Indian Biotope

[Shovelnose]

The 2021 collection season in India bought out many native species I hadn't seen or kept in a very long time. I decided to setup a tank for these dainty fish.

Erethistoides infuscatus

. A couple of E.sicula came as bycatches as well.







Dario dario







Pethia canius





A few Pethia aurea that were bycatches.

Erethistes jerdoni

Blurry image of an

Erethistes horai

(bycatch with E.pussilus) gorging on tubifex. First time keeping E.pussilus in a planted setup and they're unreasonably hard to sight.



A couple of

Rama

that were contaminants with the barbs posted above.







Psilorynchus sucatio, the best reason to never clean algae in a tank. Absolute busybodies that spend all day feeding on algae and actually clear it up. Highly recommended for anyone who's more successful in growing algae than aquatic plants like myself.

The tank is a 20 gallon one filtered by two large sponge filters and a canister filter; a CPU fan is on 24*7 to help reduce water temperature.

[Dave Rinaldo]

Pics/videos not viewable. @Shovelnose @bekateen

[Shovelnose]

I'm not sure what went wrong, I did what I usually do which is right click, copy image URL and then link it in the post. Maybe it's a Google photos issue? I'll check out if there are settings that need to be changed at my end.

[Shovelnose]

@Dave Rinaldo, I did fiddle with the settings, please let me know if the images are visible now.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I couldn't see the visuals either but now I can. Great stuff. Thank you Balaji.

[Shane]

Looks awesome. Have not seen many of those fishes in the US for many years.
-Shane

[Shovelnose]

Thanks guys.

Erethistes pussilus

. Had to pluck it out of the tank to get a half decent picture.





Neoeucirrhichthys maydelli, an obscure cobitid loach from north east India.



Lepidocephalichthys annandalei, bycatches with N.maydelli.


Erethistoides infuscatus.


Psilorynchus sucatio at work.

[bekateen]

Heart emoji

[Shovelnose]

A few more pics.



Neoeucirrhichthys maydelli



Lepidocephalichthys annandalei




Lepidocephalichthys annandalei and

Erethistoides infuscatus

Psilorynchus sucatio

[Shovelnose]

Lost quite a few fish late last year due to a terrible fungal infection from unquarantined wild caught fish. Deaths included gravid Erethistes, gravid Dario and all the cobitids and Psilorynchus. A mix of Praziquantel, malachite green and Metro could have helped but I avoid using strong medication in tanks with smaller catfish as they tend to react badly to these medications. Pimafix is about as strong as I go with these fish.

The survivors are doing well but the I am pretty sure the pathogen is still in the tank as any new fish introduced (after quarantine) gets the infection in a few days. This is a very weird situation that can possibly be solved only by nuking the tank, but I've decided to let it be as the remaining fish are doing well. I ensure any equipment (cleaner sponge, feeding nets etc) used for this tank are kept exclusive. There are numerous Erethistes still in the tank but it's completely overgrown with plants and moss and these fish are visible only when feed is dropped in.


Fish in the video:

Pethia canius
Aplocheilus lineatus
Rama chandramara

Ps: That annoying background noise is an old CPU fan that helps keep the tank temperature down and my BP up.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Sorry to hear, Balaji. BP is more important than tank temp. Obviously Fungus responds well to formalin + a touch of Malachite Green, from my knowledge. Also copper. Not sure why you named Prazi and Metro.

Melafix and pimafix appear to be only good for speeding up the healing of skin cuts and abrasions. And in a mysterious way. AFAIK the lab evidence showed no bactericidal activity vs reference.

[Shovelnose]

Hey Viktor,

Right you are, but I have personally observed that smaller catfish like Erethistes , Pseudolaguvia etc typically die (even healthy ones unaffected by the disease in the tank) when treated with 'harsh' medication. I realise Pimafix and Melafix practically border on placebo territory but these are the safest for me presently.

I faced a similar issue with wild caught Dawkinsia that I was babysitting for a friend sometime last year. These fish came in with something similar and the Praziquantel + malachite green + Metro combination was recommended to me by a friend who has faced the same issue in the past (handles thousands of wild caught native fish as a trader). Almost all the wild caught native fish we get invariably land up with internal parasites and Prazi and Metro are presumably to tackle this.

Ps : I have seen Melafix work very very well in one case a few years back when it was used on a Channa barca recovering from a particularly nasty Achyla infection.