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Third loss out of 8 gulpers (1 original and 7 new from Predatory Fins). Female, 11", age unknown, only had her 10 months. Has been sick couple of weeks, excessive slime, heavy breathing, no appetite, later swelling, erratic swimming, and finally reddening (probably septicemia or sepsis). I wonder why now? She and others thrived for 8-9 months. Maybe the 86F/30C temperature stresses them out and the immune system breaks down enough for the bacteria (columnaris?) to take hold?

Sorry Viktor. She was a nice large specimen.

Regards,
Eric

Thank you, Eric.

***

Turns out Sexi does abuse gulpers sometimes. I' had never seen it before I watched my video and caught it in the background!

After a year in a timeout exile imposed for trying to kill Lusy the lusosso, Sexi the sexfasciatus returns to his 4500 gal. It has been a few days now and things are more or less okay. Not bothering Lusy. Stays out of the big mouths.

New apu attacks bullhead and Louie the SA lungfish under the cover of second night, who have to be moved then. The pbass, injured green terror, and large common pleco are fine and staying.

Hunger-striking Greta 2ft 8yo TSNxRTC returns from the 240 gal timeout to 4500 gal, while Thug thrives in that 240 gal even robbing Jello of herring, and Jello doesn't seem to bother either hybrid.

After the mahseer group had got a boot from the 1800 gal, our last Amur (male, ~16in) returned to the 1800 gal and now surprisingly has been putting his breeding moves on 12in female 4-line pim blochii catfish:

The 5 biggest growout mahseer 13-15in seemed uncomfortable and stressed in the new 240 gal for the first 1-2 weeks. I was sure they'd calm down over time but I pitied them and decided to take a risk and place them into the 25K gal - 2x red tambra, chinese, golden putitora, khudree - and hope they would be fast and smart enough to stay out of the wels and leerii mouths. Also from our experience, these could be expected to not bother koi, which cannot be said at all of the 4 Neolissochilus left behind in the 240 gal. Also left behind is the taiwanese hollandii mahseer because it is only 11-12in or so.

In the beginning of Jun 2022, a few synos rasped quarter-size hole in 16" sun catfish, which tipped the scale and 5 synos, 3 eupterus and 2 hybrids, got kicked out and went to the jerk tank.


For 2 months the wound wouldn't heal and I didnt know why until I finally caught smaller Neolissochilus mahseer mouthing the wound. The mahseer left the 1800 gal and the large craterous wound skins over in 9 days!

Four 1ft adult bala sharks courtship time? Aggressive chasing each other, react to shiny tank mates, including dorado catfish, in 1800 gal:

Dorado catfish still does the tail standing sometimes / often, ~6in below the surface, which led me to think maybe low dissolved oxygen? So we doubled the flow & the stirring in the 1800 gal via a 48,000 l/h or 13,000 gal/h powerhead. (It hasn't changed the dorado's behavior, so I think it is just still settling into the new tank, being so nervous and high-strung fish as it is. The dorado hasn't fed yet either ever since the rehome 2-weeks ago from the neighboring 240 gal, where it had spent several years.)

8 inch black ear catfish: 2nd blister snip, upgrade, no more nose rubbing in 1800gal, prior vid clip

Heals in 3 days:

Posting this with a delay. So far so good, although Sexi doesn't like Lusy obviously and gives her a chase occasionally.

Unusual Half & Half marbled pim catfish Learius marmoratus, & 4 others, all 24"-32", in 4500 gal

Natural violence of goldfish spawn: vehement chasing, bumping, body-slamming, nudging, biting, jamming. Yet everyone survives fine. Just some missing scales.

Viktor, what if you pull her out and isolated her in a fry holder or something in the same tank? That way the males can beat up on the container instead of her until her hormones drop off. These are artificial systems we set up; in the wild she may not encounter quite this amount of harassment? I mean this would aid in preserving her health?

Thank you, I appreciate the thinking and suggestion. Having never lost them to spawning activities, I chose to allow them to do whatever they want in this regard. This behavior has completely subsided in couple hours as stated, and all females fed in another hour. Then the next day it had picked up again, and again the females happily and greedily fed after all this stress.

9yo 24in/60cm rescue TSNxRTC hybrid catfish Greta passed

One time is a fluke, two is a pattern. We lost Floyd the same way as Bruce, except Floyd lasted about 10 months versus a couple for Bruce. Same symptoms of heavy swelling over the entire body points to the same pathogen, perhaps the same old columnaris introduced into our tanks in 2018. Three year old, 1ft Floyd:

One's a fluke, 2 a pattern, 7 a law. We lost 7 bullheads over the last 5 years, 2 brown northern, 2 brown southern, 2 snail, and now 1 yellow, all from 3yo to 5yo, to seemingly the same bug, as can be judged by the same symptom of great swelling and overall length and progress of their last illness, supposedly a bacterial pathogen, maybe columnaris that infected our systems and fish in 2018. The final victim is the 4yo 15in/37cm yellow bullhead.

1+ month ago: 4ft RTC a-female turned upside down
2-3 weeks ago: same happened to 3ft a-male & to lesser degree to 3.5ft b-female

Nothing's changed, younger 3ft b-male seems ok. The only thing that unites the 3 sick RTC is the origin
(rescues from Dayton Ohio Mar 2016) and age ~9yo. a-male and b-female participated in courtship two times this summer.

Water, egg/milt binding, feed causes have been discarded. Must be the bacteria finally got to them, perhaps columnaris. Must get a vet pathology lab service now for sure!

Very sad to see. Hang in there Viktor.

Thank you, brother. This is a painful but learning experience.

***

The a-female continues to stay right side up.

Desperate attempt: injecting 750mg of erythromycin antibiotic into each of 3 gravely ill RTCs 9yo 3ft-4ft: