strange boseman rainbow death....any ideas

[lousybreed]

I came home from a 6 day vacation and everything was fine in the aquarium on first check. I fed the fish and my largest male boseman was doing this weird shimmy. It looked like all he could move were his fins. His body had a slight curve to it, but the strange thing was he still had good color. He even ate a little. The next day he was still alive but more "frozen" and only flipped around on the bottom (burst of fin movement followed by slow assent to bottom). The curvature of his body was slightly worse. I came home from work and he was still alive but still in his sad state so I had to put him down. Also missing was a 2.5 inch albino briselmouth pleco. His tail was all that was left, the ghost shrimp had cleaned everything else. Here are the tank parameters: 78F, 30% wc 2 days before I left and there is nothing wrong with the other fish. The other fish include 16 cardinal tetras, 4 beckfordi (sp?) pencilfish, 5 remaining rainbows, and one otto and 10 ghost shrimp. I thought if water conditions were bad the shrimp would be the first to go, they are thriving however. The tank is 55 gallons with a 11 gallon sump/fuge. I am really puzzled by this. Before the vacation I gave them mostly frozen food to give them a little boost for the fast. Any suggestions?

 

[Roan Art]

The curve makes me think of neon tetra disease, which is possible as not only neons can get it.

78* is too warm for rainbowfish, anything above 77* can stress them and compromise their immune system. Recommended temp for them is 75*

I'd lower the temperature and keep an eye on the rest of the Boes and watch for any strange behavior. Isolate any that are not behaving as usual.

Roan

 

[lousybreed]

I have read that the boseman's like warmer temps then most other rainbows. I have heard most people keeping boseman's at 78...maybe I am wrong.

 

[Roan Art]

Checking and getting conflicting info

NG and Aussie bows have different requirements, didn't know that since I only have NG bows. Heh, learn something every day.

I'll keep checking and post what I find. btw, what's your pH at?

Roan

 

[Roan Art]

Wow, such a range of temperatures.

I just did a huge search in the rainbow mailing list archives and got varying answers. The two most comon seem to be 77-79* and 75-78*, but Rainbowfish.org says 75-78*. I HAD an email from someone that said temperatures higher than 77* are stressful. Course I can't FIND said email. Figures!

Definitely no higher than 79*

So your temperature is fine and I was wrong. I think I'll go with averages and change mine, slowly, to 77*. I think I'd rather err on the side of cooler.

As for your Boe, does any of this ring a bell (as to what could have caused the problem):

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=497523&postcount=8

Roan

 

[lousybreed]

Roan I did a little research myself. I went to the pet store where I bought them from. Actually it isnt a pet store it is more like a fish hatchery. They breed there own goyder river rainbows. I don't have bosemans but I always call my goyder river bows that, oops! Anyways they have been breeding them for years and they keep their tanks at 78-79. They do water changes like maniacs though. For about the last month I have been doing 50% WC's every week so this is good. They also feed them like crazy. Go to wetthumbaquatics.com and check them out. Best pet store ever.

Anyways I told them about my problem and they were very perplexed by the situation. They know I take good care of my tank and only offered one explaination: "did they have any fungus" I said no and then they said they once had several bows do the weird shimmy thing and die. They had no clue and told me to feed lots of different foods and keep up with the water changes. Thanks for all the help I appreciated it. I am getting addicted to rainbows (austrailian types) and want some bosemans. I would like to get a 125 or a 180 for them. Most likely I will make an outdoor pond for the goyder's this summer. It is reported that by late summer you can have 100's of babies if things go right. Maybe it could pay for the pond in a couple of years!!

 

[Kilat]

High temps OK

I kept the same 6 Boesman rainbows for more than 8 years with the temperature set at 82F with no problems. They loved it. Besides, they're really tough. They moved house cross-country a few times, got down to 55F when an ice storm knocked out power for 3 days, and got up to 90F in summer with no A/c. I had similar symptoms to your situation on one occasion, when doing a water change. It turned out that the rural water supply was treated with bleach, and they had just switched tanks so I got a rush of hyper-bleached water.

 

[lousybreed]

ph=7.5, I am going to test all parameters tonight.

 

[jhj]

I saw the same curvature on a B. Rainbow at a LFS, the tank also had a rampant ich problem. The LFS guy thought that the rainbow may have gotten stuck in the filter intake for a while.

 

[MrPpers]

I cant remeber were i read this but i seem to rember something about possibly TB or internal tumors can cause the fishes body to curve as the mass enlarges. If you lose him you may want to take him back to your breader guys and see if they would do an autopsy. Good luck hope he survives.