That would make more sense, but it's not bumps. It looks like little red teeth inside their mouth.
Uaru F. Log
- Thread starter Beetlebug515
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Update: adding liberal amounts of peat seems to be helping little guy fight off whatever he has. I remember reading one of the stickies about blackwater and how few bacteria can survive in it, and it appears to be true. Lil guy has been much more active over the last few days, and has been getting more responsive to food. The big two are very happy. They stay mostly white all the time, and don't leave each other's side. They are also both defending the same driftwood cave. Pair?
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Forgot to mention, finally got the recipe of HCL right, resulting in a nice stable ph. 2 ml of HCL to 30 gallons of water during each water change gives me a stable ph. Full parameters:
PH 5.33
Tds 45
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <5
All fish are growing, including the green phantom pleco. Love that guy. Even the anubias are growing well, which is surprising given the lack of nutrients in the water. I thought about pulling out all of the substrate a while back, but decided against it because of how much surface area for BB the substrate provides. I keep it very clean, and I don't think it would be worth losing all that bio media.
PH 5.33
Tds 45
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <5
All fish are growing, including the green phantom pleco. Love that guy. Even the anubias are growing well, which is surprising given the lack of nutrients in the water. I thought about pulling out all of the substrate a while back, but decided against it because of how much surface area for BB the substrate provides. I keep it very clean, and I don't think it would be worth losing all that bio media.
Well, I made a mistake yesterday. Decided to try 4 adult size neon tetras from the wife's planted tank with the pandas. There was some initial chasing that calmed down it about 5 minutes, and then everything was good. Left the house for a couple of hours and returned home to only one tetra left alive. Two were missing, and one was on the substrate well chewed and sans head. Lesson of the day: pandas will chase down and eat fish if they feel like it. The tetras were certainly bigger than the mouths of the pandas, so there had to be some sort of violence for eating to take place. Looks like I owe the wife some tetras. Any thoughts guys?
For logging purposes: This fish appeared to display the same symptoms as the last one that died. The difference being the last one was in the process of recovering from a severe ich infestation. Noted lack of appetite, thinning, red protrusions in the mouth* but still normal activity. No hiding, no wounds, lesions, abnormal spots, HITH, rot, or anything else to suggest any sort of infection. Near death the fish was arched and breathing heavily, mostly unable to swim. Both fish displayed the same body curving. I don't know what the cause of it is yet.
I do think I have an idea though. To me, the fish look like they are "wasting". Simply refusing to eat, and becoming more and more malnourished until they pass away. I think something similar to hexemia is to blame. I can't say for sure that I am correct though because they never exhibited and pitting in the head.
* On the red protrusions: Ive asked about this a couple times and not gotten much of a response, but I have been able to figure it out on my own. I think.
I have noticed, after very close watching, the other pandas also have red teeth. When they are not eating, the teeth slip back in to a space behind their lips and you cant see them. It looks very similar to how a sharks teeth function. Out when biting, hidden the rest of the time. This makes sense as the forward teeth would make it much easier to rip plants apart to be chewed by the pharyngeal teeth. I think that as the fish was losing weight, the fat deposits around the head were also diminishing causing the lips to pull back slightly and expose the teeth.
I do think I have an idea though. To me, the fish look like they are "wasting". Simply refusing to eat, and becoming more and more malnourished until they pass away. I think something similar to hexemia is to blame. I can't say for sure that I am correct though because they never exhibited and pitting in the head.
* On the red protrusions: Ive asked about this a couple times and not gotten much of a response, but I have been able to figure it out on my own. I think.
I have noticed, after very close watching, the other pandas also have red teeth. When they are not eating, the teeth slip back in to a space behind their lips and you cant see them. It looks very similar to how a sharks teeth function. Out when biting, hidden the rest of the time. This makes sense as the forward teeth would make it much easier to rip plants apart to be chewed by the pharyngeal teeth. I think that as the fish was losing weight, the fat deposits around the head were also diminishing causing the lips to pull back slightly and expose the teeth.
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