Need help. Just purchased some ropefish a few days ago. Two have died. 3 are left. I have two canister filters, each rated for 100 gallons, filtering the tank. Biological media, carbon, and plent of mechanical filtration in both. Have done a lot of water changes to combat the fact that I added 5 large Ish fish at once and that the level of fish in the tank is rather high. The other tankmates are 3 bichirs, the newest of which I got about a month ago and also will not eat that I have been able to tell but I assume he must be since he hasn't died, and a tire track eel I've had about 3 years that is beautiful, peaceful, and perfectly healthy and eats like a champion. 2 of the ropefish have died in 2 days and none of them are eating. Both died of undetermineable causes. My water parameters are all fine. It is not a problem of ph, high ammonia or nitrites, oxygenation (clearly because they mainly breathe air anyways), or a matter of what I'm feeding them (I've tried everything. Frozen Bloodworms, shrimp, mysis. Even tried flake foods and pellets because i figured I might as well). Everything else in the tank will eat any frozen food I put in there happily. I'm really at a loss here. I'm fairly experienced in keeping fish, particularly carnivores bottom dwellers, and I really can't figure it out. My more experienced friend who works at tropic isle in Framingham is also at a loss (tho he hasn't inspected my tank in person himself yet). Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. (By the way, I am feeding them at night. Because that is the typical response when someone says one of their nocturnal fish isn't eating. I've tried feeding everywhere between 5pm and 1am).
Ropefish and Bichirs
- Thread starter Cigfloyd96
- Start date
Its a good possibility they were already sick or infected when you purchased them. This is why most people quarantine their new fish to observe or treat them if needed. Btw some fish will eat once settled in their new environment.
That's what I'm hoping it is. I had been waiting for someone to get them in stock so long that I kinda jumped the gun right when my friend who works at the store told me they had them. Bought them the first day they got to the store. Not too smart on my part. How likely do you think it is that the sick ones may have contaminated the other fish in the tank? Usually cross species isn't too big of a worry, but in terms of the other rope fish?
Hopefully they didn't due to ropefish dying so quickly, but keep observation on the aquarium a while. Possibly the other ropefish may make it.
You say you bought them the first day they got to the store. I've never come across a good fish supplier who will let fish go as soon as they get them in. They go into quarantine first before they go on sale to the public. The fish went through two stressful journeys in a short period of time, one to the fish store from their supplier and then from the fish store to your house. Could this have had an effect on their health?
This is definitely a reputable store. They specialize in fish and are basically know by most as the best place to get fish in my area. However, they did let me take them very soon after they got them and so it is likely all the stress of environmental change affected their health. This thought was in the back of my mind as well. It's good to know that other people believe it is an issue with the fish themselves and situational factors and not my aquarium because otherwise I would have to worry for the well being of my other fish. Like I said, I'm fairly experienced but have never kept ropefish before (though I specialize in keeping "monster" freshwater carnivorous bottom dwellers), so I wasn't sure if their was something about rope fish in particular that I was unaware of.
Thanks. I also just remembered that one of the ropefisf that died had what seemed to be a deformity with his jaw before he died. It seemed unnaturally distended , reddish and swollen. I assumed that I had either gotten him like this or that he had injured himself by attempting to eat something too large for him to swallow but was able to cough it up. My substrate is pretty fine because my eel is scaleless and I know their bodies can be injured by larger substrate, but their are definitely a few semi big pieces of gravel in their from an old substrate I changed a few years ago. I assumed he might've accidentally chomped one of these while digging for a piece of food or that he tried taking a bite of one of the tricolor sharks in the aquarium. Would you agree with this? Or is there some disease that might've caused this deformity?
Just curious, how large is the tank?
Also, it definitely does sound like it could have been a stress issue. All of the LFS in my area hold fish at least 24 hours after getting them in before they sell them. A lot of them don't quarantine them though, because they get so many fish in so often that they don't have enough room to do so.
Also, it definitely does sound like it could have been a stress issue. All of the LFS in my area hold fish at least 24 hours after getting them in before they sell them. A lot of them don't quarantine them though, because they get so many fish in so often that they don't have enough room to do so.
Ropefish probably was deformed when you purchased it and you didn't notice the deformity.
If i remember correctly don't ropefish prefer a slightly acidic ph too. They've been in three sets of parameters in the space of a short time. If those ph parameters were all over the place could you be looking at some kind of mild to severe ph shock which may have left them vulnerable. It really could be anything though. I hope your remaining three pull through, good luck.
