True Siamese Alage eaters dying

[Pedro]

I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
a week and a half.
After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them dying,
all were very active and did not
show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.

Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?


Thanks

[Scott]

I have lost fish while using medicines due to it taking the oxygen out of
the water. Siamese algae eaters seem to me to be the type of fish that need
higher levels, so that might be it.

"Pedro" > wrote in message
...
>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
>a week and a half.
> After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
> dying, all were very active and did not
> show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
> antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
> The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>
> Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>
>
> Thanks
>

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly "Pedro" > Spake Unto All:

>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
>a week and a half.
>After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them dying,
>all were very active and did not
>show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>
>Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?

No, True Siamese Algae Eaters are not delicate. They're very tough,
every bit as hard as, say, chinese algae eaters. They may have had
some disease of course, but I'd tend to suspect poor water quality.
Perhaps you knocked out the filter bacteria with those medications, or
perhaps SAE's just happen to be extra sensitive to tea tree oil
(that's what melafix is, right?).

On a personal note, I would personally also not feed anti-bacterial
food if I was not pretty certain a fish had a bacterial disease. It's
simply not a good husbandry practice, IMO.

[Pedro]

HIgher levels of? The water parameters are fine.


"Scott" > wrote in message
...
>I have lost fish while using medicines due to it taking the oxygen out of
>the water. Siamese algae eaters seem to me to be the type of fish that need
>higher levels, so that might be it.
>
> "Pedro" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank
>>for a week and a half.
>> After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
>> dying, all were very active and did not
>> show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>> antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>> The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>>
>> Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>
>

[Pedro]

Water quality is good, parameters are good. I'm either suspecting they died
of stress or some disease they had.
The filter bacteria seems to be okay since the water parameters are okay.
Why not to use antibacterial food? I have read is good for quarantine tanks
with new fish.

"Mean_Chlorine" > wrote in message
...
> Thusly "Pedro" > Spake Unto All:
>
>>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank
>>for
>>a week and a half.
>>After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
>>dying,
>>all were very active and did not
>>show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>>antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>>The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>>
>>Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>
> No, True Siamese Algae Eaters are not delicate. They're very tough,
> every bit as hard as, say, chinese algae eaters. They may have had
> some disease of course, but I'd tend to suspect poor water quality.
> Perhaps you knocked out the filter bacteria with those medications, or
> perhaps SAE's just happen to be extra sensitive to tea tree oil
> (that's what melafix is, right?).
>
> On a personal note, I would personally also not feed anti-bacterial
> food if I was not pretty certain a fish had a bacterial disease. It's
> simply not a good husbandry practice, IMO.
>

[Mean_Chlorine]

Thusly "Pedro" > Spake Unto All:

>Water quality is good, parameters are good. I'm either suspecting they died
>of stress or some disease they had.

Not stress. And to be honest I doubt disease too.

>The filter bacteria seems to be okay since the water parameters are okay.

Are you SURE?

>Why not to use antibacterial food? I have read is good for quarantine tanks
>with new fish.

The most important reason you don't want to give antibiotics
prophylactically is because it gives rise to resistant strains of
bacteria. Although most strains of fish pathogens are already
resistant to the most common antibiotics anyway, because fish breeders
often dose antibiotics prophylactically.

Another good reason not to do it is that antibiotics, in fact pretty
much any fish medication, kill the filter bacteria (including the
medications which say they don't kill filter bacteria), leading to an
ammonia spike. Which is what I still suspect killed your fish, as it
is quite rare for diseases to kill rapidly & without symptoms, but
common when water quality deteriorates.

IMO a quarantine tank should be set up so that the fish have it as
good there as they will in the main tank. I wouldn't add any
medication unless I saw that the fish were sick.

[Daniel Morrow]

"Pedro" > wrote in message
...
> HIgher levels of? The water parameters are fine.
>

Sounds like he is saying you need higher levels of oxygen. Are you aerating
the sae tank good? Apparently the antibiotic medicine can decrease the
amount of oxygen in the water. Later!


>
> "Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
> >I have lost fish while using medicines due to it taking the oxygen out of
> >the water. Siamese algae eaters seem to me to be the type of fish that
need
> >higher levels, so that might be it.
>

[Derek Benson]

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 20:59:13 GMT, "Pedro"
> wrote:

>Water quality is good, parameters are good. I'm either suspecting they died
>of stress or some disease they had.
>The filter bacteria seems to be okay since the water parameters are okay.
>Why not to use antibacterial food? I have read is good for quarantine tanks
>with new fish.

I agree with Mean_, the quarantine tank should be like your normal
main tank. No meds, no anti-bacterial food. You place the new fish in
it and watch them for 2-3 weeks to see if any signs of illness appear.
If you see no signs of illness, you move the fish into your main tank.
If you see signs of illness, then you medicate them or take
appropriate action in the quarantine tank. BTW, using meds on fish
will almost always stress them.

-Derek

[Dick]

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 15:21:54 GMT, "Pedro"
> wrote:

>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
>a week and a half.
>After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them dying,
>all were very active and did not
>show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>
>Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>
>
>Thanks
>

If the tank has been ok and had fish in it already (I keep 4 fish in
my Q tank) then I would wonder about the fish source. A friend
recently got about 10 fish and half died within a week. I looked at
those that remained and thought they were pretty small.

I never use medicines or chemicals unless there is a specific problem.
I would want my Q tank to be as much like the future home tank as
possible.

dick

[HairyMcLeary]

"Pedro" > wrote in message
...
>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
>a week and a half.
> After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
> dying, all were very active and did not
> show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
> antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
> The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>
> Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>
>
> Thanks
>
SAE need well oxygenated water according to what I have read, this has also
been my experience with 2 of the 4 SAE I had dying within 24 hours of
removing my airstone from my tank, the remaining 2 were in obvious distress,
so I put the airstone back in and within a few hours they were OK again.
Still going strong 12 month later. Everything else in the community tank was
fine.

Tony

[Scott]

Of oxygen, when I tested for it while using white spot and when I used fin
rot medicine it was under 2ppm. Which is the danger level. Its normally 5ppm
in my aquarium, but according to the test kit it should be around 6ppm.

"Pedro" > wrote in message
...
> HIgher levels of? The water parameters are fine.
>
>
> "Scott" > wrote in message
> ...
>>I have lost fish while using medicines due to it taking the oxygen out of
>>the water. Siamese algae eaters seem to me to be the type of fish that
>>need higher levels, so that might be it.
>>
>> "Pedro" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank
>>>for a week and a half.
>>> After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
>>> dying, all were very active and did not
>>> show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>>> antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>>> The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>>>
>>> Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

[Dick]

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 22:35:30 +1200, "HairyMcLeary"
> wrote:

>
>"Pedro" > wrote in message
...
>>I bought six Siamese algae eaters which have been in my quaranteen tank for
>>a week and a half.
>> After a week for of them have died in successive days. Prior to them
>> dying, all were very active and did not
>> show any visible signs of sickness. On the quarantine tank I feed them
>> antibacterial food and add some melafix/pimafix.
>> The other two left swim with the dwarf corys I have in the same tank.
>>
>> Are these fish very delicate? Any suggestions why they might be dying?
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>SAE need well oxygenated water according to what I have read, this has also
>been my experience with 2 of the 4 SAE I had dying within 24 hours of
>removing my airstone from my tank, the remaining 2 were in obvious distress,
>so I put the airstone back in and within a few hours they were OK again.
>Still going strong 12 month later. Everything else in the community tank was
>fine.
>
>Tony
>
Funny how experiences differ. Four days ago I decided to experiment
with the air. I wanted to see how long the tanks could go without air
since I consider my 29 and 75 gallon tanks over populated. Surprise,
at least to me, no problem so far. The fish stay near the bottom, no
gasping. The 75 gallon tank has 9 SAEs ranging in size 4 to 6 inches,
the 29 only 3 SAEs.

I am going to continue the experiment and may well no use the bubblers
anymore. I am curious to see how the plants react over time. I am
leaving the air stones in the tanks in case they are needed.

dick