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Ropefish playground

In a heavily planted tank i wouldn't suspect the substrate that fast, I have the same substrate in my 400 gallon since i build it ( about 18 years ago), and even when i rippped out all the large swordplants, it didn't crash. Although i must say i use fairly course sand/ small gravel, your substrate looked very fine. The "large dead fish"looks more probable.
 
No power outages - family was at home, just never looked into my room.
I have really fine substrate (0,2-0,3 mm), so it might have participated. The problem with large dead fish is only cories were really probable to die out of nowhere... And those are small fish. It's hard to believe that a ropefish would die just like that looking how healthy the rest of them is. Bushfish are big too, but they are really young. On the other hand they were fighting a little, maybe it escalated quickly and one was killed?
 
The Rope Fish is a fascinating and primitive-looking fish related to Bichirs. The Rope Fish has many unusual physical features including a flattened head, elongated eel-like body, and thick bony scales that form a distinct reticulated pattern. In addition, the Rope Fish has a modified swim bladder that it uses like a pair of lungs. Found in slow-moving or standing water with low dissolved oxygen content, the Rope Fish relies on this physical trait to gulp fresh air at the water's surface to obtain vital oxygen.
 
I don't really have any more ideas of what could have happened... It was all going great for more than 10 years and for last two years I didn't change much. I guess it will be one of those unsolved disasters :/

I know ropes are breathing air (they really don't mind being out of water, many times I've seen them slithering on glass bracing like it's a normal thing for a fish to be outside of the water), but so are labirinth fish and bushfish are one of those. I think ropes are more resistant to ammonia too. So when fish started dying bushfish didn't make it even though they can get oxygen from air, but ropes somehow went through ammonia spike unharmed. Which is interesting.
 
Ropes are back in their tank, stressed, but exploring their "new" tank eagerly. I've put them back on Friday and yesterday (Saturday) I did a 100 litres water change, another tomorrow. If the ammonia goes up too much, I will do 100 litres everyday, that's the maximum I can do with my RO (my knees would be really happy if I wouldn't have to, there are stairs on the way...). I'm adding prime to keep it safe and feeding sparingly.
My plants were hit pretty badly too, anubias are nearly non existing, it will take time for them to regrow.
I'm inhumanly using some ugly shrimps as a quick indicator if something is going wrong. Ropefish tend to behave like nothing's happening. So I've put a breeder box with some shrimps in it into the tank and I'm observing how they behave.

Bellow are photos from quick scaping and a video of noodles exploring the tank.

QJU5uJO.jpg

DOfdmKy.jpg


 
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The new scape looks good, I hadn't realised it was such a tall tank, you've utilised the height really well. I'm sure your Rope fish will be right at home.
nel.pogorzelska said:
I'm inhumanly using some ugly shrimps as a quick indicator if something is going wrong
Click to expand...
Canary in a coal mine ;)
 
Tim Harrison said:
The new scape looks good, I hadn't realised it was such a tall tank, you've utilised the height really well. I'm sure your Rope fish will be right at home.
Click to expand...
When I bought the tank years ago it was meant for discus. 60 cm tall. I don't really like the dimensions, I prefer longer tanks (length is only 2 times height), but I knew nothing about scaping in middle school ;) Before the disaster I had a 10 cm layer of sand, so it hadn't looked like it's this tall, now I decided to use it somehow.
 
I have had this happen in one of my longterm tubs, wanted a peice of bogwood from within it. Within a few days loads of my luecistic long fin danios were dead. bent out of shape like a banana with bulging eyes and inflamed gill plates. must have disturbed all the sediment and muck in the bottom of the tub. which caused the deaths.

Like the new scape, and the ropefish suit it.
 
Today I did full water test (I really don't remember the last time I've done such a complete test!):
pH 6,7
NO3 <5 ppm
PO4 0,5 ppm
K 14 ppm
Fe 0,1 ppm
dKH 3
dGH 5
Ca 35 ppm
Mg 18 ppm
TDS 167 ppm
NH4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
I'm using my sister for testing. She started biotechnology this year, so it's like "hey, come here do some chemistry for me" :D
Interesting thing is it seems like the filter didn't die completely... Or I'm doing more water changes than I should, as NO3 is close to 0 too. I'm dosing ~half EI for now.
 
nel.pogorzelska said:
Today I did full water test (I really don't remember the last time I've done such a complete test!):
pH 6,7
NO3 <5 ppm
PO4 0,5 ppm
K 14 ppm
Fe 0,1 ppm
dKH 3
dGH 5
Ca 35 ppm
Mg 18 ppm
TDS 167 ppm
NH4 0 ppm
NO2 0 ppm
I'm using my sister for testing. She started biotechnology this year, so it's like "hey, come here do some chemistry for me" :D
Interesting thing is it seems like the filter didn't die completely... Or I'm doing more water changes than I should, as NO3 is close to 0 too. I'm dosing ~half EI for now.
Click to expand...

Love the scape. Can I ask what the white/yellow substrate is please. Similar to what I am visually aiming for in my tank. Thanks
 
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