PlanetCatfish.com

Hi im wondering if anyone can help diagnose what killed my zebra as im worried about the others i have in the tank. I'm sorry i dont have any pics of him but there were no obvious markings or sunken stomach on the body.

I noticed 2 days before he died that he was acting strange he would not hide as my zebra's normally do he was out in full view and did not swim away when i approached the tank, he was also continuously waving his tail. When I seen this i tested the water which is fine temp:82 nitrate/nitrite/ammonia is 0, ph is 6 (i know this is low but my fish have been acclimitised to this for about 1 year), I then done a 30% water change in hope this would help but unfortunately not.

Any advise/help would be appreciated

thanks

How old was this zebra? How long did you have it? When was the last time you added new fish to the tank?

Hi, i have had the fish for about 6 months and i havent added anything for about 4 months, as for its age im not sure but it was around 2 inch which is medium in size so that makes me think it was still fairly young.

Hmmm, he did sound young and with no new additions to the tank eliminates the idea that something (illness or protozoan) was recently introduced. Your water parameters are good too. I don't know, itâ??s a mystery to me too. Has any others exhibited symptoms?

Iâ??m sorry for your loss. It may be an isolated case and he may have had something wrong internally. Perhaps someone else from the forum could be more help.

Take care,
k

Seeing as only one plec was acting strange, I doubt this is it, but has your temp always been 82?
I've never kept zebras but my other plecs get a little irritable with the temp creeps over 80 and refuse to hide as normal.

Zebra's tend to like the higher temps ranging from 80-86 so i dont think its the temp, this one has me stumped i have no idea what the prob could be.

What would a sunken stomach normally be an indication of, this happened to my friend's zebra which was just under 1" in lenght.

I'd be interested in hearing what you were feeding the young L46 that died. Many hear the word "Carnivore" and feed too much meat to the young.
L46 need a balanced diet, including (spirulina) AS THEY MATURE. It is not until they obtain spawning age that they can safely be switched to a near 100% meat diet for "conditioning".

Also, a sunken belly can be the sign of many things that ENDED in starvation. Starvation itself is a rare event.

That is my opinion.
I am often wrong.
Kevin Korotev
Milwaukee

A sunken stomach may also be indication of parasites that may have come in with the fish. Though if the others in the tank are fine I'm not sure this would be the case, stranger things have happend though.