Kubotai problem

[Eyrie]

Do these fish need good aeration?

Reason I ask is that my girlfriend has just got back from a few days away to find that hers have died. All the other fish (altum, clowns, cories, lemon tetras, rams, glassfish) are fine, as is the water.

Only thing she can think of is that due to building work the tank has had to be sealed airtight during the day. Could this have been a factor?

[Mark Janssen]

botia's don't need much air in the water...

what were the exact water parameters?

[Jim Powers]

I hate to contradict, but botias do require high oxygen levels. Not as high as hillstreams, but high non the less.

[mikev]

Jim is of course correct, but it is not clear that Kubotai's require more oxygen than Clowns, who survived, so it is too early to blame this solely on the oxygen deprivation.

I think you need to provide much more information before any guesses can be made. Water parameters, temp, sizes of the fish, presense of plants, anything else you can think of.

[Mark Janssen]

I hate to contradict, but botias do require high oxygen levels. Not as high as hillstreams, but high non the less.

that's true but i meant that hey can survive in low oxygen levels since they can breath also by taking in oxygen from the air if nessesary but high oxygen levels are nessesary on the long run ofcourse... and a few days of low oxygen wont be the problem since most of the fish would be gasping for air if that is the case...

[Emma Turner]

Loaches (and other high oxygen requirement fish) that have become accustomed to very high levels of oxygenation in an aquarium can succumb when oxygen levels sudden plummet. By this I mean that the level that it drops to may be fine for fish of the same species that are used to that level, but not for ones who have been in a more highly oxygenated environment for a long time.

How long has the tank been set up for and how long ago were the B. kubotai added, Eyrie? Anything new added to the tank before your girlfriend went away?

Emma

[Eyrie]

Thanks everyone. I've C&P'd her reply.

79 degrees, pH 6.8, KH 1 (same as out of tap) GH 4. 0, 0, 15 for the main three. Tank has been running for almost 3 years, Kubotai went in about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Only new addition was the Platinum Angel (which was quarentined).

Kubs had been active, confident and eating really well since day one, and had showed no signs of any problems.

[Emma Turner]

You might want to find out if the store the B. kubotai and angel fish were purchased from had any subsequent problems with their remaining stock.

Emma

[mikev]

You might want to find out if the store the B. kubotai and angel fish were purchased from had any subsequent problems with their remaining stock.

Emma

This is an excellent idea.

I actually do this store followup with hillstreams preventively: after I buy mine, I'll drop by a few times and try to get an accurate picture on what is happening to the other fish in the shipment.
(Why preventively? -- because otherwise they'll always say that the fish was perfectly fine and sold out.)
(Why do it at all? -- because more than once the store fish showed signs of the disease faster than mine. So I get advance warnings that problems are underway.)

[Eyrie]

First up, my apologies for misspelling "quarantine" when I added it to the C&P. I have a feeling I'm going to be hearing about that one for some time

no probs with the remaining Kubotai from Denton. Couldn't say the same for the angel of course, but still - why just a one species wipe-out? And they died suddenly with no signs of problems.

The kubotai came from a good quality LFS, whilst the angel was rescued from a pet shop (hence the quarantine period, when no problems were noted other than an initial reluctance to feed).

PS: Scarlet's having some difficulty registering here apparently. Hasn't received a confirmation email.

[Graeme Robson]

Weak genetic fish happens. Not all fish hold the same immune system. Also not all aquariums hold the same waters.

Think on it!