and frozen daphnia.

see above, we do offer frozen daphnia...not often enough though??

 

[WILDER]

It could be constipation i would get some veg in there diet.

http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/feed...egetables.shtml

 

[Jo and Gra]

constipation? really? so some peas may help?

what fish will this apply to in our tank? the botia and cory?

the others seem ok to be fair.

so do we think this could be the pellets? or?

and can you get vegetable "substitue" pellets or is "real" vegetable the only route?

 

[WILDER]

To many dried foods in the diet lead to constipation and swim bladder problems, try feeding algae tablet,peas,broc,green cabbage,sproats,cucumba, anything green, daphnia is good for digesting the fish food.

 

[Jo and Gra]

we already "occasionally" put some king british algae tabs in......they dont seem TOO keen?