Armatus Keepers out there ....

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djaalix said:
i have tons of aeration, and mine were never breathing heavy, except this one that passed and only in his last day of life. But someone else posted about my temp being too high, so i was responding to that.

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my Armatus are kept between 27-29 degrees

how do you conduct your water changes?

have you tested phosphate levels ?

i change a third of my water once a week- but the water i replace it with is hma filtered and buffered to 7,2 ph and 28 degrees and also aerated for 3 days before hand.

in my experience the fish dont like big changes in ph and temp levels.

also my filtration is 9 x tank changes an hour.

hope this might help

and sorry for your loss
 
My tank cycles 5-6 times an hour, never have had a problem as far as filtration, the sump overflow system works great .... i did, however, see my ammonia was not 0 this weekend, but was only 0.25ppm so i highly doubt that is the cause, just means i need to add a little cycle again to revitalize my bacteria. My water is a pH of 7.2-7.4 out of the tap, and when put in the tank with , my tank maintains about a 6.8-7.4 pH all the time. I have tons of current and aeration, and all my other fish are doing fine, which is also strange, because it doesnt indicate water quality issues, cause all the fish would be showing signs. I've never checked phosphate levels, but i dont have any algae problems, and i've never heard phosphate being a bad thing for fish so was never very concerned. And the temp is always between 81-84 depending on the temp of my house. I'd say its the smelt, since i changed from silversides and krill to smelt and raw shrimp about 4-6 weeks ago ... Only weird thing is the vampires and tigers always ate the smelt, but the tigers seem fine, while the vampires are dying ... i wont be feeding anymore smelt thats for sure, gonna fight to get everyone eating massivore pellets. My datnoids ate krill, but refuse to eat the shrimp, and so far not a single fish have eaten pellets, but hopefully they will. Thanks for the help everyone, the last Armatus is still hanging on, but getting worse and worse

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as you probably notice, payaras are more delicate than other fish and that's the reason maybe the tigers are doing fine. btw doesn't prime or other conditioners neutralize ammonia..?

I use prime and go by their standards as far as dosing, but after I finish any WC, I add a bit more to the tank for safe measure because it's hard to overdose on that stuff. keep us updated... would be nice to hear in a few days he pulls through..
 
but by tomorrow he'll be swimming loops like the last one
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you sure it's not swim bladder disease? I had characin that used to do that and was fed strictly FZ krill
 
djaalix said:
My tank cycles 5-6 times an hour, never have had a problem as far as filtration, the sump overflow system works great .... i did, however, see my ammonia was not 0 this weekend, but was only 0.25ppm so i highly doubt that is the cause, just means i need to add a little cycle again to revitalize my bacteria. My water is a pH of 7.2-7.4 out of the tap, and when put in the tank with , my tank maintains about a 6.8-7.4 pH all the time. I have tons of current and aeration, and all my other fish are doing fine, which is also strange, because it doesnt indicate water quality issues, cause all the fish would be showing signs. I've never checked phosphate levels, but i dont have any algae problems, and i've never heard phosphate being a bad thing for fish so was never very concerned. And the temp is always between 81-84 depending on the temp of my house. I'd say its the smelt, since i changed from silversides and krill to smelt and raw shrimp about 4-6 weeks ago ... Only weird thing is the vampires and tigers always ate the smelt, but the tigers seem fine, while the vampires are dying ... i wont be feeding anymore smelt thats for sure, gonna fight to get everyone eating massivore pellets. My datnoids ate krill, but refuse to eat the shrimp, and so far not a single fish have eaten pellets, but hopefully they will. Thanks for the help everyone, the last Armatus is still hanging on, but getting worse and worse

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On a properly cycled tank, you shouldn't ever have to add more "cycle" or "bacteria" to it... Not questioning your filtration, just stating from what I have observed on my tanks... Also, that low ammonia reading could be the same reading as your tap water - since some tap water uses chloramine which produces ammonia.

As mentioned, Prime neutralizes the ammonia that comes from the chloramine.. but shouldn't be used to "treat" the normal ammonia levels that get produced from fish waste... should be used after a water change.

Good luck with them.
 
i dont know what you guys mean by prime, i'm assuming you mean tap water conditioner, and in that case yes i always use it when i do a waterchange, which i do once a week at the minimum about 1/3, and i overdose as well, usually every 5 days. i guess its possible to be from the waterchange, since i never test after changing water, always before, but i have checked my tap water and theres no ammonia. I use API stress coat, although i think i do overdose a little much, but this is nothing new, i've always done this. The reason why i got a slight ammonia spike, i think, is because of the pellets i began trying to feed in my desperation to save the vampire ... change of food, and since they dont eat it, it sits on the bottom, and turns to mush ... i scoop it out, but you can never get it all .... and i agree that an already cycled system should not need more bacteria, but i do find every 3 months or so it gets weird, or "old" so i add the cycle ... i always thought it strange too .... and I agree that the vampires are a fragile fish, probably the most fragile out of all my guys, but Datnoids and tigers, from what i've read, are not extremely hardy either ... i really just dont know what to think. Especially with them going from so healthy and growing so quickly over the course of 4 months, to dying back to back ... the only thing i did differently is change their diet from silversides to smelt ... i doubt its swim bladder disease, because he's just swimming very clumsily, almost like he's drunk, and his awareness of his surroundings is much less ... not gone yet, but diminishing day by day, but he doesnt have boyancy problems .... he's still hanging in, the other got worse faster than this guy, but it'll be a miracle if he survives ... he will def be renamed ROCKY for sure

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let me know your thoughts on what i just wrote cause i am new to the hobby, only got a year or 2 in, so any info is welcome and a huge help ... i appreciate it, and thanks everyone

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yes, we meant Seachem Prime, the conditioner

btw, the pellets turns to mush because it has sat in your water too long. you should start scooping them up if they aren't ate within a few minutes.. makes one hell of a mess as you know. The ammonia spike shouldn't have been caused by pellets. anyways, that ammonia problem is solved by now? Should be as easy as adding conditioner

where did you get the armatus from?
 
i know, for some reason i think the datnoids may eat after it sits for a while, then what happens is i go in with a net, everyone freaks out, and kicks the pellets up into debris .... i got the vampires from sharkaquarium about 4 months ago. They were 4-5 inches and now or were 11. I mean its possible swim bladder issues since they did eat the most, i'd say just about everyday, whereas everyone else would not eat everyday, but i still think this is a stretch. However it would also point to smelt since they def consumed the most of it out of all my fish. Its just so weird, i dont get it, but reading the symptoms of swim bladder disease, he does swim around drunk, and cant balance, but he isnt floating or sinking, he's just all over the place. I have seen him and the last one burp out bubbles occasionally, but i have a bubbly current in my tank, and figured with their heavier breathing that they just sucked in some bubbles

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and i just confirmed ammonia is back down to 0 ppm on the color scale, and my tap water also reads 0.

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