Help with RBTA's

38bill · Mar 27, 2023

I have kept RBTA's for years and never had a problem until now but there is something going on that I'm trying to figure out. A little over a year ago all my nems started to get a white pearl like growth on their mouth (see photo). Then they started shrinking in size so I moved them all into a qt tank. They are still all alive but have shrunk to only about 1" in dia. Since they had been out of the display for almost a year I added another RBTA to the display but now after a couple of months it is doing the same thing. Has anybody experienced this before? I'm treating a couple of the little nems with some metronidazole I had (It was sold as an ick treatment). I have not tried cipro yet but I'm not totally convinced its an infection. I'm open to ideas, thanks.

TopShelfAquatics · Mar 27, 2023

We've never seen the white pearls on the mouths before. Have you had any parameter changes or started using any new products in the tank before you noticed the change. It does seem like it could be some kind of infection which Cipro might not be a bad idea.

38bill · Mar 27, 2023

No changes, no special additives and everything else has been fine. Here's a better photo I just took. This is the "new" nem and it has not started to shrink yet but it isn't opening all the way.

38bill · Mar 27, 2023

Its strange for sure. Here are a couple of the "mini" nems in QT that were once large. The top one is about 1" and the lower one is around 1.5". They don't really look sick and they don't get stringy or deflated.