grieving for lost yellow black eyed ancistrus

gibbylover2 · Post by **gibbylover2** » 04 Apr 2005, 00:24

hi
don't know why but my female yellow black eyed bn died couple days ago. she had been noticeably paler for a while, and hiding at the back a lot, hadn't seen her eating much, and had not been too active. water parameters all good, other bristlenoses healthy, lots of vegies and driftwood.

any ideas?

t

gibbylover2 · Post by **gibbylover2** » 07 Apr 2005, 02:15

hello? anyone there? would appreciate some ideas, hate not knowing why a special fish dies.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 07 Apr 2005, 11:42

I think the reason for lack of reply is that there's little to go by on this one.

Common causes of death of bloated belly (too much protein in the food can cause this), and of course externally visible deceases like Ich and Velvet-skin. But none of those seem to be the cause of death on your fish, so it's hard to say.

If you've only recently got the fish, and it was wild-caught, it's possible that it's had internal parasites, but it's also quite possible that it's nothing of the kind.

We can speculate, but it's hard to come up with an answer without either external signs (lighter colour is surely just a sign of poor health, a bit like fever or pale skin on humans, and not a particularly useful clue to the source of death. Likewise for hiding).

I think we all have cases of death in our tanks at some point or another when there is no apparent reason for it, other than the fish itself looking poorly for some period before it goes belly up...

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Mats

gibbylover2 · Post by **gibbylover2** » 07 Apr 2005, 15:08

thanks mats. maybe i do feed too much protein - i have to feed shrimp pelllets to my clown loaches, although i try to feed my brislenoses spirulena tablets and vegies, maybe they do eat too much shrimp. unfortunately they do like it.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 07 Apr 2005, 15:32

I'm more than familiar with that type of problem. If you have more than one type of food, it's hard to keep it to the fish that actually should eat it...

By the way, I'm far from certain that this is actually what caused your fish to die. I'm just aware that this is a POSSIBLE cause of death to these type of fish.

By the way, many of the pellets contain quite a high proportion of protein, including the Hikari algae wafers (34% protein, according to the package). I tend to make sure there is some vegetable in the water most of the time. At least then the bristlenoses aren't desperately starving when I add other foods...

But they will still try to eat just about anything I put in the tank...

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Mats

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 07 Apr 2005, 22:17

I don't know why your BN died, as I've never had the privledge of owning one. I'm very sorry for your loss.

Was this a fish you bred or one you purchased? If it was one you purchased, how old would you estimate it was on the date of purchase?

I keep a food diary of what I put in the tank because I'm forgetful. It helps me a lot. It probably helps the fish, too.