RTC wont eat

[tbone87]

Hey guys,

Recently my 4-5 inch RTC stopped eating altogether. I have always hand fed him, be it bloodworms or prawns or fish fillet. He always gobbled everything down.

Now he just wont eat anything.

He doesnt even show any sign of sickness, he patrols around the tank, moves decorations still.

Only help i can give is that he recently started turning grey.

He used to be black with 2 white stripes running down the whole body length, but now towards his tail the black is fading to gray.

Anyone can help please?

[MatsP]

What is your nitrate level in the tank? Ammonia, Nitrite? pH? Temperature?

--
Mats

[tbone87]

Ammonia is a constant 0.

Nitrite and nitrite are close to 0, 0.3 at max, but I do frequent water changes to make up for it.

Im considering removing the gravel substrate and just putting in a few larger rocks/pebbles, I suspect im not vacuuming the substrate enough or properly. And I will be getting an overhead filter, so I can stuff more filter material in as compared to the current HOB.

All these will be done first thing tmr when the shop opens.

Otherwise I dont know what to do...

[MatsP]

Nitrate is zero? I highly doubt it...

--
Mats

[tbone87]

my bad, ammonia and nitrite are 0 mostly, 0.3 at max.

nitrates are 25 - 50, fluctuates so i cant give a proper answer, though on my test kit it says acceptable for freshwater species.

I just added in Danios General Aid, with aquarium salt, all at slightly half the recommended dosage level.

I take it that since my RTC is still:

- active in day and night
- still thinks he is a furniture mover
- still comes out of his tunnel or hiding spots to look at me when i come home
- swims fine, though sometimes he does weird things like swim sideways into his tunnel and out

All the above indicate to me that he is still ok.

Oh and funny thing, I strongly suspect he is eating the snails in the tank. I go to sleep and there are many small snails on the glass, when i wake up they are all gone. Never happened before. I used to have to manually remove them because my family thinks they bother him -____-"

[MatsP]

As these fish start growing bigger and eating bigger meals at each time, they will stop eating every day, as well.

25-50 ppm nitrate is quite high. It is safe for most tropical fish, but big cats tend to live in the main channel of the rivers, and rarely get exposed to nitrate above 0 ppm - this is extremely hard to maintain in a tank. Nitrate is also a natural suppressant of feeding in mot fish.

And remember, it's easier to kill a fish by feeding it than by starving it to death!

--
Mats

[tbone87]

Yeah, I guess keeping on top of the water changes would be key.

Would removing the substrate help in reducing the nitrate level?

[MatsP]

The substrate is not a source of nitrate [1], the nitrate is almost all coming from the food you add to the tank, as a result of breakdown of protein - a small percentage comes from the fish breaking down it's own body over time. So removing the substrate will not affect the nitrate levels unless there is bits of food rotting in the substrate.


[1] Aside from the fact that it adds to the filter media as a substrate for the "good bacteria".

--
Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

It's a late input but:

I am an infamous RTC killer, despite loving them to pieces. From my vast sad experience and post-mortum examinations of RTCs tummy content, it is a BAD idea to have anything inanimate swallowable in the tank with an RTC. Mine died from swallowing plastic plants, pieces of plastic bags (like a grocery bag; I used them to tuck the voids in my pond divider - eventually they pulled some out and ripped out pieces and swallowed), bits of plastic zip ties (! very hard plastic to tear a piece of).

Many had lots of substrate gravel in their tummies. Now this one is ambiguous, because usually fish pass small amounts of small gravel fine thru their system just fine. The ones that swallowed the impassible plastic perhaps instinctively were trying to push it through by eating gravel.

When they don't eat long and are stressed they turn lighter and lighter color.

This all was happening in tanks and ponds with a large and very diverse population of cats. None other ever done this in my experience, no TSNs, Leiarius, no other small and large pims. Only RTCs. Guess, their beauty is only matched by their stupidity (and that of their owner).

Your nitrates are indeed too high - you are either overfeeding, overstocked, or under-water-changed.

[vieja80]

Hi,

Have to second everything said , you need those nitrates down to 10 or less. Is the fish shedding its slime coat ?

If you work out what the hardness and pH of your tap water is you could start using ro water made up to the correct pH hardness with buffers to start with as pure water as possible as there is a fair amount of nitrate in tap water(in uk)

Look into nitrate filters or using a good qaulity nitrate remover resin.

keep up with the water change schedule and lower the feeding to every other day until you get the nitrates under control.

[coelacanth]

And I will be getting an overhead filter, so I can stuff more filter material in as compared to the current HOB

By "HOB" do you mean Hang-On-Back? If so I'd say you need to upgrade this as soon as possible, I've yet to see a hang-on style filter that holds enough media/generates enough turnover to deal with the likes of even a small RTC.

[MatsP]

And I would say that a fish not eating a year ago is probably either dead or the owner has found a way to make it life more tolerable for the fish.

--
Mats