you can get away with large water changes with some Channa but some are fussy when doing large water changes at least thats what i have found , esp. reds
in fact as Ron found out a few weeks back when he had problems after a large change ,i also have a bit of a sad update .
i now know exactly what Ron was referring too when he posted a couple of weeks back , now i have been keeping reds on and off for years and apart from the one that got eaten ,the two i had left where the 1st ones i have lost ,
i always trickle my new water into the tank from the cold tap via two 5micron filters and two carbon blocks at a rate that doesn't lower the temp too much , i always do 25% -30% twice a week on my tank with reds in , this time i had found some uneaten prawns under the heater trapped and the water started to smell a bit ,so decided to do a 60% change as the tank was nearly full both reds within a couple a secs of each other went into a seizure type state they where both paralyzed and started to sink (gills wide open giving the appearance of there heads been doubled in size ) ,after approx 15-20 of holding them in the flow but supporting there heads slightly out out the water they started to come round , unfortunately though they did not fully recover and could not swim correctly ,after 1 hour of trying to save them , they finally passed , so i have no longer got my reds , and the only thing common to mine and Ron's experience is the extra large water changes that we carried out , so you may get away with it ,once twice even fifty times , but please all be aware that this is a possibility . iam pretty peed off at the moment as i hate seeing any Channa losses esp. when it was directly my own fault.
anyway that is the latest on my reds , i dont think i will be getting any more at the moment as i will use the extra space for more dwarfs to try and breed
cheers col
