TSN Lost Its Barbels

[Shovelnose]

Was outta a town and came back last night and found the TSN barbels (maxillary and nasal I think) almost cut in half. I have been keeping him for close to 2 years and this has never happened. Fearing a drop in the water immediately did a water change. I will try getting a picture this evening in case it helps.

His appetite doesn seem reduced at all. Ate a lotta Gambusia yesterday and all the other fish seem unaffected. So Im guessing he was attacked . Now there are quite a lotta tankmates but Im narrowing it down to the S.Euptera.

My concern is will they grow back and should I resort to medication or will water changes suffice??? He gets a 60-70% WC every week. Truth be told, Im not very comfortable with medicating the tank.

I have always been fascinated by the way he sorta points his barbels at the food before attacking it, sorta using 'em like a sight. Im hoping they grow back real soon.

[Bas Pels]

Although I'm not certain for your TSN and so, many Pimiloids are quite sensitive towards water pollution - such as nitrates. this results in loss of the barbels

They do pollute a lot themselves, unfortunaletly, but can't have much.

The one time mine - Pimelodus cf blochi lost parts of its, the resulting weaterchanges were enough to let it grow them back. Obviously one waterchange does not do the trick, the water has te be kept clean

[crazx86]

Usually the barbels grow back over a period of 6 - 9 months. It would be nice if u could keep it alone jus to be sure he does not get attacked agn.

[Shovelnose]

Thanks for the replies man.

Water changes are always once a week come what may. But now, considering the situation, Im doing a 30-40% water change everyday. There is a Leiarius marmoratus in the same tank and he seems unaffected too. Thats why I suspect an attack.


Keeping it alone is quite a logistical nightmare cos I got a lotta other fish in my quarantie tanks and they re definitely not gonna get along with the TSN.

[crazx86]

Hi there agn,


Given the situiation. i would not recommend water on a daly basis. you should limit it to say 2days to 3days intervals. it would give the water more time to stabalize. Over doing the water change could result in the lost of the good bacteria which helps break down the ammonia in the tank. unless u rinse ur fliter media in the water that u drain out for your daily change!!

crazx

[MatsP]

Hi there agn,


Given the situiation. i would not recommend water on a daly basis. you should limit it to say 2days to 3days intervals. it would give the water more time to stabalize. Over doing the water change could result in the lost of the good bacteria which helps break down the ammonia in the tank. unless u rinse ur fliter media in the water that u drain out for your daily change!!

crazx

That would only be a problem if the water isn't treated with dechlorinator or some such. Otherwsie, I'd say 80% or 100% water changes a day is not a problem [to the fish - it may be to the person doing the work!]. One set of 4 tanks in my fish-room gets my RO waste-water. It's a 150gpd (600 liter per day) unit, but it produces about 3-400 liters of water a week. Which means about 1500-2000 liter of waste-water a week. So I replace about 400-500% of the water each week. That's about 70% per day.

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Mats

[crazx86]

Mats,

I totally agre with your concept of the water change. Thanks for letting mi learn something new. But i wanna share a bad exp i once suffered dearly from. i would recommend that the dechloranated water be left idle or running for at least two hours. due to my exp, i did not know when i first started fish keep that when u dechloronate the water, heavy metals are stll present until all the chemicals from the anti-chlorine gets to work. so i hope u guys do be careful when changing huge amounts of water. I lost one of my RTG aro cause of my mistake.


Crazx

[Bas Pels]

Reading this, I realize again how lucky we are with unchlorinated water from the tap

[MatsP]

Reading this, I realize again how lucky we are with unchlorinated water from the tap

You mean "not heavily chlorinated with chloramine". I think all (publicly supplied) water is chlorinated. There may be areas in Africa/Asia where a village well or some such is not chlorinated, but public water supply by the local authorities will be chlorinated everywhere. It may not have a HIGH level of chlorine...

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Mats

[Bas Pels]

No, Mats, not here.

I happen to have visited the plant, and they oxidize the iron, seave the resulting ironhydroxide from the water, and that is it

As far as I know, nowhere in the Netherlands chlorine is used to produce tap water - bacteria are controlled by other means, perhaps with ozone (doing basically the same - oxidizing stuff, but the rests are less harmfull) I'm not really certain

[MatsP]

That's great for you. I wish I had that here too. I bet you have soft water with low nitrate as well? ;)

@crazx86:
Heavy metals is unlikely to cause immediate death of a fish - unless there is so much heavy metals that it also causes severe problems with humans in very short time. It is more likely that the compound added to the water is chloramine, which is more toxic than chlorine. If so, you should ensure that the dechlorinator is suitable for chloramine removal as well. Some are (e.g. Stress Coat), but others aren't.

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Mats

[Shovelnose]

Thanks all.

Im going wit small water changes everyday. Dropped some shrimp in the tank and he did go after them like he normally used to. So Im sticking to my weird theory of an attack.

The water I use is almost old water. I leave it in a tank for a day before it is used. Plus, where I come from, getting chlorinated by itself is a festive occassion considering the current heat wave over here (42 C!!!!!!!).

[crazx86]

Mats,

i guess its because of the different areas we stay in. the water plants here in singapore have water plants where they actually recycle used water and make it safe again into drinking tap water. so imagine how much chemicals they would be using. definately some form of flouride for the clearing up of the water. maybe thats why i had a few bad exp with bad water conditions. i have to sit the water (treated with anti chlorine n all) aside for at least a night before i deem it "safe" to use. also i doubt many people can afford keping redtails n TSN as they need huge water changes. and belive me, the billing rates here are ridiculous.


Crazx

[MatsP]

Yes, I don't doubt that there's a lot of nasties in your water (with it being fairly warm, and crowded area of the world, so either lots of bacteria etc, or lots of antibacterial stuff). My point was purely that if you can kill fish in a matter of hours with HEAVY METALS, then it's definitely well beyond the World Health Organization levels - heavy metals are generally harmful because they build up in the body. That is a very slow process, and the results may be seen long after the harmful substance is no longer present in for example drinking water.

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Mats

[Shovelnose]

Just a little update. He s gettin on very well. I can a difference between then and now very clearly. Looks like he s gonna have them barbels back sooner than I thought.