Colony Crash

[velderton]

Hello Folks,

Hoping to get some insight into a tragic event over the last two weeks.

I have been keeping fish for decades and successfully run a small fish room with a number of breeding projects as a hobby. Half my fish room is Africans - 12 tanks. A couple years ago I thought I'd start raising Tropheus, a genus I had not kept before. The genus is not easy to get here in Vancouver, BC, Canada but for the past 2.5 years I have been following this forum, making some good connections locally and in Washington State. I started by acquiring small groups of Duboisi, Ikola, Chimba & Bemba. Right now I have Duboisi / Chimba (Fluval Venesia 360 L - 92 G) and Duboisi / Bemba (Fluval Venesia 190 L - 55 G) that are doing well but my Bemba numbers are small ... so I knew I needed more.

So here is where my tragic dilemma starts.

A month ago one of my local contacts was selling a beautiful group of 30 Bemba, about 2 years old that he had great success with. With the 8 Bemba I already had the additional 30 would be more than what I needed. I could split the group into 2 smaller colonies or easily share them with with other hobbyists. I set up a separate tank for these fish with some juvenile peacocks as dithering fish and 2 injury recovering Duboisi. The non-Bemba were in the tank for about 2 weeks before the 30 Bembas arrived. The Bembas transported well, acclimatized to the tank well everything was looking great. All fish where doing well for the first 4 weeks - no problems, active, and eating.

After 4 weeks Bemba from that group of 30 started dying, no other fish. I have lost one or two a day now for the last 2 weeks, not a mark on them and no obvious stress before they die, no obvious bloating etc. ... whatever takes them down takes them down fast. After I lost 4 - fish in a couple days I started with water changes, twice a week rather than one a week, then more losses a few days later so I started medicating the fish with Kanamycin and Metroplex thinking that it has to be something internal. My water parameters Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate are all good. The other fish are all good. 

So at this point I am looking for any suggestions ... thoughts, am I missing something? I have resigned myself that none from this group will survive - down to 3 fish from the original 30.

Thanks



 

[renoguy]

I am sorry to hear.

[...]

It sounds to me like the peacocks and the reccovering duboisi carried something they were immune to that bembas succumbed to...1 of the unfortunate outcomes of not quarantining fish b4 mixing them...it is honestly not usually a problem with African cichlids, but seems the only logical hypothesis in the circumstances you described.
You could hit them with tetracycline but not sure you can get that in Canada with out a script from a vet.
Sorry for your loss mate

[velderton]

Thanks ... for the thoughts and advice.

I am also considering that I have Tufa-rock, CaribSea substrate and buffer my water with SeaChem cichlid salts. I know these fish were not raised with these water parameters. When ever I saw the colony the fish always looked great but I never checked the home water tank parameters before I purchased them. I know there are some hobbyists in this area that use Epsom Salts to buffer their water and I have found my success with fish from tanks that use Epsom salt, rather SeaChem for buffering can struggle in my tanks.

Anyways lessons being learned. I feel bad for these beautiful fish that have taken the hit because of my error ...

[brianyelick]

I got away from all that adding salts and buffers and chemicals. I am fortunate enough that my home tap water is close to 8.0. But all I add anymore is prime. I have several wc groups and have never had an issue. Prior I would add all the extra stuff and I had 2 thanks crash. Since then I have had no issue only treating with prime. If you have hard enough tap water I feel like less is more with all the additives.

[...]

If the issue was with the water, buffers, salts etc, there would gave been deaths across the board, not just the bembas.
I agree that tap water is sufficient for tank raised fish, and some wilds if your pH is high, but the logical answer here is a pathogen given the explanation and time line.

[brianyelick]

Good point Danny you are most likely correct

[velderton]

Thanks everyone.

FYI: Our water in the PNW is almost neutral and very soft, that is why I use the buffering chemicals and substrate. Once I started using the buffering chemicals and CaribSea substrates the breeding of multiple species of Africans - Malawi Cichlids various genus/species, Juliochromis ornatus & marleri, Neolamprologous brichardi and T. duboisi.

Sure like to figure out the pathogen that is that specific and of course a treatment moving forward.

[mikevxr]

Sorry to hear about your losses. I've lost a few newly acquired Tropheus in the past but has always been down to stress and bloat, even moving existing fish to a new tank in my fishroom on one occasion - a few stop feeding and unless treated they die shortly thereafter. From what you describe it doesn't sound like bloat and I wouldn't have thought it was your water make up either as your fish appeared to have been okay for a month previously.

On another note re water ph - my tap water ph is 6.3 ( when I first started Tropheus would breed ok but colours were drab), used Bicarbonate of soda and Epsom salts to adjust water and hardness upto 8.2 and now see better colours. As an experiment I set up two identically similar tanks - one treated with Epsom /bicarbonate and the other Seachem salts. Visually fish acted and looked the same in both but the Seachem tank had better breeding success (both housed Bemba colonies)- just my observations.

[velderton]

Thanks so much for more information ... always lots to consider, even with experience, that's why I love the hobby.

I have the meds on hand, bulk from Angels Plus, next I time I will deploy earlier if something similar starts again. On the hunt for more Bemba though.