Going bigger

[plankton]

We need @Mol_PMB for plec breeding questions.

[Si4geckos]

This morning she is free. He's in there on his own. No eggs, but 'something' occured in the night. There's a 6inch plus crater outside his cave and theyve literally dug down to the glass bottom of the tank through about 1.5" of substrate. Not sure if he was trying to keep her in or a squabble over the cave. At least she's free (somewhere). Just need to build the substrate back up now as the caves are slanted down into a hole. It's like a meteor hit!

[plankton]

Sounds like plec breeding - my BNs do it all the time. I've given up putting it back......
Fingers crossed for eggs somewhere and then fry.

[Si4geckos]

Sounds like plec breeding - my BNs do it all the time. I've given up putting it back......
Fingers crossed for eggs somewhere and then fry.

Haha, I'll rebuild it for now, but will see if it keeps happening. I still things the ladies may be a bit young/ small, but at least he seems keen.

[Si4geckos]

Been a while since I updated this. New blue eyed lemon bristlenose added.

Current stocking includes
X3 L397s
Some Congo tetra (large normals and baby albinos)
Lots of young orange sword tails
Sterbai (normal and albino)
Brochis splendens
Gold rams (pair)
About 30 rummy nose tetra
Some crystal red shrimp (breeding well)
X1 cardinal tetra (can't catch him!)

Tank is doing well overall. Lost a few rams this year and the large congos seem to be passing from old age, but everything else is doing pretty well. The tank looks super active these days with the rummies and the baby swords. Sterbai breed now and again, but I've not got any eggs out for a while.

Got some new foods like bug bites for Xmas to try and see how they get on. Other than that, it's business as usual in the big tank.

[Si4geckos]

Not done an update in a while so here goes...

Tank stocking similar to the above, but the baby albino congos have grown well. Looking like I've got x2 males and x2 females.

Yesterday on the way home from an event I collected another x8 congo tetras (3m and 5f) which are 2yrs old and allegedly full grown. When I got there, they're pretty small. One of my male albino's I've had since December is bigger than them! Some look a bit thin, so I'm going to try and bulk them up a bit and deffo quaratine for a good amount of time.

Which brings me onto the other issue...

The chap I got them from also had x3 (very large) boesemani rainbow fish and I got them too. It was dark and they were already bagged up, so didn't really see they had a few pink body marks/ sores on them. He was moving house (allegedly) and they needed to go and I know my water isn't great, but I've always wanted to try them. x2 big males and x1 female. Super nice colours, but after some googling this morning (I only got them home about 1am last night) the pink body marks could be a sign of fish TB??

Very worried about this now. They're all in the 70L quarantine tank for now and treating with melafix and pimafix and will keep a close eye on everything. I'm rather worried there's a different reason he was rehoming his fish than advertised. (Deffo no for sale sign in the garden).

Has anyone every seen fish TB or had experinces?

One rainbow has pinky/ fleshy marks behind one pectoral fin and a little patch on the body. Slightly white lip too. Another has a mark on the body.

Any thoughts on what to do other than see if treatment works? Judging the size of his congos after 2 years, I'm guessing they haven't had the best care. After bringing my recent zebra plec addition back from the dead to looking really healthy, I'm just hopeful I can do the same with these.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[Si4geckos]

Here's a video showing the markings/ injuries as best I can.

https://youtu.be/q_bpUH0mSzY

[plankton]

Looks like damage to me, what did he have them in with and what was the water like? There looks to be one male and two females from the colours.
Melafix and clean water, with a good diet (soak in garlic to boost the immune system) should help sort it.
The noses should be white, but not the floaty bit on the front, it does look like loose flesh though.
It may have been while he caught them if they were already bagged up......??

[Si4geckos]

Looks like damage to me, what did he have them in with and what was the water like? There looks to be one male and two females from the colours.
Melafix and clean water, with a good diet (soak in garlic to boost the immune system) should help sort it.
The noses should be white, but not the floaty bit on the front, it does look like loose flesh though.
It may have been while he caught them if they were already bagged up......??

I messaged him to see if he knew the cause. He said he'd had the marks before but myaxzin cured them. They have come back, but only on the rainbow fish. As far as I know, these were the only fish in the tank. Couple of the congos have damaged fins too, so wondering if they just didn't get the best care. They were in a 4ft tank before.

He said it was only the rainbows that ever got the injuries. That's why I wondered about TB as from reading, not all fish get it, but rainbows are very susceptible. I'm going to give the melafix a week and see how they look, then try myaxzin. Pretty sure it's 2 males and one female as 2 are much bigger and more round bodied than the female.

[plankton]

I've done some reading in my virtual rainbow book, and it seems they are susceptible to it (or a form of it), but I'm still not sure that actually is it.
If they don't respond I would isolate them, but as far as I know there isn't a cure.