I have been searching for a couple of C. sterbai to go with my 4 adult females and not having much luck. A friend of mine in North Dakota has them and agreed to provide me with a male. I drive there for a visit and prior to leaving he nets out a adult sterbai mail from his tank. The tank has very soft water, PH around 6.0. He uses water from the tank in the bag. The instant he put the fish in the bag it goes belly up. Not dead, simply belly up. He removes the fish and puts it back in the tank at which time it sinks to the bottom, rights itself and just lays there. He nets out another male thinking perhaps stress of something caused the other fish to react the way it did. He put the second fish in the bag with exactly the same result although in a few moments it rights itself, but them goes belly up again. He says he has seen this before and believes it is stress and that the fish will likely be fine. I take the fish and put it in a cooler with the bag laying flat. I drive home (3 hours) and when I arrive I remove the cooler lid. The fish is swimming upright in the bag and appears to be having no difficulty. The instant I pick up the bag the fish goes belly up. It never recovered. I got it into the house and into a tank where the water was prepared to match that which it came from however it simply laid on its back for about 40 minutes and finall died. Strangest thing I have ever seen.
Rick
