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Crazy A. Borellii ... then dead?

Northman

New Member
Messages
14
Location
Queens, NY
Hi,
A few months ago I bought a trio (2f, 1m) of A.Borellii for my 10g heavily planted low light/low tech tank (no CO2). Its a mature tank running for about a year with 9 Normans lamp eye, 2 Ottos and 5 fully grown cherry shrimp. Its has a Toms mini canister filter, 15w of light and I dose fertz to maintain 10 N, 1 P and 20 K. The water parameters are: Ph - 6.8 to 7.0, NH4 - 0, NO2 - 0. I tried to keep the temp at 74 but with the hot weather its been around 78-80. I do a 20% water change every week with 1G Poland Spring distilled water and 1G of NYC tap water condition w Prime. I clean the filter media every 2 weeks and the filter every month. With the tank description out of the way here is my dilemma.
After about 2 weeks of the Borellii settling in the dominant female wouldn't stop harassing the sub female and the shrimp. Within a week my 5 cherries were dead. Eventually, after about a month, the sub female was dead. She next turned her attention to the male who was twice her size. Chasing and harassing him to the point where he would just hide. I couldn't believe he was backing down to her since he was so much bigger. I thought that maybe she spawned in one of the 2 caves I have in the tank and she would eventually leave him alone. Well, I came home from work last week to find him dead too. To put a final nail in the coffin when I arrived home tonight I found the dominant female listing on her side struggling to stay upright.
What the heck is up? As I said my water is clean. I'm fastidious about water changes and cleaning. Everyone and everything was growing and doing really well in this tank. The remaining inhabitants are all looking great. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was their feeding. I feed them Spectrum Thera +A for small fish, Ocean Nutrition Spirulina, frozen bloodworms, cyclops and brine shrimp.
Any suggestions would really help. These were my first Apistogramma and I really love them but I don't want to get another group until I know what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks,
Northman
 

Melanochromis

Member
Messages
249
Location
Bangkok, Thailand
Among numerous possible causes of death, frozen bloodworms can be deadly to apistogramma. In my area they are.

PS. I like your story. Sounds frustrating but weird and funny in a way. I hope you don't mind me saying this.
 

Big G

Member
5 Year Member
Messages
53
I think the source of your BW is more the issue... A lot of the farms in Asia grow their BW in large ponds to harvest them, but other 'bugs' and things can grow here too. It is suggested that certain bugs can survive the freezing process, and in fact infect your fish once eaten. I had an outbreak of Camellanus worms in one of my tanks, and after much reading and research, came across several accounts of how the camellanus eggs can survive the freezing process and can be found in these Asian frozen products.

I have since switched to european sourced frozen foods and had no issues since. It could just be coincidence?

Anyhow, I do not think that this is the issue here. I would rather think that the tank was too small for a trio in this case, and the others had no place to truly escape the female. The exact cause of death of the dominant female, This I am unsure of? I'll let the experts rather comment though?

Regards
G!
 

RustedKnight

New Member
Messages
81
Location
Carmarthen, Wales
As Big G says above, some nasties survive the freezing process.

I've stopped feeding bloodwoms to my Apistogramma, the only losses i've had with Apistogramma has came when i've fed Bloodworm more than once a week, Coincidence or not, I don't take the risk anymore.
 

tompoz

New Member
Messages
88
Location
Warsaw, Poland
First, do not keep shrimps with Apistogramma unless you want shrimps to be a food.
Second, skip BW as advised by others.
Third, 10g is just too small for 1+2. I tried that with A. rositae in 16g and had to rescue subdominant female.

I would suggest to look just for a well settled pair, nothing more in terms of Apisto in such tank.
 

Hmoobthor

New Member
Messages
108
Location
WI
I have never hear of frozen bloodworm killing a fish...

I feed hikari frozen bloodworm to my fish and apisto for well over 1 year..no lost I throw in frozen bloodworm right into the tank for my smaller tank.
 

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