Demise of a juvenile Polypterus. CAE to blame?

Hi all,

Much to my dismay I found my juvenile Polypterus Palmas Polli/Palmas (wasn't sure yet) of only about 6/7cm deceased at the bottom of my tank this afternoon. It was absolutely fine this morning and has been eating dry food as well as pigging out on bloodworm and even eating raw prawn out of my hand.

He was covered in what look like bruises. Could someone please confirm this? Need to confirm not disease.

Tankmates include Glass hatchets, Synodontis Petricola (adult), Synodontis Nigrita (juvenile) and 1 x gold Gyrinocheilus Aymonieri (CAE). Given the reputation of the latter I suspect it to be the culprit if the Polypterus was indeed attacked, however this CAE has never harrassed the other fish and I've watched both the CAE and Polypterus swim near each other and feed near each other without any issues.

Water parameters, temp, etc. all fine and well within OK range and all other fish are in perfect health. Please see below pic :cry:

Thoughts?

 

It was probably one of the synadontus cats. My featherfin is very territorial of tank space and attacks my pleco every now and then. Must get rid of him soon...
Sorry about your loss.

 

Thanks Firefly, although I was hoping not to hear this particular theory as it means I'll need a new tank should i decide on getting another bichir down the line. Quite fond of my Syno's, but i guess you live and learn when it comes to compatibilty

 

How long you had the Polly? Take a good look at the scales of it...are they damaged in any way? or is the bleeding Subcutanious? got another theory brewing in my head.... All your other fish o.k? no abnormal behaviour?

 

Hi guys,

Tank is only 60 litres, but has been running for about a year hassle free. All other fish are the picture of health with no losses experienced in the tank before.

Polypterus was introduced last week wednesday morning. Was swimming around fine, eating plenty and had his own spot behind the pump. Had observed him swimming near / with the other fish with no problems.

Red blotches (bruises?) were subdermal. It did look as though there may have been scales missing in one area as there was a white-ish patch visible when he was still in the water. As mentioned the fish was fine in the morning, and when I went home to fetch a few things at lunch it was dead, so those marks only developed within a few hours. Tank light was on, and I hardly see the Syno's when it is.

Thanks for the input all. I'm quite bleak about this, so knowing the cause will help prevent a recurrance down the line.

 

Tyrrell,

Possibility of it occurring after the polypterus had died is also there. Many times when a polypterus dies it ends up upside down. so it can be that the syno's and algae eater decided to snack on it afetr it died and thus would also leave thiose marks.

 

Polypterus carry a host of parasites(luckily the real nasty Flukes they got is host specific) and since they all wild caught,they arrive in your tank with these....allthough it will be real hard to pinpoint which one it is,i would subscribe your fishes death to a complex of these rather than agression... Looking at the bad condition he was in (that "thin" tail),this further makes me lean towards this theory... the red blotches you see is bacterial sceptiscemia,bacteria will take an oppertunistic chance in attacking damaged tissue that the parasites cause... did you ever see him "flicking/rubbing" himself on decor? Or if you looked REAL closely at him,did he apear to be covered in a whitish dust?

Do monitor your other fish closely over the next few weeks - there could have been a nunu transfer,but since they well established and dont have the compromised immune system that a newly imported wild fish will have,they should be able to fight off any nasties with ease...

Now just a word of warning...your tank is FAR to small to even start to consider keeping Pollypterus... P.Palmas,being one of the smaller species,does still grow to half the length of your tank.... rather leave the Polly's till you get a bigger aquarium

 

@trevor1971 yeah I also thought that may be a possibility (there are also many snails in the tank which the Syno's eat that could've latched on), but then the question of COD arises. the fact that the fish went from fine to fins up in a few hours rules out disease in my mind. The fish only arrived in SA on that Tues, so perhaps there was an underlying issue?

 

Tyrrell,

It could explain a lot if it only arrived on the tuesday. When we bring them in we find a lot of times that because of the vast difference in sizes packed in one bag and the volume of fish they sometimes send, the bags arrive with huge amounts of ammonia. So much so that you cannot believe they would actually survive in there, the water is so milky and smelly. That can cause the slime layer to be affected and thus put the fish at risk of developing bacterial infections. Bacterial infections can turn a tank around very quickly from what looks healthy , to being dead. Azurekoi i think hit the nail on the head.

 

Thanks again for the input all. I'll definitely keep an eye on the fish to make sure that there aren't issues with them.

Regarding tank size, I have a 2m on standby that I'm setting up shortly which is where the Polypterus was to be housed. It was only about 6 or 7 cm, so there was ample space for it in the 60l until it grew a few cm's.

I'm going to wait until the new tank is in before purchasing any additional fish, and even then I'll set up a small hospital tank to quarentine the fish first. For future reference, what treatment would help here?

Thanks!

 

@azurekoi when he was dead on the bottom there was what looked to be a whitish patch which I thought may have been where some scales had been damaged. never saw it actively rubbing against anything though.

Somewhat relieved that you guys reckon it wasn't my other fish that caused this, but now the issue of disease comes into play. eish, the life of a fishkeeper hey!