Is there a doctor in the house?

[Glenstorm]

Got a sick psuedotropheus and I am looking for some help with diagnosis. The most visible sign is the fins are all tattered. The narrow section of body between the tail and the rest of the fish seems to have lost all color also. Finally there seem to be white splotches on one side of the body. The fish having trouble swimming and controlling it's orientation. I think this one's a goner but I would like to limit my losses.

thanks

[PumaWard]

Hmm, I really don't want to even attempt to make a diagnosis without out seeing the fish. Try going here, lots of disease diagnosis help, http://fishyfarmacy.com

[Glenstorm]

I think I have come to the conclusion that it was bloat. . .

[ChilDawg]

For that particular fish, that's not great, but bloat isn't contagious...changing the diet to one that is more vegetation-based may help prevent this. What are you feeding?

[Glenstorm]

I just switched to tetra cichlid flakes from Wardley flakes. The tetra flakes were all my LFS had for cichlids. They also had Wardley pellets so I have been experimenting with them also.

[ChilDawg]

I think that you'd need something with more vegetarian content...those are designed for fish with larger portions of meat byproduct necessary for survival.

[Glenstorm]

Originally posted by ChilDawg
I think that you'd need something with more vegetarian content...those are designed for fish with larger portions of meat byproduct necessary for survival.

What would you suggest?

[ChilDawg]

I'd suggest a vegetable-based flake food (besides Spirulina...though you could mix the veggie flakes with Spirulina...)

There's a little more of an in-depth look at mbuna nutrition here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/feeding_mbuna.php

[ChilDawg]

Hey, Glenstorm, after mulling over your problem, I realize that my advice is a little shy of what it needs to be. I would like to know what fish are in that tank so that I may correctly tell you the diet for the entire tank (and whether or not that should be split up due to vastly different dietary concerns).

[Glenstorm]

Heh,
I actually have already covered this ground in a previous post (http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14454)...

You can get a better idea of my situation there. The gist of my setup is a 75G with:

3 Psuedotropheus, 1 Labidochromis, & 1 Nimbochromis, and 6 Danios as dithers (Unfortunately I can't afford to fill the tank with cichlids).

[ChilDawg]

I see a problem. Nimbochromis spp. are predatory, while the Labidochromis are omnivorous but eat a whole lot of plants...Pseudotropheus eat a whole lotta plants. Unfortunately, this means that the tank should be split, as the previous thread mentioned.

[sunnygirl]

so, would you suggest using a tank divider? theyre pretty cheap. i had one die of bloat recently, and it had the same symptoms- it progressed very rapidly. since then ive been feeding super veggie pellets, and some flake food called graze. they both also contain protien, but more veggies. theyre taking awhile to adjust, but thats normal, and they wont let themselves starve. plus, my snails love the pellets. by the way, stupid question, what does dither mean?

[ChilDawg]

A dither fish is used to draw out shy fish from hiding by swimming around and letting them know that everything is just peachy.

[sunnygirl]

do you think i would be able to put some in? i have 10 small mbunas (under 4 in) in a 29 gal. also a 3 in pleco and two pretty big snails. ive been doing weekly water changes 25%- 40%. if so what would you suggest. i dont want danios, i dont think theyre very attractive. i would really like tiger barbs. how many could i use? im planning on either selling some of the mbunas when they get bigger or upgrading my tank.

[Glenstorm]

That seems like it would be too many fish for your tank. You have 11 fish already and if your gonna do tiger barbs, you want at least 5 of them. Any less and it isn't really worth it.

FWIW: I always thought(actually assumed) dither meant the extra fish that took up space to overstock the tank and limit aggression.

[sunnygirl]

i was under the impression that dither meant a target fish to limit aggression. do you think i should trade some of my cichlids at my lfs for some tigers? it just seems that im looking at an empty tank. also, i want something that will swim mid to upper level. tigers are schoolers, right? thats what i want.

[Harry Tolen]

Should there be sticky post to distinguish "dither" fish from "target" fish, I wonder?

[Glenstorm]

Maybe AC should develop a glossary section. . .

I have this image of every forum having multipe stickies with clarifying defintions as the first 20 posts. . . ;)

[ChilDawg]

Um, Glenstorm, check out the www button at the bottom of any of my posts...I'm still working on improving that!

[sunnygirl]

ok, so couldnt a target fish be used as a dither, and a dither be used as a target fish? so arent they essentially the same thing?:D

[ChilDawg]

No.

Target fish are to improve pair bonding by providing some fish to be aggression targets.

Dithers are active schoolers whose job is to coax shy fish out of hiding.

[sunnygirl]

oh. but i dont have any pairs in my tank, so would the dominant male in my tank target the dithers? what kind of fish would be used as a target?

[ChilDawg]

If the dominant male is beating up on fish intended for dithering it out, I'd leave him in his own tank...

[ChilDawg]

Cons and small, aggressive cichlids are oft-used as target fish, as are Giant Danios, Rainbowfish, etc.

[sunnygirl]

ok. i think i get it now.

[ChilDawg]

It is a pretty subtle difference--I had to think it through for a bit because many authors unfortunately use them interchangeably when the difference is there.

[Glenstorm]

Thanks for clearing this all up Childawg!

[ChilDawg]

No prob--love to help with stuff like that!