albino juvi deaths

Got home today and all 4 albinos in my juvie tank were dead.

Water perameters are good.

Regular water changes of 10% every other day and 40% weekly.

Feeding of 1 algae wafer per day and shrimp pellets every other day.

Zuchini(sp) once a week for 24 hours.

Filters are good, temp is good.

All of the browns (4 of them) are doing great.

I'm confused

Please help!

Were your albino newly moved or newly purchased? Was there any stress to them that you can think of? What type of albinos were they, the golden ones with no spots or the "white" ones with spots?

My first crop of albino fry (golden albino, no spots) are getting larger. I moved the 3 biggest ones into a grow out tank with some browns. The albinos were an inch in size, one slightly less perhaps. I've moved smaller browns with no problems. One by one all three of the albinos died. They did not appear to ever be picked on or bullied. The browns in the tank with them were fine and continue to be fine. The rest of the albinos in the tank they hatched in are fine, only the ones moved were affected. Everything testable with water and filters etc was fine, and stable, just as it's always been. I do test water routinely and definitely if some issue crops up. I have to conclude that my albinos were more sensitive to stress or not as hardy as my browns. I plan to let them get larger before I move them and hopefully things will be fine next time I move some.

I have read that some feel the albinos are not as hardy as the browns, though others feel there is no difference. I would say based on my experience my albinos are less hardy so I have several questions.... 1) are albinos truly less hardy than the browns. 2) if albino is less hardy is it all albinos or just one particular type 3) is it not the albino color per se ,but a particular bloodline that is less hardy Like you, I am in the U.S. and we likely do have a different gene pool to work with than those in Europe or Australia.

I realize this doesn't answer anything, but it may give you some things to think on to see if they apply or not.

Oh sorry to hear your sad news,
I guess it could have been anything really, maybe a virus or bacteria, Albinos are weaker than commons imo & Albinos are frowned upon in nature usually, You don't think they might have been beat up but the others, ya know the old 'oh he's different, lets get him'...
I hate it when all seems fine an there are unexplained deaths,
Sorry mate...

They've been fine since I moved them over a month ago.

Golden..red eyes.

I've been trying to find answers online but to no avail.

I'm bummed!

Mooo wrote:

Oh sorry to hear you sad news,
I guess it could have been anything really, maybe a virus or bacteria, Albinos are weaker than commons imo & Albinos are frowned upon in nature usually, You don't think they might have been beat up but the others, ya know the old 'oh he's different, lets get him'...
I hate it when all seems fine an there are unexplained deaths,
Sorry mate...

I looked for anything unusual on all of them...even with a pocket microscope.....could find nothing. I've never noticed them fighting or what-not. Thanks Mooo.

Strange one this mate i can understand it being just one popping off but not 4 at once...there is a problem for sure....not sure what it could be to be honest.....i will have a dig around to see if i can find a similar thread sumwere...

R.I.P Little one's....

Thanks Curby. I've done some digging and have come up empty. Any help would be appreciated. I'm gonna do some more when I get home.

Sorry for your losses - I have found albinos to be more sensitive, even when browns live they pop off

Yvette wrote:

Sorry for your losses - I have found albinos to be more sensitive, even when browns live they pop off

i find that to,,,my browns have more of a success rate than albino's,,,

albinos can be a little more fragile to rear. it sounds like you only have a few juvies in their maybe youre water changes are a little over kill for them 10% daily and a 25% weekly might be a little better. theirs nothing worse than a tank thats too clean imo.
or it could be just week genetics. were they bred from siblings?. my mate had a pair that bred all the time and the fry never made it past the inch mark before they popped off. i swoped him a female and he,s had no problems since.

deano wrote:

albinos can be a little more fragile to rear. it sounds like you only have a few juvies in their maybe youre water changes are a little over kill for them 10% daily and a 25% weekly might be a little better. theirs nothing worse than a tank thats too clean imo.
or it could be just week genetics. were they bred from siblings?. my mate had a pair that bred all the time and the fry never made it past the inch mark before they popped off. i swoped him a female and he,s had no problems since.

I'll give it a try. Thanks Deano!

Sorry to hear.

The albino morph is more fragile and i have found that they are very sensitive to chlorine, much more so than the browns. So that could be an issue.

Apart from that its a bit hard to tell. I would suggest their diet could be a bit protein rich but if you have been feeding them that from the get go then i cant see why it would become an issue now, and why with only the albinos.

I would just keep an eye on it for now and finger crossed it was just a once off. If it happens again then we might be able to peice together some more facts. So, my dear Watson, for now we remain stumped

I lost a lot of king tiger fry from excessive water changes. Leaving them to get a little more manky has seen the survival rates skyrocket.

You guys are great!

Thanks everyone so much for their help!

I'm gonna cut back on my water changes and see what happens.

This really has me bummed. I never thought I could have my tank to clean.

The browns are all doing great still.

Bwompus wrote:

You guys are great!

Thanks everyone so much for their help!

I'm gonna cut back on my water changes and see what happens.

This really has me bummed. I never thought I could have my tank to clean.

The browns are all doing great still.

getting youre tank too clean will send it into a new tank syndrome state i would only do a weekly water change if theirs only four commons in it.