I'm sorry this is so long, but I'm not sure what's relevant, so please bear with me.
I'm moving out of state in a few weeks, and shuffling fish around as I sell off tanks in preparation for the big haul. As part of that, I combined two 30g tanks into one 55g. One 30g had my 6 L204 plecos, the other had 3 otos and about 18 endlers. (I know that 3 otos is suboptimal. I started with 6, then lost 3 a while back in an incident with a moss wall (which was promptly removed), and just hadn't managed to get more yet.)
Tuesday night, I moved the fish over individually (otos last) and watched closely for signs of distress or aggression. Everything and everyone seemed fine.
Wednesday and Thursday I fed and did water changes. Everything and everyone still seemed fine. All fish active and eating.
Friday I didn't do anything, but everything and everyone still seemed fine. All fish active and behaving normally.
Saturday mid-day, I found an oto dead on the filter. No other fish seemed distressed.
Saturday night I found another oto dead on the bottom. No other fish seemed distressed... except the last remaining oto. It was breathing very fast and seemed perhaps bloated. I set up my QT tank (with plenty of plants for cover) and moved the distressed oto over.
Today, the oto seems a bit better. All other fish (endlers and plecos) in the 55g still seem perfectly fine.
At no point did I test the water parameters. (I'm a bad fish keeper, I know. Just trying to save everyone's time since I'm sure the first question will be "what are your water parameters?")
My questions:
1 - Any idea what happened?
2 - If the oto pulls through, what should I do? Put it back in the 55g? Get more otos? Try to rehome? (Again, I'm moving out of state ~July 18, so that really complicates things!)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, AC!
I'm moving out of state in a few weeks, and shuffling fish around as I sell off tanks in preparation for the big haul. As part of that, I combined two 30g tanks into one 55g. One 30g had my 6 L204 plecos, the other had 3 otos and about 18 endlers. (I know that 3 otos is suboptimal. I started with 6, then lost 3 a while back in an incident with a moss wall (which was promptly removed), and just hadn't managed to get more yet.)
Tuesday night, I moved the fish over individually (otos last) and watched closely for signs of distress or aggression. Everything and everyone seemed fine.
Wednesday and Thursday I fed and did water changes. Everything and everyone still seemed fine. All fish active and eating.
Friday I didn't do anything, but everything and everyone still seemed fine. All fish active and behaving normally.
Saturday mid-day, I found an oto dead on the filter. No other fish seemed distressed.
Saturday night I found another oto dead on the bottom. No other fish seemed distressed... except the last remaining oto. It was breathing very fast and seemed perhaps bloated. I set up my QT tank (with plenty of plants for cover) and moved the distressed oto over.
Today, the oto seems a bit better. All other fish (endlers and plecos) in the 55g still seem perfectly fine.
At no point did I test the water parameters. (I'm a bad fish keeper, I know. Just trying to save everyone's time since I'm sure the first question will be "what are your water parameters?")
My questions:
1 - Any idea what happened?
2 - If the oto pulls through, what should I do? Put it back in the 55g? Get more otos? Try to rehome? (Again, I'm moving out of state ~July 18, so that really complicates things!)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, AC!