Sterbai fatalities!

[lute17]

I have a 75gal heavily planted tank withthe following-
5koi angels
20various tetras[including neons]
3 ancistris
2 chinese algae eaters
and 3 now ex. c. sterbai

Please help--I loved these guys!
The tanks been doing great, water tests have beengreat and all fish have been thriving. 10 days ago I decided to upgrade my substrate and added 30 lbs of Flora Base[replacing about one third of the existing substrate] It made the water real cloudy for a day[the instructions warned about this] but it cleared up pretty quick. The first cat died that day suddenly[no symptoms]. About four days later I added a few more plants and slightly stirred up the bottom. The next two days claimed the remaining sterbai. It sure seems like it is the Flora Base but maybe I'm missing something.
Thanks in advance,
jeffb

 

[Inchworm]

Hi lute17

I'm so sorry to learn about your sterbai.

It does seem like the problem could have been caused by your new substrate. Corys are very sensitive to the conditions at the bottom of the tank, and if the cloudiness was caused by fine particles in the water, this could certainly have caused a problem to their gills.

I am not familiar with the brand of substrate you are talking about, however. Please tell me a bit more about it and if you are from the US, UK or somewhere else.

How are your other fish doing since the change?

 

[lute17]

Thanks for the reply Inchworm. Flora Base is one of the "designer" substates created with the planted aquarium in mind. Flourite and Onyx are some of the others. I forget a lot of the specs but I know it has a concentration of iron that the plannts need and it also has the kind of porous surface that is friendly to the more delicate root systems.Other than the cories all the other fish are just bursting with health.
ps-U.S.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi lute17

Let me see what I can find out about this product. Perhaps Rose in our Garden forum will have some information about it.

BTW, why not check that forum out since you have a planted tank? Here's a link to get you there:

http/fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?act=SF&s=&f=10

 

[Rose]

Hi Lute. Just wanted to let you know that I did get Inchworm's pm and I'm aware of the situation and I'm looking around to see if I can find anything that would tell me if it was the substrate or not. I'm not sure it is the substrate you just put in that's the culprite here. Give me a couple days and if you don't hear from me again by Thursday holler at me. Hopefully I'll have an answer to this tonight if not sooner.

A few things I would like a little bit of clarification on if you wouldn't mind....How long have you had your tank planted, what are the water perams, do you add any fertilizers or CO2( if you do what are they and how much and how often), do you ever gravel vac your substrate if you do how much and how often and how deep do you go into the substrate), how often do you do water changes and how much? I know those sound like strange questions but you'd be surprised at how often the answer to a question like yours happens to be in the maintenance of the tank. That's why I'm asking. If you could answer those questions for me I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,
Rose

 

[lute17]

Thanks for your concern, Rose. My tank is nicely cycled and all parameters are welll within cory range. I change about 15% of the water each week and vacuum each time but because it is so heavily planted I can only plunge the vacuum in[full depth] to about 10% of the surface of the substrate. I don't use CO2 or fertilizers and I have 2 watts per gallon of light.

 

[Rose]

I had a look around and called some people I know that use the substrait you just put in and I'm happy to report that the substrait isn't what killed your cory's. I think the problem is that the tank may be too planted (yes there is such a thing). What happend was when you were pulling out the old stuff and putting in the new the areas where you couldn't vaccum became toxic when it was being shifted around. This would be especially true for areas under plant leaves and near the stems. I have had that very problem a couple of times and have killed off a school of 15 cory's that way. I now take everyone and everything out of the tank before I redo the substrait. I have no fatality's that way. The other thing about a live tank is you need to get to more of the gravel if you can. Even if it means you uproot a few of the plants just to keep the subatrait from going toxic when you mess around with it. It doesn't have to be a very deep cleaning you need to get more of the gravel cleaned. I've been known to put the gravel vac over the top of plants and get to the gravel that way or to move leaves. I don't very often do a deep cleaning I more or less just run the vac lightly across the top of the gravel and this works well. About every 6 months or so I will do a deep cleaning but other than that just run it across the top of the gravel and you should be fine. I hope this helps a bit. If you need anything more holler.

Rose