k heres the deal .have you ever heard of festae getting bloat? i just had 20 babie festae die on me. had them from about 1/4 inch and kept for 2 months. feeding them brine shrimp in the morning and blood worms in the evening. no probs. came home 1 day 1/2 dead, others on top surface not gasping just sitting there with dorsals out of water. nitrates all normal. temp 81 degrees ph 8.0 have 2 ac 110s and a fluval xp3 on a 100 gal acrylic. powerhead with bubbler hooked up. cant seem to figure it out. no signs of disease whatso ever only 1 slight thing was the fish seemed to every once in a while spaz out. like kinda have seizures when swimming. any ideas? i have 31 tanks total and have raised every kind of cichlid. first time raising rt from fy tho. sorry for the long drawn out thing. just dont want another tragedy like this to happen. just in case i think im sticking with spirulina until over 1 inch. i know any fish at such a young age might not have the digestion to handle that much bloodworm or brine but they were doing so well and growing like crazy. maybe it was something else? black nasty is for sure 1 that needs spirulina only for a long while before grubbing real goodies. ok all help appretiated =)
rt festae help
- Thread starter surfpalmsncycads
- Start date
I had 11 fry, now I have 8 don't know what happened to the others, never saw a body even...all I have in there is the festae fry a sailfin pleco and clown pleco and 2 Julie Cory's and all 4 of them are 2" or less. I feed them flake and every now and then blood worms
It's terrible that you lost so many Festae! I'm sorry, man. Did any survive? I grew out my Festae fry on a varied diet of crushed pellets, flakes, blood worms, brine shrimp, minced market shrimp,and diced earthworms. The majority of their diet was pellets and flakes. You may need to feed them mainly good pellets and flakes. I won't say which kind because I don't want to get in that debate. I didn't lose any fry to diet or disease. The only deaths came from fighting.
yeah i ended up with 1 fry left since the casualties ive had it on strictly flakes. ill be ordering 1 more batch and try again. the tank looks funny! so much room for this 1 baby festae just cruising around. it must seem like an ocean for her. thanks for the support folks!
Just had the same thing happen with 7 festae fry. They just out of nowhere started sitting at the surface then died. The beanie fry i had in with them survived just fine it was really weird.
ok update: my festae fry as well are having this bloating problem. i found my largest one at the bottom gasping like for air...and his belly is bloated to the point where the bottom looks like he has stretch marks. i too am having the same problem...where did you get your festae fry from, Surfpalm? my water parameters are just fine, and i haven't done anything different at all? they have been thriving the last few months growing just fine, i feed them once daily..i dont understand anyone have a clue?
I had the same type thing happen but it was because of a new garden hose not properly cleaned with hot water but the fish did the same thing is this a normal way for fry to go. If it is bloat try some clout and don't feed them according to directions on container I also found it helped to keep the lights off on them hope this might help.
Bloat is not contagious - it is when gases build up in the stomach twisting it to the point where digestion is impossible, it blocks the food from leaving into the intestine. It is also more common in herbivores whose digestive tract can't handle high protien diets. Festae need high protien diets. If the bellies and anus are swollowen and the anus is red - I'd bet if you put it under a microscope you'd see little hair like round worms hanging out. I've raised too many Festae fry to count - 5 batches from egg to juvi/sub adult - thier diets have always contained high protiens - Brine, Hikari Micro Pellets, Hikari carnivore and crumbled up Masivore Delieght and never seen bloat.