R
rymeyer
Guest
For the last few months, I've been having very poor luck with my yellow/gold dwarf cockatoos. Here is the progression of symptoms. First, I notice that the fish will start looking more drab - grayish peach instead of lemon colored. Next the fish will start to look skinny, and he'll look like he's suffering from hemorrhoids. The area around the anus will turn pinkish and start to protrude. Their feces also become long and strand like, though I'm not sure if that's part of the symptoms. Next, the fish will start hiding, and soon after that, it will die. Best case scenario, the whole process takes no more than two weeks.
Most of this has occurred in a very well planted 10 gallon tank started last November, generally stocked with two zebra otos (never had any problem) and a male and female cockatoo. The tank is over-filtered with a Penguin biowheel meant for a larger tank, has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. I've never seen any spikes for any of these values which I chalk up to silent cycling due to the high plant to fish ratio. GH is about 2, and the pH from my tap is about 7.2. I realize that cockatoos like soft, slightly acidic water best, but I've heard that they'll tolerate a wider range of pH. I do weekly ~25% water changes. For the past couple months (only after I started having problems with the cockatoos) I also add some Kent plant fertilizer weekly, some Seachem Fluorish Excel every now and then, and a couple times lately I added some algae destroyer. When the last fish that died started to show symptoms, I also treated the tank with a Parasite Clear fizzing tablet (active ingredient is praziquantel), waited three days, did a large water change, and treated the water with a second tablet. I used this tablet because I thought the fish might have worms, and I didn't think my fish would go for the edible kinds of medicine.
I feed the cockatoos once a day, almost always frozen blood worms and occasionally frozen brine shrimp. The otos get all the algae they can scavenge as well as some prepared collard greens. Wasted food hasn't been much of a problem.
When I originally started with cockatoos, I began with a male and a female of the wild-type body color in a 29 gallon community tank with peaceful fish. After they spawned unexpectedly, I decided to house them by themselves in the 10 gallon to make sure I could save some fry the next time around. After setting up the tank and letting it go for a while with plants, Stability, and some water and plants from an established tank, I put them in. They were fine, and I introduce a second female a couple weeks later. We left the tank alone for a few days during Thanksgiving, and when we returned we found that the male was dead and was basically a big colorful ball of fungus. Before we left he was doing fine and acting normal, although I thought his colors were a little duller than usual.
A couple weeks later, we introduced a new male, this time a yellow/gold. I had to transfer one of the females back to the 29 gallon tank because the other two were picking on her. I thought that the other female might have spawned because she was guarding her little cave and behaving aggressively. Not long after, the one with the cave in the 10 gallon died, I thought maybe due to stress or an injury that she got while picking on the other. I noticed that she had sort of an inflamed anal area which I thought might either be due to injury or having just lain eggs. Unfortunately, no eggs.
Next, we purchased two more yellow/gold females. I put one in the 10 gallon tank with the male and one in the 29 gallon community tank that was also housing the other female.
The two females in the 29 gallon tank chased each other around quite a bit, and within a day the oldest one (not the new yellow/gold) was beaten up looking, flailing around, and dying. She also had a reddened anal area, but that time I figured it was due to fighting. At that time I figured that I just couldn't reliably house cockatoos of the same gender, male or female, in the same tank, even a 29 gallon community tank.
After that, everything was fine for about a month or more, and then I noticed the last male looking a little grayish. Pretty soon he was skinny and had the hemorrhoids look. For several days before he died, he would hide high up at the top of one of the caves or under a log. Now it looks like the last yellow/gold female in the 10 gallon tank is beginning to have a swollen anal area. The other yellow/gold female that I've kept separately is doing fine for now, but who knows for how long.
Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with my cockatoos and what I can do to prevent this from happening? None of the other fish, either the otos in the 10 gallon or the fish in the community tank have shown any of these symptoms. Are they malnutritioned from mainly eating bloodworms? Do they have some kind of parasite? Is my pH too high for them to live comfortably (it's 7.2)? I'd really like to continue keeping and hopefully breeding cockatoos, but as expensive as they are and as hard to find around here as they are (not to mention that I'm killing fish), I don't want to get any more until I know what is going on. I'd appreciate any advice. Sorry for the long post, but I figured that a history was necessary.
Most of this has occurred in a very well planted 10 gallon tank started last November, generally stocked with two zebra otos (never had any problem) and a male and female cockatoo. The tank is over-filtered with a Penguin biowheel meant for a larger tank, has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 0 nitrates. I've never seen any spikes for any of these values which I chalk up to silent cycling due to the high plant to fish ratio. GH is about 2, and the pH from my tap is about 7.2. I realize that cockatoos like soft, slightly acidic water best, but I've heard that they'll tolerate a wider range of pH. I do weekly ~25% water changes. For the past couple months (only after I started having problems with the cockatoos) I also add some Kent plant fertilizer weekly, some Seachem Fluorish Excel every now and then, and a couple times lately I added some algae destroyer. When the last fish that died started to show symptoms, I also treated the tank with a Parasite Clear fizzing tablet (active ingredient is praziquantel), waited three days, did a large water change, and treated the water with a second tablet. I used this tablet because I thought the fish might have worms, and I didn't think my fish would go for the edible kinds of medicine.
I feed the cockatoos once a day, almost always frozen blood worms and occasionally frozen brine shrimp. The otos get all the algae they can scavenge as well as some prepared collard greens. Wasted food hasn't been much of a problem.
When I originally started with cockatoos, I began with a male and a female of the wild-type body color in a 29 gallon community tank with peaceful fish. After they spawned unexpectedly, I decided to house them by themselves in the 10 gallon to make sure I could save some fry the next time around. After setting up the tank and letting it go for a while with plants, Stability, and some water and plants from an established tank, I put them in. They were fine, and I introduce a second female a couple weeks later. We left the tank alone for a few days during Thanksgiving, and when we returned we found that the male was dead and was basically a big colorful ball of fungus. Before we left he was doing fine and acting normal, although I thought his colors were a little duller than usual.
A couple weeks later, we introduced a new male, this time a yellow/gold. I had to transfer one of the females back to the 29 gallon tank because the other two were picking on her. I thought that the other female might have spawned because she was guarding her little cave and behaving aggressively. Not long after, the one with the cave in the 10 gallon died, I thought maybe due to stress or an injury that she got while picking on the other. I noticed that she had sort of an inflamed anal area which I thought might either be due to injury or having just lain eggs. Unfortunately, no eggs.
Next, we purchased two more yellow/gold females. I put one in the 10 gallon tank with the male and one in the 29 gallon community tank that was also housing the other female.
The two females in the 29 gallon tank chased each other around quite a bit, and within a day the oldest one (not the new yellow/gold) was beaten up looking, flailing around, and dying. She also had a reddened anal area, but that time I figured it was due to fighting. At that time I figured that I just couldn't reliably house cockatoos of the same gender, male or female, in the same tank, even a 29 gallon community tank.
After that, everything was fine for about a month or more, and then I noticed the last male looking a little grayish. Pretty soon he was skinny and had the hemorrhoids look. For several days before he died, he would hide high up at the top of one of the caves or under a log. Now it looks like the last yellow/gold female in the 10 gallon tank is beginning to have a swollen anal area. The other yellow/gold female that I've kept separately is doing fine for now, but who knows for how long.
Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with my cockatoos and what I can do to prevent this from happening? None of the other fish, either the otos in the 10 gallon or the fish in the community tank have shown any of these symptoms. Are they malnutritioned from mainly eating bloodworms? Do they have some kind of parasite? Is my pH too high for them to live comfortably (it's 7.2)? I'd really like to continue keeping and hopefully breeding cockatoos, but as expensive as they are and as hard to find around here as they are (not to mention that I'm killing fish), I don't want to get any more until I know what is going on. I'd appreciate any advice. Sorry for the long post, but I figured that a history was necessary.
