I'm close to calling it quits...

[DammitKhoa]

Payaras are just too damn hard to keep. I feel like I'm overdoing it in equipments/maintenance and it's backfiring on me

Had 3 Hydrolycus Tatauaias, one died on me from what I believe was an injury sustained in transit. The tank had an outbreak of ich, the two remaining tats caught it & I've been doing ~15% water changes daily, bumped up the temperature to 85 degrees, added salt and attached a quick filter which supposedly catches up to 1 micron (the smallest form of ich is ~25 microns).

It seemed to be doing the trick and the ich is almost gone now, but the odessa barb that's been in the big tank for about a week now, decided to nip the fins of one just last night. Tail is almost gone and I'm pretty sure it's suffering fin rot now..? Can anyone confirm? Past the caudal fins, the tail seems to be discoloring. At least this one ate today despite it's injury.



The other guy, hasn't ate since ~1 week ago because ich decreases their appetite. Looks like he's got a sunken stomache and starting today, it started discoloring in that area. Does anyone know if this is normal for a sunken stomache??



If these two die on me, I think I'm gonna take a break from the hobby for a while.. I've invested too much time and money. I'm goin coo coo here!

 

[bonesb66]

The stomach on the lower pictured one does indeed look sunken - How long as a rule would they go without food?

I do hope you don't lose these.

What size are they?

 

[Eupterus]

Frustrating, I've heard these can be difficult. Hope someone who keeps them can help you out.

 

[underboss8]

if the ick is gone drop the temp back to around 78. that high temp would cause higher metabolism since hes not eating his stomach is gonna suck even more. melafix could help with that tail rot. they can tolerate high doses, i treat mine with it. tats not that hard to keep imo, looks to me as if you are just having bad luck. check to see if its shedding fangs, they wont eat sometimes when they are missing teeth.

 

[DammitKhoa]

The stomach on the lower pictured one does indeed look sunken - How long as a rule would they go without food? I do hope you don't lose these. What size are they?

Thanks they are about 5.5-6" right now. I've heard they can go as long as a month without food. I'm just hoping that since they're not eating as much and dealing with all this stress, hopefully their immune system can put up with the ick in the mean time.. just a horrible, horrible combination of things going on right now.

Frustrating, I've heard these can be difficult. Hope someone who keeps them can help you out.

thanks!

if the ick is gone drop the temp back to around 78. that high temp would cause higher metabolism since hes not eating his stomach is gonna suck even more. melafix could help with that tail rot. they can tolerate high doses, i treat mine with it. tats not that hard to keep imo, looks to me as if you are just having bad luck. check to see if its shedding fangs, they wont eat sometimes when they are missing teeth.

The ick is still present, but I've been told to keep the temperature up for 3 days after all signs of it are gone :/ good to hear they can take melafix pretty well! I actually used that same medication earlier but sissied out.. I used a quarter dose of what I was instructed to do lol do you use it to it's full strength..?

edit: and do you typically see white/cloudy areas after applying melafix? Come to think about it, it appeared after I placed it in the tank. Looks scary! but if it means it's working, so be it!

 

[underboss8]

yea i use it full strength. sometimes add pimafix melafix combo. pimafix is more potent. white/cloudy areas on fish or in the water? if in the water, water changes will clear the water. If present on fish nothing to worry about.

 

[DammitKhoa]

Woke up to the first tat missing a full tail now... he's still swimming but sometimes ends up on his side. such a sad site to see a small little beast so cripple haha

the cloudy/white area is on the fish.. it's spreading.
yesterday: View attachment 717686
This morning:

 

[bigcatlover]

Losing fish can be sooooo frustrating! We've recently gone through our own bout of disease and it was a freaking nightmare. We lost like 5 fish in one week from multiple tanks! I hope you don't lose both of them, but if you do, maybe instead of taking a break, you go down a different fish path. There are plenty of fish out there that are relatively inexpensive that will satisfy your monster fish cravings, but are better suited for aquarium life.

I don't know what else you have and I'm assuming that you have a large tank since you have payara... I'd hate to see you give it all up just because you lost some fish (as frustrating as it is...)

Here are some of my favorite monsters that can be relatively inexpesive (if you buy juveniles):

While I know that peacock bass and arrowanas don't have the spectacular teeth of the payara, they are definitely monsters and are certainly fun to watch! They are no joke around feeding time -especially the aro!

I'm also a fan of bichirs. While they do spend a lot of time hiding when they're small, when they do come out, they are spectacular! We have a congicus, which is more expensive than some, but you can find cheaper ones all over the place usually.

And then, of course there are the catfish, my personal favorite! If you don't have any catfish, you should seriously consider getting at least one that will keep the bottom of your tank clean for you. Make sure you do your research first though 'cause some of them grow FAST!

Those are some of my personal favorites based on my experience, that might meet your budget and keep your tank up and running. I'm so sorry about your struggles! I hope your fish come out of this ok! Don't give up

 

[DammitKhoa]

I've actually been looking into other fish to keep (funny you mention PB and arowana because those were the ones I was interested in) but wasn't expecting my tats to go that soon... left for school for a couple hours, came back home and both were sucked up at the filter. still living though. I could tell though that Tat #1 was on the verge of death so I stuffed a quarter piece of massivore pellet down his throat in hope she'll swallow it and satisfy the hunger a little bit (I've done this before when I kept cichlids, as a last resort) and half an hour later, it just gave up.



Tat #2.. I don't know why this guy is still living and the other one is dead. I guess it's because he ate a couple days ago.. if he pulls through & recovers, I think he deserves the whole tank space lol if not, I decided I'll dry out the tank for a week (kill the ich) and look into an Armatus or another Tatauaia. I fell in love with the Payara and decided I'm not gonna give up on them just yet. Besides, I got a whole bunch of store credit at Aquascape waiting to be used lol


Check this video out. It is undeniably sad but I thought this guys reaction was a little funny.. pretty much how I reacted lol :/
[video=youtube;EaCN9okhM1I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaCN9okhM1I&list=FLZzg57EwlF3JfsuyJTgQcAQ&index=1&feature=plpp_video[/video]

 

[krichardson]

I guess he would be pretty peed off.I'm sure that fish cost him a pretty penny.....that was not a jardini.