Apisto Deaths

[johnny70]

Hi

I have a 90ltr tank set up for a small set of apisto.cacatuoides triple red. I bought a pair from a LFS last monday, male looked stressed and didn't make it through the night, female looked fine as did the 1 cardinals I have in the tank, so i went ahead and ordered a new pair (mail order, had there stuff before very good). male from them didn't look too great when i got them, on wed, by sat he was dead, since sat I have lost all but 1 cardinals and a female cac.

Is this a bacterial infection? I'm gutted this was the first time keeping these been planning the tank for months to get everything right.

food was bloodworm, daphinia and pellets broken up, fresh garlic and pea's also feed.

Tanks readings, ph7.0, kH 2, ammonia 0.0, nitrite 0.0, nitrate 0.0. temp 25c, 30ltr water change every 7 days.

Any idea's?

is there likely to be residual bacteria in my water from an infection, if it was that? anyway to stop this from happening again?

Thanks
JOHNNY

[johnny70]

pH is stable, been thinking about reducing it with peat slowly, but thats a mute point now, gh is 6, water here is very soft, this is my 5th tank had minor problems with my other nothing like this.

Nitrates have been 0-5ppm on all my tanks, all are heavily planted including this apisto tank. Tank has been up and running for 5 weeks, I used mature media and water to set the tank up, tank was setup for 3/4 weeks before we added fish, used ammonia to feed the bacteria.

The fish were all bought together cardianls and first batch of apisto's, I thought after the first one didn't survive he was just weak, wrong again

I have just put the surviving female and cardianl(poor things) into my q/t.

How do I go about sorting this tank?? is it needing stripped down? or is it likely that the infection is no longer in the water??

Suggestions please

JOHNNY

[Lisachromis]

Your pH is fine for cacs. They do not require low pH as do some of the other Apistos. So, you really don't need to play with the water for them.

As to why they died...that's a tough question without knowing a bit more. Did they just die? Were they breathing heavy first? Do you use CO2 on your tank? If you do, is it a homemade system or a 'store bought' one? Did they have any strange coloured patches on their body? Did they bloat up?

[johnny70]

Thanks for the reply

No, no co2, they looked quite normal, didn't eat much that i saw, no cahnge in colour, no bloating, my surviving female has been looking a bit down and breathing heavy, otherwise no external signs.

JOHNNY