Rope Fish Community - Dead in a Week. Please Advise.

Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
So I had a beautiful little thing, not too long ago. Five Ropefish, one three years, two a year and a half, and two six months. They shared their 55g breeder tank with a bushy-nose pleco, a senegalus bichir, and nothing else. Gravel, petrified wood, some hides, pothos ivy in baskets, planted driftwood, and other plants decorated it. They were fed a variety of food, prepared, live, fresh, and frozen. Water changes every two weeks with a gravel vac. All was well.

That was about a week ago. One small ropefish remains healthy-looking. The other is doing death roles. The elder three are dead.

______________________________________________________________________

The most recent changes to the tank are as follows:
I put a small exoterra hide in the tank. This was to match the one that has been in there for years. Couple weeks ago.
I took the pothos ivy out of one tank that I'm shutting down and submerged it amongst the other tanks, including this one. Couple weeks ago.
Brought home two small pieces of planted driftwood from the store, temporarily kept in the rope tank, then moved to two others after. Month ago.
Used EM after the first rope died. Two doses over two days, a waterchange just before. One week ago.
Bad power-outage a few months ago, nearly killed them. All recovered, no visible symptoms.
No unusual chemicals, disturbances, foods or other changes. All other tanks and inhabitants are fine.

Symptoms/Timing:
Woke up to find my eldest male dead. The three older ones may have been slightly obese, they were very healthy eaters. Other than glazed eyes and a slightly swollen throat, no other indications of sickness other than death.
Treated with EM after a waterchange.
Eldest female died the next night. Glazed eyes, slightly swollen throat, slight stiffness of the neck. One or two small red streaks amongst scales.
2nd dose of EM.
Second eldest female died two days later, same symptoms but I don't think there were any streaks.
Bichir had glazed eyes up until about this point. No other symptoms, then glazed eyes went away. Appears healthy. Two small rope fish (been with me 6 months) seemed fine.
Two days or so later, small female suddenly doing death roles. No other symptoms. Remaining male, bichir, and pleco all still seem fine.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I'm a little dead inside myself. I don't know what the heck ripped through my tank and stole away my little babies. I was going to try again with a third small rope and keep a mini group in a 40g breeder after I thought it stopped with the older ones, but now I don't have the heart since the little female seems to be on her way out. If anyone has any insight as to what the hell happened, and how to make the tank safe again without throwing everything out or killing my wood/plants, I'd love some advice. Part of me moving on is going to include giving my weather loaches the bigger tank, but I don't want whatever affected my poor ropes to affect them.

Please advise.

[RIP LongShot, Clamp, Giga, and good luck little Raven.]
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
23,253
24,112
1,660
Ohio
Sorry for your loss, keep posting hopefully Aquanero will chime with his analysis.
 

Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
Thank you. I'll be happy for any knowledgeable advice at this point.

Little female is still alive, spinning away horribly. Poor thing.
 

fwprawn

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jul 29, 2011
3,441
7
38
New England
Were you testing your water regularly? You said you changed the water every 2 weeks - If you feed them "a lot" then water changes should have been done every week, or twice a week, and the filter should be cleaned periodically as well.
I have a strong feeling that poor maintenance was, and still is, killing your fish.
We can't really tell you any more, until you test the water.
 

Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
Yoim - Live food is all home-grown, and few/far inbetween. In the last several months they've had some guppies and cut-up fresh marbled crayfish fry.

prawn - I feed my fish every two days or so, and there just isn't enough fish/waste in the water to cause an imbalance. (I have had the water tested recently, no issues). Filters are maintained properly. If I wasn't keeping my tanks properly I'm sure I'd see that in any of the other five tanks. Understock, overfilter, heavy planting, decent feeding but with skips in between. Regular filter and tank maintenance.
 

BuffaloPolypteridae

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2013
3,011
7
0
Buffalo
You wouldnt really know for sure unless your were testing, there could be a dead live feeder rotting somewhere, also what is EM? Ropefish are sensitive to heavy metals like bichirs, meds that has those in them are known to cause issues at full dose sometimes death. Check your local water reports, for changes, check whats in the meds, tear apart the tank looking for hdidng spots, sand or gravel?

Gravel can catch a lot of debris and lock it in too. I love polypteridae, as you can see, sorry for your loss id hate to lose my large rope, at about 16 inch

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Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
The last time they had some live food was months ago, if there was a rotten feeder it would have been gone by now. The stock level in that tank is so low I don't think it would matter anyways. EM is Erithromiacyn (I think that's right) recommended by an lfs fish manager. The three older ones were all looking pretty poor (one dead) before the EM was even used. I used my gravel vac to clean the gravel every water change, and funny enough I noticed that the black gravel caught a lot more debris than the natural (I have them in neat sections).

I don't know how to check my water reports but I could look into it. Do you think it would only affect the ropes and not any of my other fish?
 

Catnkit

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2011
270
1
18
Toronto
Update, it's been a few days since my little girl was doing death roles... and I've seen her once or twice a day since, each time looking less half-dead. Just saw her tonight and she looked really normal. Possibly means she might survive after all. Here's wishing.
 

lardieleftover

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 9, 2014
255
11
48
san diego
Hope your babies are saved! Definantly don't change the stock for a while until you are certain of water levels of everything.
All I can think of is that the females red streaks on the passed fish could be from a rough edge or object they rubbed against. It caused me to switch to sand from gravel and to sand down some hiding spots I had at one point. Also because my bala sharks liked to eat gravel and die, happened two separate times, couldn't handke anymore felt so bad. Good luck though. Post pics of your ropes so we can see them

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