Lost Cacatuoide female and brood....

[JasonC]

So something struck again... this is a *separate* female from the one that I lost a few weeks ago. Full brood... 50-100 free swimmers. They seemed to be eating Decaped brine shrimp eggs very well. about 3 days after I noticed them, I find mother dead, and all babies gone. Cant find any indication of what killed the mother... nothing obvious. Even dead, coloration was good, eyes clear, no scars, no signs of dropsy, no worms out of the anus. Tank is well established... maybe high on nitrates, but also heavily planted, so that is usually kept well under control.

Tankmates are 8 harlequin rasboras, 3 ottos, a male Cac, a nerite snail and a ton of ramshorns.

Any ideas what could have happened?

this is getting obnoxious... and I have no more females now which is *really* obnoxious... i was really getting to enjoy learning and working on the breeding process with these guys...

 

[bigbird]

Hi,
Sorry to hear this and I am sure it is frustrating.
My initiall diagnosis, is that the mother just died of natural causes, like you stated no visible markings etc. the Rasboras, then pick off the fry like live food. Similar to the tetras. The Rasboras are also very good hunters of any small live food. My suggestion for th future would be to use mountain clouds or endlers as dithers. Once fry become free swimming remove the dithers from the tank.
Just my view ? cheers jk

 

[JasonC]

Well, further update... I have now lost the male. Only thing I noticed with him is that he, for several days had long strings of poo that didn't seem to go away. They also looked like (and pardon the gory details) "sausage in casing", as there were portions that were solid, and portions that were clear. I'm clueless. None of the other fish seem to be affected, but this is now 6 cacatuoides in the last 4 months or so... not counting 3 excellent schools of fry.

Are there diseases that would be breed specific that could be infecting the tank? Could it be parameters? I am at pH between 6.8 and 6.0 depending on how long ago my last PWC was. Did tests today and found pH of 6.0, Ammonia and Nitrites of 0 and Nitrates of 40. I dose the tank w/ infrequent EI dosing. Could the high-ish nitrates be the culprit? Are Apistos much more sensitive to Nitrates?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

they also looked like (and pardon the gory details) "sausage in casing", as there were portions that were solid, and portions that were clear.

Sorry to hear this, the symptoms are ones commonly associated with internal parasites. I'd be tempted to treat all the remaining fish with medication containing Levamisole and Praziquantel.

cheers Darrel

 

[JasonC]

Sorry to hear this, the symptoms are ones commonly associated with internal parasites. I'd be tempted to treat all the remaining fish with medication containing Levamisole and Praziquantel.

Thanks for the advice. I found PraziPro for the Praziquantel, but do you have any recomendations for the Levamisole, or even a combo med? Also, will this be safe for the rest of the inhabitants of the tank? (rasboras, ottos, BN pleco, nerite snail, plants, bio filter)

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm not sure about in the US, in the UK levamisole isn't licensed for fish, but you can get it for use with caged birds/sheep etc. I bought mine as "Harka verm", but "Avitrol plus" contains both Praziquantel and Levamisole.

There is a very good article on "Loaches on-line", which may well have a source for the US. It also has details of toxicity.

<http://www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1>

cheers Darrel