[hitmanx]

Brought home 9 celestial pearl danios to my 15 gallon heavily planted tank 2 days ago...

After 2hrs drip acclimation I introduced them to the tank...

I ended up with 2 males, one adult, one adolescent and 7 females, most looking very healthy except for 1...

I noticed right away that she's skittish hiding near surface plants but looks like she's trying to eat the new life spectrum food, but she has a sunken belly and has a small fungal growth on back and tail fins which are also clamped. .. the other CPDs don't seem to like her either..

Any ideas for a fish newbie?

Attached is a Crappy picture... I will get a better one soon...

 

[hitmanx]

I don't currently have a hospital tank...

My only other tank is currently cycling with aquasoil...

What's the minimum equipment I need for a quarantine tank?

 

[hitmanx]

Update:

Well it seems she's shed the white stuff and her colour has darkened up quite a bit... I fed them frozen mini blood worms this afternoon and she managed to scarf down a worm almost as long as her... her tail is still partially clamped so I do think know if this is just a calm before the storm... it's definitely tattered or nipped maybe...

What a difference a couple days makes the group of them seems much calmer after finding good hiding places when I come around... These fish are very interesting indeed :red_mouth

I snapped many pictures tonight but I will post those tomorrow. .. for now I have a picture of the adult male to show his amazing colour...

Thanks for all the suggestions... let's hope this clears up!

 

[hitmanx]

here is a slightly better picture of her...

it seems to have cleared up, and she looks more full :smile:

I shall continue to monitor her...

 

[hitmanx]

Well only a couple days later, and a even a small nitrite spike, ALL of the CPDs look great including the "sick" one - she still has nipped fins, but they have all darkened up and filled out...

i think they are beginning to feel at home and even venture out when i watch them... they only hide when my hand enters the water... unless of course the lights are off but the rooms lights are on, then they freak out as i walk by

Ive been feeding NLS small fish sinking pellets and mini bloodworms, and today i fed them daphina...

Interestingly the alpha male and the larger 2 females have made the substrate their home, almost protecting territories, usually wiggling their bodies along the bottom for some reason, while the other 6 smaller CPDs reside about 16" higher in the top 2/3rds of the tank... the alpha male stays down there all the time usually close to the heater, with frequent scouting missions to the front, especially when i poke my face in front of the glass... he stares right back at me, with his fins just flashing :red_mouth

It turns out that there are 3 males in total, with all of them engaging in the typical spin around each other "sparring" behaviour...

These fish, while very small, are very interesting indeed! My 17 month old daughter is absolutely captivated by their behaviour! :thumbsup:

 

[hitmanx]

The first picture was my galaxy note 2 phone...

The others were taken by a canon t3i (600d) dslr...

Once I used my macro lense I was able to take a much better picture of some cherry shrimp... the CPDs don't stay still enough for that shallow of a depth of field

 

[hitmanx]

Well, after several weeks of what seemed like recovery, I found a female CPD dead yesterday... it could have been the original sick fish, but it's hard to tell as they all seemed to look healthy after the initial adjustment period... There always seemed to be a lone fish though swimming off to the side, maybe it was her...

All the tank parameters are fine and the RCS and amanos are doing great... I'm hoping it has nothing to do with the 3 Oto cats that all died within a week of introduction

I'm looking to add 6 more CPDs this week :biggrin:

 

[hitmanx]

Yes waiting would probably be a good idea...I hoping these are isolated incidents... the other CPDs look great and seem to be behaving fine... NLS pellets and frozen daphina are making them all nice and plump... I'm hoping they will start spawning - they are certainly doing the interesting spin dancing routine with each other :flick:

 

[hitmanx]

Update:

Well since the last post, there have been no more CPDs fish deaths, and in fact I've added another 6... they are all healthy and colourful!

It must have been an isolated incident :biggrin:

I'm sorry I didn't actually mean true drip acclimation. .. more like adding a small portion of tank water to the LFS water every 2 minutes or so until there is far more tank water, then I net them into the new tank... it's a method suggested by shrimp keepers and seems to work great for the shrimp and fish I've introduced... Although I had 0% success with the 3 ottos I've tried

But unfortunately CPDs haven't begun spawning but that's another story...

 

[hitmanx]

I've noticed since adding another 6 to make 14 in total, they have become more at ease... but they still hide when walking in front of the tank, but if i stop and watch they come right back out...

I ended up with 4 males and 9 females... with one brilliantly coloured alpha male... fighting is not an issue but they sometimes chase eachother around. .. it's heavily planted and they spend most of their time in the bottom third of the tank which has a footprint of 13in x 13in and is 20in tall... my tank could possibly house more considering I won't be adding any other fauna besides shrimp...

Now if I can just get them to spawn. .. my ph is 8.2, gh is 30 and kh is 17 so maybe hard alkaline water isn't ideal for CPDs spawning...

Good luck and have fun with them... they are a beautiful and very personable fish when kept in greater numbers