PETROCHROMIS HOUSING

                                                                                                         AND

                                                                                        PROCEDURES FOR THOSE

                                                                                           NEW PETRO ARRIVALS

                                                                                      Frank Schulterbrandt  10/17/2010

 

 

            OK, you have been lucky enough to acquire a group of WC petrochromis. Your holding tank should have already been set up to accept these beauties. Your holding tank should have some hiding placing for your new petros. These hiding placing should consists of PVC tubing, caves from rocks, or some other forms of landscaping  that creates hiding placing for those petros. These petros are shy and need a place to hide out until they can become accustom to their new tank. There should be a lot of water flow to this tank. The water should really be clean. The temperature should be around 80 degrees. Once you have acclimated your petros to the water in their new tank, do not feed them for 2 days. You should also turn the lights off and relax. You should of course check up on them every day and make sure that they are “OK”. Do not leave the lights on for any extended period of time as the petros tend to become frighten with the lights on and you glaring at them. Any kind of activity might send them dashing for cover.

 

           Now it’s day 2 , try feeding them a little Vegetable or Spirulina flake food. Move away from the tank as your presents might scare them , but be close enough that you can observe them. Check to see if all of them are eating…  Even if your petros nibble at the food or spit the food
out consider this a good sign. If your petros seem to be grazing also consider this a good sign.  However if after the second day and your petros show no sign of eating, try feeding them freezed dried Krill. Try feeding this for a couple of days. Then if there is still no sign of eating activity , try some Shrimp Mix. The above options have always worked for me (“knock on wood” .. LOL), but there will come a time when your petro just won’t eat. Then you are in uncharted territory and anything that you can think of may be worth trying. Just because something works for one person , that does not mean it will work for you.

        Here is a list of things that I have tried with three different shipments of petros that did not eat when I placed them into my aquariums.

 

1: Seaweed / Vegetable sheets, ShrimpMix, Flake food,  pellets  (did not work for my Blue Giants) Freezed Dried Krill worked

    It was on the 10th day that my Blue Giants started eating.

2: Seaweed / Vegetable sheets, Flake food, pellets (did not work for my Polyodon Kachese) Shrimp Mix worked. (on the 6th day my

    Polyodons starting eating,
3: Spirulina Flake food worked for my Moshi Sibwese …  They ate after two days of being in the dark (Turning off the lights for two days

    is a standard procedure for me).

      So the bottom line here you have to change the environment (landscaping, perhaps adding different fish to the population),

the type of food being feed, perhaps even the temperature ? . Maybe slight water changes. Maybe adding some salt to the tank ?

Maybe removing the bully will let the rest of the group eat before a new bully can be established.    

 

     If for whatever reason I did not have a holding tank available ,I would then be forced to put my new arrivals into the established tank of fish.
I would immediately start treating the tank with METRO.  The reason I treat the tank is just a precautionary step. I am really not in favor of placing new fish in with an established tank of petros because that is like playing with a loaded gun. Just because your petros look healthy don’t  really me a thing. Your are putting your prized established collection of fish at risk by exposing them to possible diseases , parasites, etc. 

 

    Also, If you have only a few petros and you put these into a holding tank.. Aggression rules still apply, So you might be forced to put your petros into the tank with the other petros. Then you must seriously consider treating your tank for a few days with METRO or some other form of drugs,  as a precaution. 

 

 

 

To be continued