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Question about wild apistogramma atahualpa. (Help!!)

YuCheng

New Member
Messages
18
Hi all,

I have questions regarding to the lost of apistogramma atahualpa I recently got. I got three 6 wild of them last Friday and lost 2 female in two days. (It seems I will lost 3rd female today) They looks fine when they arrive, and I put them into their own tanks carefully. My ph is about 5.5-6 and TDS 100-150. However, the female I lost got hollow belly, looks weak and can't swim well before they die. The remaining male I have looks active and health. I do more research online and I am guessing I make a mistake which I should put them in even lower PH. The female I lost are weaker and can't make it in higher PH water. Is my assumption correct?

I haven't lost any apistogramma like this way. Please feel free to give any advice or comments. Thanks!!!

Yu-Cheng
 

ADC Nederland

Member
Messages
86
Location
Purmerend, The Netherlands
Hey Yu-Cheng,

It's hard to say without any photos but pH isn't always the problem. Wildcaught fish can be hard to keep simply because of the differences in water values overall. I personally have had a lot of wildcaught species imported from other countries and only had problems with 1 batch of 1 species.

I personally don't adjust a lot of my water and my tap water seems to be very stable but I have no idea how your water values effect your fish.

You could simply have bought sick fish and duo to the stress of transportation or sickness they died. Also keep in mind that when you buy wildcaught species, they might have parasites that can cause all sorts of sickness, especially during high stress transportation and acclimation into a new aquarium.

Putting fish in Quarantine before adding them to your normal aquarium is a good idea with wildcaught species and it gives you the option to threat them for parasites or any illnesses that they might have.

If you could give us a bit more information about where you got them and how they were shipped and maybe you can share some photos, we might be able to help you a bit better.
 

YuCheng

New Member
Messages
18
Photo%20Oct%2003%2C%202%2027%2047%20PM.jpg


Here is the photos. I got them from wetspottropicalfish with overnight shipping. I didn't have any problem with their fish before. It's first time I got this problem. I don't have photo for the fish I lost, but they body looks really yellow when they die.
 

YuCheng

New Member
Messages
18
I put them in 10 Gallon at first because they are mark as unsexed and seems fairly peaceful when they arrive. Then I separate female weaker fishes I feel something weird. The one die this morning seems ok last night and still move ok to eat grindal worm / daphnia.
 

ADC Nederland

Member
Messages
86
Location
Purmerend, The Netherlands
You might have put too many in 1 tank and the stress of transportation and then into another seperate tank might have killed it. Apistogramma species are not nice to each other when the tank is over-crowded and they will kill each other or beat each other up.

What you can do, if you have more then 1 tank available is to seperate the males and the females. I sometimes keep 7 males in 1 tank and I have never had a death that way, but as soon as you put females in it, they will kill each other and most often the females are the first to go.

A long time ago I had a 1 meter tank with 1 male and 2 females, thinking it would have been big enough for a trio but after a few weeks 1 female was killed by the other female. Some species are not aggressive and others are.

To be honest, I don't know if that is what happened to you but that is one of my experiences and putting too many stressed fish in a small tank might be a problem.
 

YuCheng

New Member
Messages
18
Though I didn't see any fight, but thanks for your advise. I only keep juvenile in one tank typically. I will be more careful about his next time.
 

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