I have also had success with vitachem in the food and water changes. lowering the pH will probably help too though.
HITH in Geo altifrons,how/why and what can be done??
- Thread starter David R
- Start date
From when I was researching HITH, the causes are:
Vitamen Dificiency
Carbon (Take it out?)
Water Quality
Stray Electric Current
Stress combined with poor water condition.
I'm surprised that you Geo has HITH, your regime seems full proof to me o.o
Vitamen Dificiency
Carbon (Take it out?)
Water Quality
Stray Electric Current
Stress combined with poor water condition.
I'm surprised that you Geo has HITH, your regime seems full proof to me o.o
I've looked at your thread for multiple days now and the only thing I can think of is reducing your feedings. If you reduce your feedings to every other day at least you know there will be less waste in your tank, plus fish don't need to eat everyday. I know your nitrates are not too high but it could help. Sorry I can't help more but its the only idea coming to my mind right now. Good Luck!!!
EarthEaterBob;5103479; said:
Its certainly not 2 as I don't run carbon. Don't think its 3 or 5 as the water quality seems really good and there's not much stress (unless the tank isn't big enough for a group of 12 and the lack of space for a breeding territory is causing them stress?). Could be 1, but with the variety of foods I'm feeding I'm not sure if it would be. 4 is a possibility but I have no way of testing it. There is no electrical equipment in the tank, the pump and heaters are in the sump and the FX5 is [obviously] outside, but I guess the current could flow thru the returns? I have no way of testing that though.
The only other thing I can think of is the higher pH (in which case it should get better as I use more rain water for water changes over winter), or some other thing I'm not testing for (need to test TDS) leaching out from the background.
Another thing, how long do geos live for? Some of these fish could be as old as 5 by now (revised my earlier estimate of 2-3), could it just be old age making them more susceptible to this kinda thing?
David R;5102546; said:
Could there be a fine layer of mildew or mould up there? All the houses out here are covered in a very fine film of black mould and some olive covered mildew; I'm sure it's not as bad where you live -- not bad enough to be obvious to the naked eye -- but it could still be happening.
Since it began when you started adding rainwater, I'd really have to hone in on that as the variable. The fairly small shift in pH seems unlikely, since they're rio negro fish and have to deal with the annual floods and droughts.
Haven't had time to pay them much attention lately, sometimes I think they're getting better, then I see another that looks like its gotten worse.
are these wild caught fish? if so i think your right in assuming the most likely culprit is the difference in pH, i cant remember who but i remember another member posting something similar about some of their geos (cant remember which type) and them getting HITH because of the pH being too high and once they lowered the pH the fish started to get better....
You said you had a concrete background, is that inside the tank? If so the lime leaching out is the cause of the ph issue and the peat isn't enough to buffer it. Most likly that is the main issue. Remove the concrete use the rain water and add a vitamin block or two to the tank. The Thera +A will help the gut flora so I would go with that for a while use 1mm for the Geos. This might slove your prob with out meds.
