So this is a really sad topic for me, but I'd like to hopefully see if anyone has any ideas for me.
I've gone down towards the Gulf coast twice this past year and have collected and brought home various Pteronotropis species to attempt to keep (and hopefully breed!) as captives. I've been having really terrible luck and I'm not sure what the problem is. I've had problems with every species I've tried to keep. At first, at least for Flagfins, acidifying the water and adding some blackwater extract seemed to help. I managed to keep 3 adults alive which were actually spawning (though I never got any fry to survive to swim-up).
Last month I traveled to AL and collected more flagfins, some sailfins (to augment the single survivor from my previous trip, though I had some that survived several months before all dying within a few days of each other with no apparent symptoms), and also some Apalachee, Orangetail, and Broadstripe. They all did exceedingly well with collection and transport, but I began to have problems once I got home with them. They were all slowly (over the course of several days) acclimated to my local water conditions (that are about average in every way) and put in tanks. The flagfins were added to my existing flagfins, and I lost every single fish within about 3 days (including my spawning adults that had survived for 8 months in my aquarium). Sailfins didn't do much better, but I currently have a single individual from this recent trip along with a single individual that I brought home in February.
Overall, I've seen no apparent symptoms. If anything, they seem a bit listless. They reluctantly eat but do not smash food like I'm familiar with most Cyprinids (including the Pteronotropis that seemed to be "survivors"). I feed them frozen brine/mysis, flake, and baby brine shrimp. They eat all of them, but lack any kind of enthusiasm for doing so. I currently still have surviving Orangetails and Apalachee shiners, but I seem to lose one every day or two, and again, with no real apparent symptoms.
Does anyone have any ideas? There are other fish in the tank that seem to be doing alright. There's no aggression, no ragged fins, nothing like that. I've attempted dosing Paraguard and Maracyn Oxy with no positive result.
I'm totally at a loss (as I sit here and watch one of my adult Orangetail shiners that just lost the ability to orient himself and is now tumbling around the tank...beautiful as he is...)
Any advice is GREATLY appreciated. Otherwise Pteronotropis might just be to me what warpaint shiners are to Josh B.