RE: [GSAS-Member] Hello & help!

["Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@boeing.com>]

Anita,

I agree with Steev, you should wait out the situation.  I have had
similar situations occur and after some very frustrating ups and downs
found that the best answer was to cut back on the number of fish I had
in the tank.  The "Rule of Thumb" on how many fish can fit in a tank, is
just that a rule.  And, there are always exceptions to the rule.  By
this, I mean some tanks are just not meant to hold as many fish as the
"Rule of Thumb" would indicate the tank could hold.  
I have not spent the time testing to figure out why this might be, but,
would hazard to guess that it is likely due to a number of conditions
combining to put a tank outside the "Rule of Thumb".  For instance, if
you combine aggressive fish with minimal filtration one could make an
argument for a need for less fish in the tank than what the "Rule of
Thumb" suggests because the fish are always running away from agressors
and thus use up more oxygen in the water than typical and the filtration
may not be enough to compensate for this situation.  (wow, what an ugly
run-on sentence that was).  There are other combinations and
permutations that could be created to put a given tank outside the "Rule
of Thumb" values I am sure.
My favorite African tank went through a depopulation event for the
second time about 8 months ago, shortly after I tried to repopulate it
to its prior high level of occupants.  So, this time I have let the
population stay at the "depopulated" level and it is doing just fine
now.  I have thought that maybe it is now just survival of the fittest,
but, looking at the fish that are left they are not necessarily the same
fish as those that survived the first "depopulation" event.  ~~shrugging
shoulders~~  I dunno.....seems the tank is happy now and I hate to think
of going through another depopulation event, so, it will stay with the
lower population level now.
More food for thought.....I wish you success in finding the reason and
resolution to the tank problem.

Clay

-----Original Message-----
From: A JACOBSON [mailto:amjacobson52@msn.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 11:16 PM
To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society member chat
Subject: Re: [GSAS-Member] Hello & help!


I actually had already decided not to treat it prophylactically (sic?)
simply because I don't do that for myself.  At the fish store (I turned
in my found dead bodies tonight) they found a slight raise in nitrite,
which was puzzling since the system had been showing fully mature for
months, only showing nitrates at very low levels.  I'd also begun to
worry about the filter, it didn't seem to be churning out water at a
rapid enough rate.  So I bought the AquaClear 200, and I will put that
on my SE Asian 30 gal tank, and I will take ITS Aqua Clear 300, which is
practically brand new, and put it on my 37 gal tank.  I bought ChemPure
for both filters.

I am reluctant to move the remaining fish to another tank, because if
they are carrying a parasite, then that tank will become infected.  But
I will start doing very large water changes every few days, and take
advantage of the depopulation to change to substrate to a good one for
plants, and then use the existing fish to help mature the tank.  Once
the tank is no longer showing nitrites, then I'll think about
repopulating it.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback, it's helped me think through
what to do next.

I can hardly wait to meet you all in person.

Anita

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: steev ward<mailto:steevward@mac.com> 
  To: Greater Seattle Aquarium Society member
chat<mailto:gsas-member@thekrib.com> 
  Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 10:19 PM
  Subject: Re: [GSAS-Member] Hello & help!


  Anita-
        Medicines: Your best bet might be to simply wait it out. It
could be that
  there are several things going on, and it could be that a parasite is
not to
  blame (the angelfish would not have died from Ich). You can't really
treat for
  Ich or Velvet without hurting your shrimp. So maybe you can keep an
eye on what
  fish you have and move them out to another tank if they appear sick,
to
  medicate them there.
  Maracyn is not much good for Ich. You might see if you can find an Ich
  treatment that is based on Quinine Hydrochloride or Quinine Sulfate.
         I wouldn't call it the tank of death. It might turn out that
the 5
  bronze corys, 4 adult serpae tetras, talking catfish, bamboo shrimp,
rainbow
  shrimp, ghost shrimps, and fiddler crabs are quite happy. Whenever we
go for
  awhile adding new types of fish we eventually bring home some sick
ones.

        You might think about backing off on the CO2 until the fish stop
dying a
  little.

  Steev

  A JACOBSON wrote:

  > Oh, I am definitely not adding anything to the tank of death (as I'm
  > beginning to think of it).  All the deaths are from fish that were
already
  > in the tank when I added the two Blue Rams.  What type of
medication,
  > something like CopperSafe?
  >
  > Anita

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