Anyone have any experience with Xenotilapia ochrogenys Kipili?

[lil_pendejo]

So I'm trying to figure out where I went wrong. I bought them (6 @ 1 inch) at a local B.A.P. auction a little over a month ago without having any experience with them or even knowing where I was going to put them. (1st 2 mistakes) They ended up going into quarantine with 20 or so Limia perugiae fry and 6 Cyprichromis leptosoma Mpimbwe. The Cyprichromis were also 1 inch.

They've been eating flake and live baby brine 4 times a day. They cruised through quarantine and were moved to their grow out tank 3 days ago with the sponge filter that was in their quarantine tank. About noon yesterday, 2 of them drop dead out of nowhere within minutes of each other. Then, about midnight, I was finishing up a water change and the other 4 are dead within minutes of each other. The water in the tank and tap is 8.4, 78°, 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 10 Nitrate. I don't know my KH and GH but our water is liquid rock.

The water goes through a carbon filter and gets hit with Seachem Safe in a 55 gallon barrel that I use for water changes before getting pumped into the tank. They all died with their gills flared and mouths wide open. The only thing I can think of is that they are sensitive to the Safe that I used but they've never had a problem before. Any ideas what went wrong?

 

[Milingu]

Sounds like something didn't suit them at all.
The water in the grow out tank is the same like in the quarantine tank?
I'm asking because my Xenotilapia were very sensitive to any changes. Even if the new water was better on paper they needed time to adjust to it.

What about the substrate in the new tank? Could it be contaminated with something? As bottom dwellers the Xenotilapia might be affected before any other fish would show any symptoms.

 

[lil_pendejo]

The substrate is pool filter sand mixed with very well washed play sand. I've never lost fish like this and the only thing new to them or me that I can can think of would be the Safe. That's why I'm so stumped about this. While I'm glad that I had less than $10 invested in all of them, I'm seriously bummed because they are really cool.

 

[duanes]

If theree a telephone # on the auction paperwork, you might want check out whether or not had breeders water had a certain extra or lessor degree or carbonate hardness that your normal water doesn't contain.or
"For example" the breeders pH might be closer to 9 as opposed to say a norm of, 7.8, or ?????
or whether the breeder changed water enought to keep nitrates below 2 ppm, as opposed to an aquarium norn of 8 or 10 or even higher?????
There are many, many variables to consider.

Not that what you are doing, but
In my tanks my pH never slips below 8.2 and
nitrates usually remain at 0.00 ppm, due to plant filtration, and every otther day water changes
I believe if someone woild drop my fish at a ph of under 7.5, and a nitrate reading of 10, they'd experience serious stress.

 

[Milingu]

Are we talking nitrate or nitrate nitrogen?
10 NO3-N can already be too high if the fish especially Xenotilapia are not used it. While 10 NO3- is totally fine.

 

[lil_pendejo]

If theree a telephone # on the auction paperwork, you might want check out whether or not had breeders water had a certain extra or lessor degree or carbonate hardness that your normal water doesn't contain.or
"For example" the breeders pH might be closer to 9 as opposed to say a norm of, 7.8, or ?????
or whether the breeder changed water enought to keep nitrates below 2 ppm, as opposed to an aquarium norn of 8 or 10 or even higher?????
There are many, many variables to consider.

Not that what you are doing, but
In my tanks my pH never slips below 8.2 and
nitrates usually remain at 0.00 ppm, due to plant filtration, and every otther day water changes
I believe if someone woild drop my fish at a ph of under 7.5, and a nitrate reading of 10, they'd experience serious stress.

No paperwork or phone number. Simple fish club B.A.P. submission that was auctioned off. Nothing other than species name and BAP submission.

Are we talking nitrate or nitrate nitrogen?
10 NO3-N can already be too high if the fish especially Xenotilapia are not used it. While 10 NO3- is totally fine.

Simple API Nitrate test so I'm guessing the same Nitrate that I've always tested in my 20+ years of keeping fish. This is what I deserve for not having a plan and making a hasty purchase but it sucks that these cool little fish that I've only ever seen in books and magazines had to pay the price.

 

[duanes]

Although some cichlids are nitrate tolerant, some species are not.
And some of the latest research tends to make that argument.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjSqvHTyPOBAxXLnWoFHROXCG4QFnoECBoQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.journals.uchicago.edu%2Fdoi%2F10.1086%2F713252&usg=AOvVaw3wjKcEGjmgQiDil_lM_3aw&opi=89978449

My own research suggests many most natural unspoiled waters are also basically nitrate free.
As a chemist at a water facility on Lake Michigan, my tests over 20 years,n never showed results of nitrate ppm higher than than @1 ppm.
And now that I am retired, and collect cichlids in Panama, and test for nitrate wherever I do collect, in these unspoiled waters, I have yet to get any results that register any nitrares using my API kit.

 

[lil_pendejo]

I always had a want to test the local waters but never got around to doing it. It doesn't surprise me that large natural bodies of water would have levels that are almost undetectable and that some species would be intolerant of it if that is what caused it. Especially with a fish that I know is delicate. The funny thing is that my Xiphophorus continens, Xiphophorus montezumae, Xiphophorus pygmaeus and Zoogoneticus tequila are all thriving and breeding like my old Convicts.

 

[phreeflow]

Not sure how large of a water change you did but Tanganyikans are sensitive to them. They come from large lakes where conditions don’t change much like they do for riverine fish, which can handle large fluctuations in water conditions.

 

[lil_pendejo]

Not sure how large of a water change you did but Tanganyikans are sensitive to them. They come from large lakes where conditions don’t change much like they do for riverine fish, which can handle large fluctuations in water conditions.

That might be the answer right there. It was a good 60-70%. I've always kept Central and South American and just recently started with Tanganyikans and Victorians.