Guest Posted December 12, 2008 Report Share Posted December 12, 2008 I have a tank of baby (the biggest is about 1cm now) Australes. I've been feeding bbs and yesterday I noticed a couple of the bigger ones are swimming weird and sort of either sitting on the bottom or floating around the tank? And they don't seem as active? Should I be worried or is this normal? I haven't lost any of them so maybe this is just the weaker ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 12, 2008 Report Share Posted December 12, 2008 live bbs slowly die and need to be syponed out twice a day. decap rots faster and needs to be syponed out 4 or 5 times a day with mop spawners I do a 90% water change twice a day Australe are very hardy and I have never had the problems you describe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 Yeah I don't over feed them (I probably under feed if anything) and I've got BNs in there to eat any uneaten food just incase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 I really need help. I took 2 out that were really bad but later I found some more that were floating around . I done a huge water change and then fed them. I don't know what to do? Do I need to add salt in the tank or something? It looks like only the males are doing this, then I thought they were fighting but it's bigger fish that are dying/floating. PLEASE HELP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 check the Ph level and make sure its 6.5 or above, hopefully 7 feed only live food for a few days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 Yeah it sounds like your water quality is/was out of wack. You may have a bacterial problem caused by a low ph as Barrie said. This may be cause by your filter not working properly > Biotechnology. Do you have an ammonia and nitrite test kit to test your water( both are acidic). When spawning non-annuals I place a small chip of lime stone in the water container with the eggs to prevent a ph spike and this very thing happening when the fry hatch and the egg shells rot. If your filter is not doing the job a water change may fix the problem only temporally, keep doing small water changes often. If your fry health improves you will know this was the likely problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 they may have swim bladder from over eating. some fish eat way faster than others and if they are the bigger ones its because they are getting most of the food. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 they may have swim bladder from over eating. some fish eat way faster than others and if they are the bigger ones its because they are getting most of the food. Ive never had it with Killis but certianly worth noteing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 I done a water change and fed them and they seem to have come right for now. It's probably something to do with water. I have a test kit here. So the ph should be around 7, what else do I need to check for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 No, I have seen what Cam has described. The original point that Barrie made > low ph > causing a bacterial infection is correct. It's a killi thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 Cam.... If the fry have or are coming right then what Barrie and I have said is correct. Follow the information in the posts and you should be right. Keep your water changes up > little and often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 The ph is really high. Should I try and lower it? If so how do you do it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 I don't know anything about killies which is probably quite obvious but peat or driftwood helps lower pH. I find my pH drops as my tank matures so what about using aged water for water changes as in leaving water to sit for a couple of days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 my ph is about 8 or more (I've never seen it so high). I don't have peat so I'll put some driftwood in (they've started floating around again :-? ). Can I do another water change and put water from a different tank in that's not got a high ph??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 I put the driftwood in and some java fern and the ph is down to 7.4-7.6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 This is a bacterial problem caused by a low ph Cam that should clear. The tap water in this area is 7.2-7.4ph how on earth did your ph get up to 8, it shouldn't cause this problem thought. Your tanks glass maybe covered in bacteria continuing the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 The glass did have a whitey stringy sort of stuff on it. Thinking about it the problem only started when I fed LIVE bbs once so maybe I over fed them and that caused a problem? (I usually only feed them frozen) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM Posted December 13, 2008 Report Share Posted December 13, 2008 young fry really don't need much food at all and any extra food rots really quick. The combination of feeding small amounts of food a couple of times a day and small water changes should help the problem. Also adding snails and some plant material will also help. None of my tanks have filters at all and water is crystal clear, they only go into filtered tanks once they get to about 10mm, not just killis but any fry i have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 I am the same as TM. I raise fry in bare tanks with no filters until they are up to sexable size. I feed bbs live and microwrm and have no trouble. I siphon off exxcess food and water change infrequently. A few snails help to clean the waste off the bottom as they recycle it into easier to syphon parcels. Way way too much food I would think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 the problem will be with feeding decap brine shrimp and not enough cleaning Live bbs wont rot until they die and doing a water change when feeding solves this problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 When breeding fish it is important to (a degree) to understand the water you use. Hutt river water is very low in buffers. This means if excess pollution seen and unseen is in your small breeding/grow out tank it will become very acidic quickly. This is why removing such waste is important combined with little water changes and often - to prevent ph swings. Then you get comments like alanmin said and you must remember what works for others may not work for you. You must find what is achievable and what is not to succeed. I had 5 containers of Fundulopanchax fry all doing just fine, then one morning all of the fry from 1 container had expired over night. There was nothing special about this container of fry compared to the others, now I have 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 Experience helps with getting the balance with the right amount of food and water changes. Most people starting out feed way too much. The pH is going up not acid which is a little strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 I definatly over feed but can get away with it simply because of the amount of water changes that I do Most that have seen my Killis will tell you they are bigger than others because of the way I do feed but sometimes at the weekend I can do 4 water changes per day....why?.... because I want to feed plenty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caserole Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 Yeah ph going up is confusing, unless a water change had taken place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TM Posted December 14, 2008 Report Share Posted December 14, 2008 I put the driftwood in and some java fern and the ph is down to 7.4-7.6 Strange that the ph dropped down from above 8.0 within 45mins, i would think the test is incorrect. Testing ph is a science in itsself. I also top up fry tanks from other larger tanks in the first week or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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