Oto Gone..

[Wishful]

..we've been treating the tank with Melafix and Pimafix to try to treat a female rainbow that was showing various signs of illness. Sadly she died last night, we're still not sure of what but she seemed to have a little finrot and a little fungus, hence the mix of treatments. We decided to continue the treatment for the 7 days anyway just in case. This morning, an Oto that was fine an hour before when the Pimafix treatment was added was dead at the bottom of the tank. The only thing we can think of was that he was on the glass below the stream of treatment going in. Could this have killed him? I'll feel awful if that was the case.

I examined him on taking him out of the tank and his belly look sort of yellowish.

Thanks for any thoughts

Wishful

 

[sketchy]

invest in a hospital tank! they dont have to be dear - i got one set up t'other week for around 30 quid which isnt too tragic! handy things to have, were now using it to house a (single) fry that popped up randomly. think it must have stowed away with some new inhabitants.

as for pouring the meds straight in, some of them recomend dissolving them in a jug of pretty warm water and then pouring it in so that its not so concentrated when it first goes into the tank (or at least i assume thats the reason behind it!)

also, quite a few finrot treatments are anti bacterial and antifungal, so you may have overdosed them by adding the two!

 

[celaeno]

how long have you had the oto and what are your water stats?

 

[three-fingers]

How long did you have your oto before hand? otos can be very sensitive, sometimes they are all taken from the wild and people frequently use poison to catch them.
What are your water stats?
I doubt the 'stream' of concentrated treatment would have killed him, but the overall concentration in the tank could have contributed. Do any of your fish ahve cloudy eyes?

 

[Wishful]

invest in a hospital tank! they dont have to be dear - i got one set up t'other week for around 30 quid which isnt too tragic! handy things to have, were now using it to house a (single) fry that popped up randomly. think it must have stowed away with some new inhabitants.

as for pouring the meds straight in, some of them recomend dissolving them in a jug of pretty warm water and then pouring it in so that its not so concentrated when it first goes into the tank (or at least i assume thats the reason behind it!)

also, quite a few finrot treatments are anti bacterial and antifungal, so you may have overdosed them by adding the two!

We do have a hospital tank but it's not running at the mo. From symptoms to death was only about two days for the rainbow On the API website it says that it's perfectly safe to treat with Melafix and Pimafix at the same time, but the dissolving idea is good, I've seen it on other meds before but not on this. One for the future me thinks!

how long have you had the oto and what are your water stats?

Thanks Celaeno and Three-fingers. We've had the Oto for about two weeks, one of four we bought at the same time. The water stats are absolutely fine, although it is a new setup, but we have Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 and Nitrates 10. We are a bit concerned about the pH which shows about 7.4 to 8.0 depending on the time of day tested. All the Otos had been gloriously healthy and busy until now. None of the other fish are showing any signs of problems at the moment, but we're watching carefully.

 

[Teelie]

Otos are like that. I had 8 of them for several months, all happy with fat little bellies and active. Then I had a string of bad luck and found three dead. No other fish were sick or found dead. Sometimes they just die for no apparent reason.

 

[Wishful]

Otos are like that. I had 8 of them for several months, all happy with fat little bellies and active. Then I had a string of bad luck and found three dead. No other fish were sick or found dead. Sometimes they just die for no apparent reason.

I have to say that one of my partners sons Otos disappeared over a week ago and after a thorough search, no sign of him was found! And that's in a small tank with not many places to go. He too had appeared to be completely healthy.
It just seems so odd though, one minute fine, next gone. Did anything untoward happen prior to the loss of your three? Did they all go at the same time?

 

[Teelie]

Nothing unusual. All three were found within a few days of eachother and that was several weeks ago. I still have 3 or 4 of them swimming or clinging about and I'll get more once they're back in season.

 

[Wishful]

Nothing unusual. All three were found within a few days of eachother and that was several weeks ago. I still have 3 or 4 of them swimming or clinging about and I'll get more once they're back in season.

Is there a season for them? I've not heard of that before.

 

[Bloo]

Afraid I agree with Teelie here. Seems they really aren't the strongest in general and definitely not suitable for tanks under 6 months of age. I had a group of about 6 and for no apparent reason, 5 of them died off over a period of about 3 months. The 6th is a little die-hard that is tough as nails and has lived through several complete tank changes and house move over a year.

 

[Wishful]

Afraid I agree with Teelie here. Seems they really aren't the strongest in general and definitely not suitable for tanks under 6 months of age. I had a group of about 6 and for no apparent reason, 5 of them died off over a period of about 3 months. The 6th is a little die-hard that is tough as nails and has lived through several complete tank changes and house move over a year.

Oh. I hope we aren't going to lose the rest then. Have to keep a careful eye on them, but if they just keel over like that you don't stand much chance of thelping them do you?