HELP A FOOL SAVE HIS ALTUMS :c

[madmisha]

So long story short,after a whole bunch of luck and success with rather hardy Discus,ive gotten myself some wild altums,about 2.5 inch long and 5 inch tall....
ive got them from a seller who kept them at PH 6.2.....convinced me they have been through 5 day courses of all sorts of meds,and are eating frozen bloodwarms,which i did see them eat.


so i bought 4,dripped their way into my tank for about an hour.....where my PH is around 7,GH 8,KH 4....the tank is a 80gal planted tank,Eheim Professional 2 and JBL Cristalprofi 1901 canister filters,temperature is kept at 30 degrees Celsius....
the tankmates were 8 Discus,10 Emperor tetras,a bunch of L numbers,corys,a fully mature Pearl Gourami,3 "fake" altums aka Suriname altums....5 bettas.....2 rainbow sharks and 8 green tiger barbs....and a mix of a few more tetras and 3 dennison barbs (huge mistake,i know i know,but they didnt touch my Suriname altums or discus for the 5 months i've had them...why now!?)

on the first day,they seemed shocked,stressed,but fine.
one the second day,they started eating,and were doing great.....one the third day,they didnt eat,and split into groups of two for each corner-they looked great tho,being very territoral,shoo'ing the other angels away...
on the fourth day,when i woke up in the morning,one was dead....the other 3 were torn to shreds. my Suriname altums were also beaten heavily...

my reaction was to get them down into a bucket with the tank water to spare them the trauma of catching barbs in a planted tank.....and rewamp my tank whole,leaving only the discus and L numbers in there.
ive then dripped them for half an hour back into the tank....turned the lights off for the rest of the day,and dumped some blackwater extract into the tank,which they did seem to like.

as of now.....one of the 3 angels seems to be hanging by a thread....barely keeping up straight,sometimes falling the the ground but then swimming right back up....the other 2 arent having a great time either,but atleast they seem more stable....they seem very,very stressed,and are still wounded.

any tips on what can i do to help them survive this crisis? one the one hand,i'd love to medicate them for the slight fin rot they started going on from the wounds (inflicted by who knows who) one the other hand,i know these fish are VERY sensitive and need stable water to thrive in.....so im worried about even adding them salt....

if anyone here has those fish,and can offer any tips,i'd love to hear them thanks in advance

[brewmaster15]

HI Michael,
The problem here is basically stress. Too much change too quick and incompatible tank mates. I would not medicate, it will stress them out more and really will not help. You can add salt at 1 tablespoon per 10 gals to help with the stress.

What they really need is their own tank and good stable water until they settle in. I should also mention that it sounds like you didnt quarantine? That added alot to the stress and really is a step you don't want to skip.

Hth,
AL

[madmisha]

excuse me but i dont understand,
I did not quarantine....dont people quarantine fish only to medicate them before getting them into the main tank? how will moving them 3 tanks instead of 3 be less stressful?

[madmisha]

now that im a bit more educated then i was on the subject,and am out of my panic "DO ALL THE THINGS" attack.....heres what probably really did happen.
Altums live in areas where the water is so accidic that bacteria and viruses have a really hard time surviving,which means,they have very,very weak immune systems....and while they may have been medicated for whatever bacteria they could catch on their way to my local fish seller,when placed in my tank,with that very heavy,very varied bio load,from all sorts of places,each having its own sterains of bacteria that thrive in my neutral,warm waters.....my altums took a serous bacterial punch......sure,it took the bacteria a while to bloom and damage the altums,so thats why they lived fine for a couple of days.
moereover,they could have easily spread some of their own problems to my Surinamese.

and weak fish naturally attract trouble.....which i had planety of in my tank....tetras,barbs etc...and since i did not add any anti bacterial meds to my altums...they didnt survive,well,all but one that is.


ive thrown some JBL Furanol into my tank,to help the last surviving altum and my Surinamese recover and prevent any infection on the discus....who seem more stressed nowadays too...well,in a way,they seem both more stressed but less stressed....they dont show their stress bars nearly as often,they show really beautiful colors in fact now that there are not so many small fish buzzing around,but they also go to corners and grow dark occasionally as if they dont feel well....ugh,i really should have quarantined the altums
also,its gonna be a kick in the biofilter,so ill monitor nitrites carefully and if they rise over 0.05 ml/l ill add another small canister with Zeolith