Marathon battle with flashing

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Agree with phreeflow.
With a pH that low, its no surprize frontosa are flashing,
and your 70ppm hardness is less than 1/3rd what frontosa would require
A normal Tanganyika water hardness is 16 dKH (equivilent to about 285 ppm in hardness)


Lake Tanganyika is characterized by its very hard and basic (alkaline) water. The pH typically ranges from 8.6 to 9.4, while the carbonate hardness (dKH) is higher than the general hardness (dGH), ranging from 16-18 °dKH and 10-11 °dGH respectively. This unique water chemistry supports a diverse range of cichlid species adapted to these conditions.
 
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There is an old wives tale aquarium adage, (or more PC, hand me down lore), that claims, a stable pH is better a fluctuating one.
And in most cases this is true.
But a stable pH (and hardness) is only useful when dealing with with bread and butter fishes from average, neutral environments,
"not those" from highly specialized environments.

For a species such as Uaru frenadnsepezii, that has evolved to live in pH 4, soft, tannin stained water, a stable pH above 7 can be a death sentance,
or in a best case scenario, these cichlids riddled with HITH scars.

The same goes for Tropheus of frontosa that have evolved for eons in rock hard, high pH (8.5 tp 9.5 pH) waters of the rift.

I'd be one tell anyone in most cases "not to chase pH," but in the same breath...
that choosing species that match our own natural waters is good practice.

Your clown loaches, and pleco are perfect choices for your soft, neutral water conditions, as would be many Amazonian, and Asian soft water species.

But unless you are willing to adjust for the rift lake cichlids,
The frontosa (with your water) will be at best troublesome, and require coddling.

The most likely problem with be lack of resistance to the bacteria that thrive in your soft low pH water, are not the bacteria frontosa have evolved to resist over million years of evolution.

This is one of the reasons why we see so many Oscars with HITH that have evolved to live in soft waters of S America
and so many rift lake Africans with bloat from liquid rock, subjected to neutral, soft water.
 
duanes said:
Your clown loaches, and pleco are perfect choices for your soft, neutral water conditions, as would be many Amazonian, and Asian soft water species.
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This still doesn’t explain why all of the clown loaches are flashing as well if the water parameters are considered perfect for them. I’m totally fine with moving on from the Frontosas due to the ph/hardness being incorrect but the issue is present with all fish minus the Pleco. I haven’t seen any flashing or odd behavior from the pleco.
 
Even if the species that are adaptive to (for example to) soft water conditions or low pH water parameters, are subjected to, and/or forced to live with species that adaptive to high pH hard water conditions, the bacteria in those conditions can overwhelm resistance to every species living in that closed system.
Bacteria from high pH waters are totally different than those adapted to soft/low pH water, but when infectious doses allowed to run rampant, nothing is safe within that system.

I realize most aquarists do not normally consider those ramifications, and the effects on fish health, but as a former (ret) microbiologist, I am keenly aware of what happens to those species not adapted to environments they have evolved over millions of years to exist in, so do not combine species haphazardly, just because I like them.
 
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Combing species from similar waters are done all the time, and have been for decades, when done carefully and within evolutionary norms.
Aquaium strain angelfsh from the soft waters waters of the Amazon, and Gouramis of the similar soft waters of Asia are perfect examples.

But as fish from more exotic areas become available, combiations get much more complicated.
Trying to combine a species like Altum angels from a low pH river like the Orinoco, or Rio Negro were pH is 4, and and conductivity near 0 mS.
with species from the Lake Malawi in the rift where pH iaverages 8 to 9, and a conductivity over 250 mS, is an exercise in futility.
Since clown loaches prefer a pH 6 to 7, and frontosa 8 to 9, you are in a similar predicament
 
duanes said:
Even if the species that are adaptive to (for example to) soft water conditions or low pH water parameters, are subjected to, and/or forced to live with species that adaptive to high pH hard water conditions, the bacteria in those conditions can overwhelm resistance to every species living in that closed system.
Bacteria from high pH waters are totally different than those adapted to soft/low pH water, but when infectious doses allowed to run rampant, nothing is safe within that system.

I realize most aquarists do not normally consider those ramifications, and the effects on fish health, but as a former (ret) microbiologist, I am keenly aware of what happens to those species not adapted to environments they have evolved over millions of years to exist in, so do not combine species haphazardly, just because I like them.
Click to expand...
Good Morning and thank you for the explanations.

Once the frontosas have been sold off would I need to address the infectious bacteria brought on by the forced ph adaption? Would it self correct with time or am I in a predicament where I need to sell off all fish (due to my own ignorance) and treat the tank as previously described to kill off all bacteria/organisms living in the tank? It may be a trial of wait and see.
 
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Once the ill adaptive species are removed, and no longer vehicles for easy infection transmition, the immunity of the well adapted species may come into play.
So wait and see.
because
Without a laboritory diagnosis you don't know what you are combating.
Some diseases and parasites are obvious. if you can confirm the Ich parasite is present, 3 lbs per 100 galons of salt, or a commercial treatment, could eliminate it.
https://hosting.photobucket.com/1f4...1804af456.jpg?width=320&height=320&fit=bounds,
If its a bacteria, you may need to know if it is gram posative or gram negative to determine proper antibiotic.
If its a visible parasite such as lenaea, and anti parasitic regime of such as Prazicuantel may be required.
IMG_5245.jpeg
Lernaea parasite below
IMG_7750.jpeg
 
I traveled 3 hours to an aquatic veterinarian who sedated the largest Frontosa and conducted gill clippings and skin scrapes, then placed them under a microscope. It was negative for any external parasites. This was the best laboratory diagnosis I could find within my state. All other recommendations from regional veterinarians were to one of the state Universities.
 
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