Hows Everyones Army's Doin?
- Thread starter vamptrev
- Start date
Yup, I came to the conclusion is was most likely the food as well
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One thing I will say about the smelt theory is it doesn't count for the majority of deaths which are the kamikaze crash into the side of the tank or jumping doom of death. Not too many people have had armatus that just roll over and die for no reason. The majority of deaths are caused by stress from other tankmates or from the previous things that I already mentioned. I think the people saying smelts and silversides are the cause of armatus dying are way off on their theory. I have had 4 armatus in the past and not one died from eating smelts. They died from stress,suicide and injuries from other tankmates. I currently have 2 more and have changed up the tankmates and tank size. I will still be feeding smelts stuffed with massivore which it what I did in the past. We will see how round 3 goes.
When they get past the small stage they are good until about 18" and then they become more skittish for some reason and I think it has something to do with tank size.
A sound theory Blk, and very many Armatus's die by slamming into something, but I think the smelt theory is also viable, possible the kind of smelt or something, who knows .... I know mine died back to back a week apart, same symptoms, and they didnt hit their head ... my current Army I've had for much longer, and has been kept with the same tankmates in very similar conditions, but eats pellets not smelt ... agreed it can be any number of things, including my increased knowledge of fish keeping, that has played a part in this ones survival as well ... I am def the most nervous for him all of a sudden acting funny for no reason, especially since he's right at that 16-18 inch mark, but so far so good
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Ive never had problems with any of my armies crashing into anything.
It was always very interesting to me that my two armies in seperate tanks both died within months of eachother at the 12" inch mark.
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It was always very interesting to me that my two armies in seperate tanks both died within months of eachother at the 12" inch mark.
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I had my last group in a big pond. Styro under and around the liner. Styro over top. Think I had 3-4 left when they went in, had none left within a few months. Don't think there was really anything to run into in there. All developed the "stupor"
Drips..... Maybe something we aren't seeing here? I've had terrible luck with pups and drips. The result of carbon removing chlorine is small amounts of ammonia right? Could this be too much for these delicate fish? Don't think I knew what a drip was when I had my first Armatus. Most I grow out are grown out with pups and very seldom subjected to large water changes. Once they get big I add them to a system that has a drip.
Maybe a strict regimen of degassing the water to be used in their tank for at least 24 hours could rule this out?
Maybe you can get away with a small drip..... I don't know what a small drip is. IF my numbers get up higher then I like I crank the drip up or run it wide open for a while.
Maybe I've been killing them with kindness (lots of clean fresh un aged water) all these years???
Drips..... Maybe something we aren't seeing here? I've had terrible luck with pups and drips. The result of carbon removing chlorine is small amounts of ammonia right? Could this be too much for these delicate fish? Don't think I knew what a drip was when I had my first Armatus. Most I grow out are grown out with pups and very seldom subjected to large water changes. Once they get big I add them to a system that has a drip.
Maybe a strict regimen of degassing the water to be used in their tank for at least 24 hours could rule this out?
Maybe you can get away with a small drip..... I don't know what a small drip is. IF my numbers get up higher then I like I crank the drip up or run it wide open for a while.
Maybe I've been killing them with kindness (lots of clean fresh un aged water) all these years???
Mine eat whitebait - i think this is what you guys call silversides?
I did feed smelt as a one off trial but it was too oily so i stopped, i have however lost datnoids and peacock bass when feeding this before.
Mine are still going on whitebait, prawns and mussels - must be knocking on 15"
I did feed smelt as a one off trial but it was too oily so i stopped, i have however lost datnoids and peacock bass when feeding this before.
Mine are still going on whitebait, prawns and mussels - must be knocking on 15"
Can you tell us about your water parameters and water change regimen? Conductivity #s would be super helpful but I often feel like I'm the only one paying attention to it..... lol.
Interesting to hear of a smelt situation across the pond though!!!
Thanks for your input!
Maybe we should all just start posting our parameters and feeding regime to compare if we can get some dedicated enough! Would be awesome to get something really detailed going!
About the only thing different about my old house and my current house is the hardness of my water. The 3 armatus i kept in the past were in 7.2 ph and my new house is about 7.8. So far seems to be no difference in behavior but they are still young
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