Farlowella Vitatta Twig Cats

sonI bought a breeding trio of twig cats at the ACA convention in Houston I've had them quarantined since I brought em home. the male and 1 female have already died off and I don't get why. I've checked parameters every 3 days since I brought em home and everything is within healthy limits as far as I can tell.
so my question is can medications cause fish to die if water changes aren't done in a timely manner? I dosed the tank with general cure and erythromycin and let them hang out. the snails and amano shrimp I always keep in there are just fine so it's something specific to the catfish I think.
or could it be temperature? tank can sit from 70-72 cause it's in the living room with no heater. maybe low temps caused stress?
their were no visible signs of illness I was simply doing preemptive medicating before I add them to my display tank.

 

It could be the medication, since catfish are mostly scale less, they don't handle meds that good. Usually you have to use half of the recommended dosage.

 

Agreed with Bryangar. It's very plausible since being scaleless that the medications were too strong for them. I believe general rule of thumb is that with catfish, loaches, and shrimp, you dose half. (and in the case of Shrimp, avoid copper like the plague)

Could also be something else that's completely random. I got a trio of my own a while back and one I found randomly breathing rapidly and on his back. Best I could assume was a severe heater burn, although he went back and forth between upright and on his back/side quite a bit until he randomly died, so I may never really know. Haven't looked too far at different reports, but it might just be a more sensitive species.

Your temps were definitely on the low side, too. Whiptails temperature range is generally between 75 and 80. I'd definitely suggest getting a heater for that quarantine tank to make sure it remains stable. Not only will you be able to adjust temperatures as needed for any fish you get to put in there, but it will keep the temperatures from fluctuating too much.

 

yeah heaters on the way I made the mistake of setting up more tanks than I had equipment for gonna juggle some heaters round put my bigger wattage ones in my 30 gallons and the smaller ones in the tens I think I may have been overzealous with the medication I had some issues with internal parasites in the past so now I've been in the habit of preemptively medicating everything

 

How established is your tank? My knowledge is limited to net research, but being on my "one day" wish list, I've looked into twig cats before (ie I'm not going by what I've read in the last 10 mins). They seem to be a lot like Otto cats, in that they really won't do well in a new tank. They need a healthy productive biofilm or mulm to graze/eat.
Secondary to that (in terms of discussion sequence, not in terms of importance), I've also heard repeatedly that Ottos (so maybe also Farlowellas) have bacterial gut fauna that helps them digest some of their foods better. If you treated with two antibiotics (from GC and EM), that would have wiped out any gut fauna.
I'm just putting these ideas out there, if other can refute or support, I'd be happy to hear either way.

 

How established is your tank? My knowledge is limited to net research, but being on my "one day" wish list, I've looked into twig cats before (ie I'm not going by what I've read in the last 10 mins). They seem to be a lot like Otto cats, in that they really won't do well in a new tank. They need a healthy productive biofilm or mulm to graze/eat.
Secondary to that (in terms of discussion sequence, not in terms of importance), I've also heard repeatedly that Ottos (so maybe also Farlowellas) have bacterial gut fauna that helps them digest some of their foods better. If you treated with two antibiotics (from GC and EM), that would have wiped out any gut fauna.
I'm just putting these ideas out there, if other can refute or support, I'd be happy to hear either way.

tanks been set up for several months now I keep ramshorn and some amano shrimp in there to keep cycle going so I can always have a quarantine tank ive had ottos before yeah they have bacteria in their digestive tract I know bout that I wasn't aware that the twig cats had the same thing I could see that being a possibility me wiping it out. this is the first time I've kept twig cats I'm unfortunately learning from my mistakes. once the tank is no longer occupied I'm debating getting a few more and trying again with no medication and definatley a heater and see how it goes from there.

 

Learning from mistakes is good. If you accept that mistakes will be made (or are at least possible), the alternative is not learning from them, which is just... seeking polite words... okay just bad.
Do you medicate in quarantine because they are showing symptoms, or just because it seems prudent? (No right or wrong, just asking).
If you know/trust/believe the seller (you mentioned they were from a convention in this case, so...), you might even consider skipping quarantine entirely. It's a measured risk, subject to a cost/benefit exercise.
IME quarantine is stressful, because the setup is never as 'homey' as the final tank. I've lost fish in quarantine that I think would have survived if simply acclimated and added to main tank. So whenever possible I try to find fish for purchase that I don't need to quarantine. Eg local breeders, LFS tanks that have been stocked with the same fish for at least 3 weeks without disease symptoms (when you're in the store every week, you notice these things LOL).

 

I medicate as part of quarantine cause I've had some silent killers in the past so now I just hit with a med trio to get internal and external anything they may have.
The total loss due to meds or temp issues were 2 farlowella twig cats and 1 synodontis/eupterus hybrid. gonna be putting em in the planted tank in about 2 weeks.