What went wrong :(

[Dreamer]

A week ago I bought 8 baby Peppermint Bristlenose, I put them in an inside tank with no other fish & a filter, airpump ect and have been feeding them on algae waffers & zuchini. They also have a lage driftwood & anubia in the tank. I am very careful to remove uneated food to pervent fouling the tank. I did everything all the articles tell you to do and have never had a problem raising Bristlenose before.

But despite all this they have all died :alright: I am thinking they must have had a problem when I got them as it happened so soon after I got them & am going to ring the breeder to see what he thinks but was wondering what everyone else thinks? Did I do something wrong? Do you have any tips to keeping Pepermint Bristlenose? (have never had a problem with this way before but...)

[Chuckie]

was the tank already cycled, eg was the filter one you had seeded in another tank? If you have an ammonia kit, did you check ammonia levels?

[Dreamer]

Hi,

Yes the filter was cycled. I don't have an amonia kit but as I was doing partiall water changes to remove uneaten food & it has only been a week I wouldn't think it would be a problem. I had a look at the fish and they look like they have a diesease, either white spot or velvet (not very good at telling them appart).

I actually have one baby left & he looks like he has the same thing.

I rang the breeder & he said I had the temp too low for babies (it is 24C) & it needs to be 30C, this sounds really high to me, What do you think? I have put some medication with the last baby & have turned the temp up...just hope I can save him, I felt like crying when I lost the others :(

[Stuart Elflett]

If your breeder had them at 30C, and you put them into 24C, even with acclimatisation it's still a jump from what they're used to - that would stress them, leaving them open to white spot (tiny little dots, like grains of salt dotting the fish) and velvet (more like a fine coating of dust all over an area, possibly the whole fish) (when you've seen both, you can see one starts off as very clear spots, which multiply, the other is like the whole fish has been dipped in something powdery...)

I know plenty of places, breeders and stores, that have their tanks up on that kind of heat - also, 30C is a good temp for deterring things like white spot, etc - I wouldn't keep my tanks that high, I tend to run between 24c to 26c, but 30c's not too high for bn, especially young fish that are used to it (it helps their metabolisms too, so they grow up faster...)

[Dreamer]

Thanks for explaining that. Wish I had thought to ask the breeder what temp he kept them at. Until these I had only had normal bristlenose that thrived in my community tank with a 24C temp so I didn't even think to ask. It sounds more like white spot...which is why I missed it as until I looked closely I thought it was just their normal white spots. Now I know next time I buy fish to ask the breeder/shop what temp they keep them at.

[Anasfire]

I have 4 peppermints in my fry tank which is set at 32deg due to the fact that the fry had white spot and they are thriving in there. I'm not sure exactly what they are eating because whenever I put algae pellets in there they don't touch them and the tank gets cleaned out too often for there to be any decent algae. I also have 3 pleco's (2 common and 1 BN) in my community tank which is set to 28deg and they also love it. I often find them upside down sucking on the leaves of the floating elodea I have in there, they love their algae pellets though and strangely enough so do the guppy's I have growing out in it..it always ends up in a fight over the algae pellets and the guppy's win by swimming off to the surface with it

[Callatya]

What filter are you running? If you are adding dye-based medication and you are running a filter that has a high level of detritus in it (so, UGF or a manky HOB or something) you'll be running out of medication faster than what it says on the packet too. The organic matter absorbs it, making it less effective. Ordinarily not a huge problem, but if you increase the temperature and the medication isn't active at the point in the parasite life cycle where it is effective, you could hit problems.

Just watch how quickly the colour tinge leaves the water. Don't overdose, but just keep an eye on it. You may need to run the course longer than suggested.

[Dreamer]

Despite turning up the heat & treating him I lost the last baby yesterday Will have to save up for awhile before I can afford any more as I completely blew my budget on getting these but at lest now I know to make sure I ask the breeder/shop that I buy them from what temp they keep their fish at and won't be making that mistake again.

By the way the filter in this tank was an Atman but I removed it before adding the medication for the reasons you mentioned.

[DukeOfYabon]

Sorry to hear that Hope you have better luck next round of fish.

I would invest in a freshwater master test kit and test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates to rule out any cycling issues. API makes a great test kit.

[skeletalgirl]

I have a pep BN in my tank and he survived a 30 temp for white spot, and he was only a little guy. Sounds like parasites from the water- either from town or from the pet store- thats how i got a dose.