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A friend of mine who is definitly no novice fishkeeper in PA has sucessfully bred synodontus multipunctatus and various other fish for years... I'm not sure how old his multies are now.. and that may be an issue in this.. BUT He has tested his water and all the params are perfect.. hes even called local breeders in his area to see what they suggest on this issue. but nothing has helped that he has tried.. His multies spawn fine...when the baby multies hatch everything seems ok... but here the last 6 months after about 2 weeks the babies spines start curving and eventually the fry all curve totally tail to head and die... what on earth can be causing such a thing? He's tried giving them a break for a month then letting them start breeding again even changing out the females for new ones.. I thinks he's been changing his foods to see if that helpd.. even increased his water changes thinking it was a water issue.. the poor guy is beside himself.. what could it be?

This is obviously a case of poisoning of the neural networks (brain and spine). Any consequent bacterial infection will show itself up as a necrotis(z -U.S.)ing blackness of the gills.

I saw the same thing in some some undescribed Aspidoraras species (which look very similar to Corydoras, a few years back.

It is too late to save them now, but the value of using a prophylactic heavy metal-removal water treatment, cannot be over-estimated. I'm not trying to be smart - I've held my own head in my hands a few times, because of this (get the picture?). I would save you any further pain, if I could.

Having said all of that, I hope that I am wrong, and that this is just an unfortunate glitch in both proceedings and nature.




Nick

I have to agree with this guy heavy metals or maybe pestasides.

Pesticides. Yes that's smart thinking JD. They could have built up to a lethal level over a period of time in the local water supply. This sometimes (but very rarely) happens after heavy rainfall on fields close to the water processing plant's input source .

Another unfortunate consequence is that these 'poisons, (if they are indeed to blame), may have also accumulated within the reproductive organs of the parents.......

The only way to be sure is to have the tank/tapwater tested. Note: this is expensive. Either that, or start again using reverse osmosis water and a good Tang salt mix.

If the fish come into contact with high concentrations of pesticides accidentally, they normally will die overnight.
By 'high' I mean a single waft of spray from outdoors via an open window (into an uncovered tank) or residue from your own hands .




Nick

The reason I said pestadides is she live in the midwest and I've read that people there offen have that problem especialy with well water.

Your point is still a 'good' one. The effects of organo-phosphates (more recently), and to give it it's short name: D.D.T.(from the 60's, and their long term effects are still relatively unknown. What is known, is that once these chemicals are inside a living creature, they tend to 'hang around'.

To try to put some sense into this: if most of us worried about possible fish diseases, we would be almost 'frightened to death' to keep fish at all.

Clearly, we are not. To quote a cliche: where there is life, there is hope. Given enough time (and regeneration or reproduction), it is possible for almost any creature to adapt to any problem (within reason).

If it is possible for S.multipuntatus to breed in the absense of a host(of which I am reliably informed is possible), then they have clearly taken one step forward already!

If your suspicions of well-water are correct, then indeed, R.O./Tang salt mix, may indeed may be the only sensible way forward .

Let nothing prevent us from enjoying our hobby.




Nick