Just a horrible rainy day

[Hlee019]

Woke up today to find one of my EBJDs dead in a twisted state of rigor mortis, and the other two seem like they will share the same fate. Since I added a paratilapia polleni (F, 3-4 inches) to the tank a week ago, all my EBJDs (4-6 inches) became dark, stopped eating, and started sitting at the bottom of the tank. I treated the tank with JPC and added salt, but it seems like it was not enough. I am quite at a loss at the recent turn of events because they were doing so well before, and I have no idea what to do. It is just terrible to watch them slowly die and be unable to do anything for them. Sorry about the rant, but I just had to vent.

BTW the water params are NH3: 0ppm, NO2: 0ppm, NO3: 30ppm

 

[bob965]

I would remove the polleni. If the problem started when you added it, then there's a good chance that's the cause. It doesn't have to be disease, it's probably just stress. A polleni is typically a few notches above an ebjd on the agression scale, and they're probably getting bullied.

 

[Hlee019]

I have observed no aggression on the part of the polleni. Actually, it was getting bullied by the dominant EBJD. My best guess is that the polleni carried over some kind parasite, but I got the polleni from the same breeder that I got the EBJDs and assumed that it was all clear. Well I removed the polleni and have 2 of the EBJDs in the tank and time will tell what the problem was.

 

[Hlee019]

Thought I would provide an update and some thoughts on the unfortunate turn of events. Two of the lesser EBJDs have perished but the dominant EBJD had survived much to my surprise.

Treatment:
- I removed the polleni and tiger barbs from their tank
- At the time, I removed two of the surviving EBJDs from the tank and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with an airstone and dosed it with a tablet of JPC for an 1hr-1.5hrs. I repeated this method of treatment a second time before I ran out of JPC tablets

One of the EBJDs died a few days later following treatment and I was expecting to find the dominant EBJD dead at the bottom of the tank, but he not only survived but is thriving now. It took some time for him to start eating and acting like his old self, but he is doing great now. However, I do catch him sulking around sometimes, maybe because he lost his old tank mates?, but he still comes barreling out to the front of the line during feeding.

Conclusions:
Could the polleni have carried over some kind of internal parasite? I had my suspicions that this was the case and find it to be the most plausible cause. However, the dominant is currently in the same tank as the polleni and he has only gotten better and none of the other inhabitants or the supposed patient zero (polleni) exhibit symptoms of infection. The only other thought could be that most if not all EBJDs have internal parasites or some kind of ailment that they can suppress until it becomes life threatening at certain stressful points in life. I would compare it to the herpes virus, which can lie dormant in your body until stress and fatigue triggers an outbreak. Most healthy people just end up with unsightly sores all over their lips, but for an immuno-compromised person I can imagine that this can cause quite a number of complications. So, my thoughts are that EBJDs are not as resilient as their normal brethren and during stressful moments, such as the addition of the new polleni, they can succumb to things that they can normally keep suppressed, which is what I think happened in my case.

These thoughts are my just two cents on the matter, any other feedback would be appreciated