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Re: bolbitis heudelotii (plant) problem

Nothobranchius killies are seasonal fish, they live in temporary pools and die off every year when they dry up, unless they get lucky and have a wet year. They spawn like crazy and the eggs are buried in the bottom of the pools, where they incubate until next years' rains, some even last another season or two in case of drought. They grow amazingly quickly and are usually gorgeous, supposedly the pools are full of debris and so difficult to see in that the males have to be colorful so the females can find them. Really amazing fish, but they are extremely sensitive to velvet. I apparently don't have a knack for them. I contacted a fish pathologist who studies this group of fish, he was a professor at Cornell and he recommended the flubendazole but also said the case was most likely hopeless and that I would most likely have to euthenize the lot. These fish evolved to live fast and spawn like crazy, and die young, they seem to have really cruddy immune systems. Some people do great with them though. And I have 3 species here, one never got sick, another kicked it after treatment, the third is getting til the end of the week and then it's euthenasia. I can't risk splashing their water into my healthy tanks, or having my fishsitter contaminate other tanks with their water while I am out of town next week. Velvet sucks, don't get it. I got it twice from fish bought online. Think it's a good plan to stick to buying fish you can actually lay your eyes on first. I don't normally go in for medicating fish either but this notho situation, all the other killie people said flubendazole was a miracle drug and it would be a snap to deal with... 
Hydra also I have to treat. It really likes my fry.
Any other fish seem to recover from most things with good diet and lots of water changes, and they seem to be healthier and stronger if raised in a tank with healthy plants. So most of my killies are in planted tanks and get regular changes with chemical free aged water, and I have no problems ever with 90% of my fish. Needless to say I did not send any Nothobranchius killies to the meeting and will not be keeping them again in the future, except for any offspring from the species that never got sick in the first place. 
Sometimes fishkeeping is less fun that it is at other times.
Kate

throatwarbler mangrove wrote:


It could be the meds. In my opinion, medicating fish
rarely works. Sounds like a combo of the rising salt
and the nasties from 'formalin' did in the plant,
that's not that surprising esp. salt levels.

Also, nothobranchius killies are no less hardy than
any other fish - I'm sure there's more to it than the
type of fish. But, I expect we'll hear plenty about
killies tomorrow night.

--- Kate Breimayer <kate@munat.com> wrote:

It was the mother plant for a bunch of them, It was
doing fine for probably a year in my tanks, and the person I got the original cutting from had hers a year. That is what is so frustrating. Grew beautifully and madly for so long and then bam, it's rotting, and it's doing so in tanks at different temps with different light, CO2, and stocking levels that aren't even in the same room. Granted I let the CO2 and fertilizer slide lately due to migraines followed by surgery but still, it grew great before I started using CO2 and fertilizer. That additional salt theory sounds kind of plausible though, and maybe I medicated and forgot about it. I was using meds for hydra, now that I recall, that would be formaldehyde with copper, neither is good for plants is it? Stupid hydra. At least that's gone for now. Now have flubendazole for fighting hydra, anyone know if that is bad for plants? 
Thanks,
Kate

throatwarbler mangrove wrote:


FWIW, I could never get this plant to establish in

my

old fishroom. My water was very hard (so, anubias,
african cichlids and mexican livebearers loved it).
Was this an attempt to start the plant or was it
established? I think I have seen bolbitis grown out

of

water and sold to the aquatic trade (much like

those

little pine-tree plants). Plants started this way
generally have a hard time establishing themselves
when submerged.

Matt
--- "Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@Boeing.com> wrote:



Hi Kate,

Have you treated your water for any type of

diseases

of late?  I treated my tank for parasites awhile
back and had a similar issue with my java fern.  I
was using formaldahyde and found my plants did not
appreciate that at all. The leaves turned black
slowly and then broke loose of the main root and
floated away. Just a thought.  And, I do not think
that this is Off Topic for this list at all.  In
fact, I think this is a great item for the list.

Clay

-----Original Message-----
From: June Olberding [mailto:jdolb1@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2003 9:29 AM
To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
Subject: Re: bolbitis heudelotii (plant) problem


Hi Kate,
I haven't had much experience with bolbitis. I

know

it doesn't seem to like
really high light environments.  I know you are

not

running high light
tanks. You keep most of your water pretty soft. I
don't know if that may be
a problem. Mine is in a livebearer tank with KH of
4-5 and GH of 5-10. It
does well in that environment which has about 2
watts /gal of shop light. It
took a long time to establish and occasionally

will

have a section go black
and fall away. Thought that to be normal or that I
had damaged leaf working
in tank. This may be inaccurate but I think it
doesn't like to be disturbed
or moved to new locations. AFA nutrients, I do run
my tanks rather rich.
Also you might try running a little DIY CO2 for

it.

Generally folks don't
think of CO2 need in low light plant tanks, but

has

been my experience that
adding CO2 did more than anything else, with the
exception of Flourite
substrate, to boost plant health in lower light
environment.
Re: OT. I would say definitely.
Regards
June


Hi,
I am having a problem with my bolbitis ferns-the

stems are turning black

and rotting, then leaving the ends with the

leaves

free to disconnect

and drift away from the mother plant. Some leaves

also turn black.

Rhizomes are attached to wood, look fine. This is

happening in multiple

tanks. I have been pretty bad about fertilizing

and light bulbs may be

old but it seems odd that such a tolerant plant

would suffer the worst

for it while rotala indica which likes

light/fertilizer survives and

turns pink at the ends. Any bolbitis tips? Or do

the old leaves just do

this after a while? Seems like more than half of

the leaves on the

affected plants are going down, so it's probably

not only the oldest

leaves dying, though the new ones are ok... Other

tanks have younger

bolbitis cut from the same mother plant with the

same water parameters,

no problem with them.
Tips?
By the way, is this considered OT for this group?

Maybe replies should

be off list... :)
Kate

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