Bristlenose babies dying off

[tricky]

Hi all,

Ive had a problem the past few years with an illness in baby bristlnose which is unknown to me. I tried to take pictures of a sick fish but it was unclear, so i have drawn a dodgy picture that best illustrates the problem by showing the diffence in body shapes between a healthy fish and a sick fish before it dies.

The problem is bristlenose babys (from new born to 3cm it seems most prominent) they seem to go extremely skinny in the stomach and lose their "v" shape to their body. It is most noticeable when they are on the front wall of the tank and they appear sunken in between the front and rear fins. The drawing is slightly over exaggerated but should give a good indication of a fish about 3cm. Fish a couple of weeks old that get it look like they have a pin attched to their head, their stomach section seems to dissapear.

If young fry it will start with 1 or 2 getting skinny, they will drop off and then you will lose the other 100 from that batch slowly the same way. This has happened to me now with commons, albinos, orange spots, peppermints and calico longfins. Water parameters seem fine and fish are constantly breeding. Sometimes with the very young fry they "twitch" on the bottom, similar to a fish with whitespot.

This has happened randomly over the years on different tanks but they all get the same symptons, that skinny belly on the sides, which is very noticeable when they are on the glass. Losing the whole batch of longfins was the last straw, so im desperate to hear from anyone who knows what causes this.

By the way the fish get a mixed diet of OSI spiralina, HBH stable wafers, zuccini, pumpkin and cucumber mainly. There is always plenty of food for them.

Thanks in advance

Ricky

[akroyd]

Hi Ricky,

In my experience, bristlenose need to eat some of the faeces of the adults to innoculate their intestine with the necessary digestive flora.

Is it possible that you raise your fry in tanks that are too sterile, and with no adults present?

[D6C1]

Hi Ricky,

In my experience, bristlenose need to eat some of the faeces of the adults to innoculate their intestine with the necessary digestive flora.

Is it possible that you raise your fry in tanks that are too sterile, and with no adults present?

I second this. What setup have you got?

[tricky]

Hi Ricky,

In my experience, bristlenose need to eat some of the faeces of the adults to innoculate their intestine with the necessary digestive flora.

Is it possible that you raise your fry in tanks that are too sterile, and with no adults present?

I second this. What setup have you got?

I have adults in all my growout tanks for the particular reason you mentioned. Tanks are 6 x18 and 4 x 20. I use sponge filters and dark gravel in the tanks but after speaking to a friend who experienced a similar problem i am now trying bare bottom.

[robdog013]

I had a similar problem and I found out that the adults were all part of the same brood and only a small % of fry would survive...do you have different bloodlines in your colony?

[tricky]

I had a similar problem and I found out that the adults were all part of the same brood and only a small % of fry would survive...do you have different bloodlines in your colony?

Thanks for your input robdog.

I have around 12 colonies. The only ones that may be from the same bloodline are the albinos. All the others i have intentionally sourced from different people, however theres never a real guarantee that they dont link back to original parents. I put it down to genetics too as i cant figure out whats causing this, but i found it odd how several batches would survive and then a whole batch would die from the same parents?

[petshopdude]

with my BN i always keep a bit of wood in there, not sure of the type of wood from pet shop, the waste always looks like they have been eating the wood, (i don't know) but i have found that when they are hungry they will suck on the wood to let me know its dinner time

i have found ammoina is a big problem with BN and any in the tank will roll over the fish, but my larger fish always go off there food if there is ammonia in the tank

the best success i have had lately was with peppements which i placed in a guppy trap in the tank they breed in, there is barley any flow in the tank as it is a planted well establish tank that has many fish breeding in there, i have lost none of the fry and they have grown at a more then satisfiying rate, i have found that the guppy trap as small holes at the bottom making sure the waste doens't build up in the tank at all

hope maybe something in my rappeling helps

[griff]

Also how big are your water changes, & how fast do you put the new water in? Don't add the new water too quickly as this will kill small fry.

Cheers Brian.