What's happening to my M Kubotai...?

[Bradders]

Okay not ideal but I’ve had to catch two of them and pop them in a glass to get a clear picture.

Does the fish on the right look like the tail is arching down, like a curvature of the spine?

 

[Slinky1]

Does the fish on the right look like the tail is arching down, like a curvature of the spine?

No I see what you mean but I think that’s just the curvature of the glass. The school has no change in behaviour, confident and feeding well but I’ve pulled the 4 I thought I can see white on the fins. The last two had definite slow behaviour. I’ve spend hours watching them and the 16 I have left are indistinguishable except that I picked out four with suspect white bits (two of which I photographed in the glass). I’m happy to catch all of them for a photo but not too keen to stress them unduly if that last picture shows what I see.

Attached is another of the school in the main tank which I can’t see anything wrong with currently.

Sorry, they really are incredibly fast.

 

[Bradders]

Thanks for doing that. To be honest, it's quite hard to fully pinpoint an issue.

Currently, you have (on the whole) normally behaving fish, normal eating fish, with four that are showing some light signs of fungus-related symptoms. (It's hard for me to see that as well with any degree of clarity). If I had to have a stab (and I do mean a stab!) I would say some bacteria related and possibly Columnaris - but I feel very uncomfortable suggesting that due to it not 'leaping out' at me.

Your tank seems to have a few plants (would you say low, medium, high plant mass)?

 

[Slinky1]

Thanks for doing that. To be honest, it's quite hard to fully pinpoint an issue.

Currently, you have (on the whole) normally behaving fish, normal eating fish, with four that are showing some light signs of fungus-related symptoms. (It's hard for me to see that as well with any degree of clarity). If I had to have a stab (and I do mean a stab!) I would say some bacteria related and possibly Columnaris - but I feel very uncomfortable suggesting that due to it not 'leaping out' at me.

Your tank seems to have a few plants (would you say low, medium, high plant mass)?

Thanks, for that I’ll go an read into it more.

I’d say it’s densely planted but I know that can be subjective so here is front and side profiles to give you an idea.

I’ve not had any cycling issues - a bit of a KH issue at the beginning but I’ve resolved that with daily testing and a booster which I’m using as needed. I’m barely detecting nitrates but when I removed my terrestrial plants I saw a rise in that so it seems they are keeping my levels really low. Ph is about 6.5 depending on the co2 cycle at time of testing, KH is stable at 3-4 now and GH is around 6-7.

I have 2 garras, 4 sparkling gourami and 7 amano shrimp in there - plus 1 ramshorn snail so my stocking is still very low.

Yesterday I added 1L of Seachem matrix to the filter to boost space for beneficial bacteria and dosed again with stability.

I’m also doing 10% water changes every other day with a 40-60% change at least once a week on top of this.

I dose flourish excel daily and flourish 2x per week.

I’ve had the livestock for 4 weeks now.

I know some of this will be excess but I’m not sure what parts at this stage.

These little fish have me all worried, I don’t want to lose anyone.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I’ve not had any cycling issues - a bit of a KH issue at the beginning but I’ve resolved that with daily testing and a booster which I’m using as needed. I’m barely detecting nitrates but when I removed my terrestrial plants I saw a rise in that so it seems they are keeping my levels really low. Ph is about 6.5 depending on the co2 cycle at time of testing, KH is stable at 3-4 now and GH is around 6-7.

This is going to sound a bit strange, but just ignore everything that you read about pH stability, carbonate hardness and cycling, other than what you <"read on UKAPS">, or in the scientific literature - <"Does depleted KH stop the nitrogen cycle?">.

The reason for this is that we have actually spoken to <"some of the scientists"> working on nitrification in aquariums, and all the advice you will receive from other sources is based on out-dated information that has been found to be incorrect. You can read the details in the linked threads, but basically scientists have looked at the gene sequences of the micro-organisms that actually occur in aquarium filters and found that they aren't the ones we thought they were, the Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas spp, that require high carbonate hardness and ammonia levels and these don't actually occur in aquarium filters.

Have a look at:

• Dr Timothy Hovanec's comments about Bacterial supplements
• Correspondence with Dr Ryan Newton - School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee
• Correspondence with the Neufeld lab. University of Waterloo

Yesterday I added 1L of Seachem matrix to the filter and dosed again with stability.

<"Pumice is good">, but you don't need the extra filter media and the "Seachem Stability - <"Seachem - Stability">" is probably harmful.

We haven't got anything to sell at UKAPS, but we have members with a huge amount of experience of planted tanks. <"I'm cynical"> but I think Seachem don't care whether you have a successful tank or not, all they care about is selling you a product.

cheers Darrel

 

[Bradders]

@Slinky1 - how long has this aquarium been setup again? I am sure I asked that before, so forgive the repeat question if I have.

Also, I have to agree with Darrel. I simply don’t add anything into the aquarium apart from de-chlorinator, CO2 and ferts. Keep your inputs as simple as possible.