I have a pair of yellow Kuda's and housed them in a 6 gal tank drilled to my sump (already attached to another system). They've been fine for a month, eating several SW grass shrimp per day (at times loaded with cyclopeeze, etc). Their only tankmates are two tiny hermits (red and blue legged), a nassarius snail, and a small mandarin goby.
My problem is that the male has become extremely lethargic, mainly hanging out in one corner of the tank and only moving occasionally. He responds to new grass shrimp dropped into the tank, and nips at them if they're nearby - but no longer chases them. He hasn't eaten in 4-5 days, but the female comes by and eats all of the shrimp I put in every day. He appears emaciated (obviously due to the lack of eating), and his face and tail remain a dark color during the day - when both horses usually turn yellow.
Ammonia (.25-.5)
Nitrates (0)
Nitrites (0)
pH (8.1)
Salinity (1.024)
Temp (78.5)
Ammonia has always been 0, but recently due to the fact that I have been feeding these two a lot, it has increased somewhat. I've been doing 10% water changes biweekly for 2 weeks now hoping to 'clean up' the water. I added pH buffer to increase it to 8.3-8.4 this morning. The temp is a little higher than usual because I had a clown goby die of Ich. recently and wanted to speed up the life cycle of the parasite and have my UV sterilizer kill the tomates.
The male hasn't been scratching, so I don't believe it is an external parasitic problem. He's not bloated, and there are no apparent bubbles in him or on him. I haven't noticed "white stringy poop" because he hasn't eaten, so I don't think it is an internal parasite. He doesn't have white nodes sprinkled all over his body, as the goby did, so maybe not Ich. And there is no rotting or flesh sloughing, so I don't think there is a bacterial infection.
The only thing I notice is that there are very small white flecs over his mid-section, but I can't really say that they aren't part of his coloration (I noticed he had black white and red 'freckles' all over him from when I got him, and they weren't node-like and never bothered him before). If it is Ich., wouldn't these grow into white clumps/nodes large enough to notice? I'm a microbiology major, and learned a lot about vibrio spp recently, and other marine bacteria. But I don't know how to diagnose for a vibrio infection. I've also read a lot of posts talking about how Neo3 may help with that sort of problem. Could this be something I need to worry about?
Lastly, I had a scarlet hermit and an emerald crab die over the past week in my main tank. I have 5 other hermits still alive and crawling around, a serpeant star, a cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, and plenty of different types of snails still alive. I also have a green bubble tip anemone and a firefish that seem healthy. These are all in my main tank. So there are plenty of vert's and invert's healthy and eating.
Sorry for the long post, but I've been reading everything possible over the past 5 days, and asking a hundred questions at both of my LFSs, and have not found anything particularly helpful. I was told to add garlic to some grass shrimp and hope he will eat them, but to avoid any dips for now. The other LFS said that if my water quality is fine and the horse's diet is fine, I have nothing to worry about - otherwise if he's dieing, then he is probably going to die. But I've not given up hope.
Please help.
My problem is that the male has become extremely lethargic, mainly hanging out in one corner of the tank and only moving occasionally. He responds to new grass shrimp dropped into the tank, and nips at them if they're nearby - but no longer chases them. He hasn't eaten in 4-5 days, but the female comes by and eats all of the shrimp I put in every day. He appears emaciated (obviously due to the lack of eating), and his face and tail remain a dark color during the day - when both horses usually turn yellow.
Ammonia (.25-.5)
Nitrates (0)
Nitrites (0)
pH (8.1)
Salinity (1.024)
Temp (78.5)
Ammonia has always been 0, but recently due to the fact that I have been feeding these two a lot, it has increased somewhat. I've been doing 10% water changes biweekly for 2 weeks now hoping to 'clean up' the water. I added pH buffer to increase it to 8.3-8.4 this morning. The temp is a little higher than usual because I had a clown goby die of Ich. recently and wanted to speed up the life cycle of the parasite and have my UV sterilizer kill the tomates.
The male hasn't been scratching, so I don't believe it is an external parasitic problem. He's not bloated, and there are no apparent bubbles in him or on him. I haven't noticed "white stringy poop" because he hasn't eaten, so I don't think it is an internal parasite. He doesn't have white nodes sprinkled all over his body, as the goby did, so maybe not Ich. And there is no rotting or flesh sloughing, so I don't think there is a bacterial infection.
The only thing I notice is that there are very small white flecs over his mid-section, but I can't really say that they aren't part of his coloration (I noticed he had black white and red 'freckles' all over him from when I got him, and they weren't node-like and never bothered him before). If it is Ich., wouldn't these grow into white clumps/nodes large enough to notice? I'm a microbiology major, and learned a lot about vibrio spp recently, and other marine bacteria. But I don't know how to diagnose for a vibrio infection. I've also read a lot of posts talking about how Neo3 may help with that sort of problem. Could this be something I need to worry about?
Lastly, I had a scarlet hermit and an emerald crab die over the past week in my main tank. I have 5 other hermits still alive and crawling around, a serpeant star, a cleaner shrimp, a peppermint shrimp, and plenty of different types of snails still alive. I also have a green bubble tip anemone and a firefish that seem healthy. These are all in my main tank. So there are plenty of vert's and invert's healthy and eating.
Sorry for the long post, but I've been reading everything possible over the past 5 days, and asking a hundred questions at both of my LFSs, and have not found anything particularly helpful. I was told to add garlic to some grass shrimp and hope he will eat them, but to avoid any dips for now. The other LFS said that if my water quality is fine and the horse's diet is fine, I have nothing to worry about - otherwise if he's dieing, then he is probably going to die. But I've not given up hope.
Please help.
