How high of PH can Armatus handle?

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DB junkie

DB junkie

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Jan 27, 2007
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I have killed many Armatus. Year after year. I've changed tank size, circulation, aeration, filtration, and WC schedule has even been bumped up to almost every other day. My PH is 8.8 or higher. I'm thinking this is killing them.

Is anyone out there keeping Armatus in water this high in PH?

My first one was about a foot when I moved to this hard water hell. Died shortly after. The next year my group of 5 all died under 10 inches. This year I've lost 3/5 allready, my biggest 10" quit eating a few days ago, and the runt that's 7 inches is still acting fine.

If you have or have ever kept Armatus please post your parameters...... PH and Hardness.....

Thank you for any input.
 
From what I understand that is where most of the people in the US are keeping theres.....
 
DB junkie;3899079; said:
From what I understand that is where most of the people in the US are keeping theres.....
Click to expand...
I think I'll go and check mine in a few.
 
No armatus but a 4yr old Tat and a couple of scombs for a few years with no problems.

My tap Ph is 8.2 set by the Louisville water company. It just shows blue on the API test. But the LWC website says 8.2.

Kh is 6 But I cant remember GH levels. But everyone around this area says we have extremely hard water.

I have been a beleiver and preacher of parasite treatments on wild caught and or live fed characins for years now. After seeing some of my tats waste away and die. And then the others bounce back after parasite treatments. I now do them 2x yearly on all my tanks that contain wild caught and or live fed fish. And since I started this I have had no wasting disease with any of my pred characins.

So thats my reccommendation. It can't hurt anything and could possibly be the answer to your troubles.

I like the JUNGLE LABS brand parasite clear. Because it combines
Praziquantel
Metronidazole
Diflubenzuron
Acriflavine
all in one easy to use tablet form. I have read alot on aquatic parasites and there are many of them that are not effected by just Prazi. And thats why I try to talk everyone out of just relying on Prazi-pro as there sole means of parasite control. With the 4 meds that jungle uses I think that you cover a wider spectrum of possible threats with 1 med.

gOOD LUCK
 
My Armatus haven't been fed live for prolly 5 months. Would it take this long to see symptoms? I'll have to find out if these tabs are ray safe as the rays come first. I had no issues growing a Rhaph bigger then any other I heard of in this water but maybe the Armatus don't have the same tolerances. They do come from more oxygenated water. Maybe its difficult for them to pull O2 out of this hard water.
 
Parasites infest a host and continue to feed on it and multiply until the host dies off and then they move to the next. Or some of them die with the host but leave behind hatchlings/eggs to carry on.

So its quite possible that the parasite loads are now reaching the critical range for what the armatus juvies can handle.

I can't seem to find it now. But I read an article not to long ago that said that approx. 95% of all fish in tropical climates had parasites. But that most of them could live a full life with little problems in the wild because they had adapted there diet to help them keep the parasite load stabile.

Maybe that means that there is some sort of natural vegatation or something that the fish eat that helps. And the predators eat the fish that have fed on this and they get the benefits as well. Not sure just a guess. Like a natural medicine.
 
This could be what does in the scombs.Maybe by the time they reach a certain size length,the parasites could have wreaked enough damage on them.
 
Update?

how are the last 2 army's doing?

hope all is well.
 
The big Armatus "Nixon" decided to eat once. He ate one of my friggin 6-7 in Odoes. Hasn't eaten again since.

Bought Jungle parasite gaurd. Enough to treat the 300. Just skeptical about using it. Heard some have had bad experiences with it though.

Haven't got shiat for insight from the disease section. No help there whatsoever. Aro died 3 days ago.
 
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