red zebra not eating?

[Catlid]

I have one red zebra with 3 other A. Cichlids and 2 cats and 1 pleco. He doesnt eat even though it looks like he wants to. It looks as if he might have some white coloration on the top of his head, but it seems pretty faint, dont know if its part of his coloration. help!

[valerie]

We need tanks size and water parameters. How long have you had the fish? Does the fishes stomach look bloated or sunken?

[Catlid]

Originally posted by valerie
We need tanks size and water parameters. How long have you had the fish? Does the fishes stomach look bloated or sunken?
20g and nitrates are at like 5 something, forget the measurement symbol. pH is about 7.2, he looks fine, no bloated or sunkin had the fish about a week

[valerie]

You have a lot of fish that get too big for your tank in that 20g. I would suggest you upgrade your tank or tank the fish back.

Mbuna(the kindof africans you have) need large tanks even thoguh they only get to be about 4-6", they are pretty aggresive.

Has your tank cycled?What is your ammonia and nitrite readings? You say you only had the fish 1 week, maybe it was sick when you bought it or maybe since your tnak is small it is going through a mini cycle from adding a new fish.

I would suggest for the time being that you do a water change and watch your fish to se if they are fighting or picking onthe sick fish.

[Catlid]

Originally posted by valerie
You have a lot of fish that get too big for your tank in that 20g. I would suggest you upgrade your tank or tank the fish back.

Mbuna(the kindof africans you have) need large tanks even thoguh they only get to be about 4-6", they are pretty aggresive.

Has your tank cycled?What is your ammonia and nitrite readings? You say you only had the fish 1 week, maybe it was sick when you bought it or maybe since your tnak is small it is going through a mini cycle from adding a new fish.

I would suggest for the time being that you do a water change and watch your fish to se if they are fighting or picking onthe sick fish.
well in my sig it says 55g soon, thats referring for the cichlids. Theres no ammonia or nitrites, tanks been cycled for quite some years now.

[valerie]

Well if the tanks is cycled and all tests show up good then i would say the fish is either getting picked on(the white coloration on his head might be from fighting) or he could have been sick when you bought him. Did you purchase this fish form a quality LFS where you know you are getting healthy fish?

[Catlid]

Originally posted by valerie
Well if the tanks is cycled and all tests show up good then i would say the fish is either getting picked on(the white coloration on his head might be from fighting) or he could have been sick when you bought him. Did you purchase this fish form a quality LFS where you know you are getting healthy fish?
yeah they take good care of there fish and are knowlegable there, unlike a petsmart around here, its always punk *** little kids.

[Catlid]

Ok the red zebra update, i tryed giving him brine shrimp instead of worms to see if he liked that, he does the same thing, he goes up to the food but then backs off, i noticed his stomach does look a little sunken now.

[JSchmidt]

Feeding shrimp and worms to your zebra is asking for trouble. Zebras primarily are algae grazers and feeding them high protein/high fat foods (like shrimp and worms) is very likely to cause severe digestive tract problems.

Algae wafers are pretty good for zebras, as are slices of zuchinni or cucumber. Prepared foods specifically for plant-eating fish (e.g. Hikari Cichlid Excel or Cichlid Complete) are good choices, too.

It's hard to tell if the fish isn't eating because of illness or because it's getting picked on. The best way to see what's happening in the tank is to turn out the room lights and watch the fish for 30 minutes or so. I think there's a good chance that some sort of aggression is going on.

HTH,
Jim

[valerie]

Yes don't be feeding your zebra worms(bloodworms?). Brine shrimp are ok as a treat but no more then once a week. Zebras are vegetarian(algae grazers) and can't handle the protein and fat in bloodworms, it can cause malawi bloat.

If your fish is looking like it wants to eat but doesn't and its stomach is sunken then you may have a problem. What does the feces look like? stringy and white? If you have a Q tank i would treat with anti parasite meds just incase. I had some africans that wanted to eat but didn't actaully eat anyhtign and had sunken bellies. Turned out they had parasites. The ones that had stopped eating ended up dying but the ones taht still ate i gave medicated food and they all got better.

[Catlid]

i put some cichlid pellets in there and he seems to like those. They might be a little big but its what i got for now. They soften the longer they are in the water anyways. Oh yeah with crushed coral how much does it raise the pH? I heard the highest it raises it is to 7.6?

[valerie]

If you are feeding pellets make sure to soak then for 10mins before feeding. The fish can get sick if they eat too many and have them puff up in their stomach.

[mtdewlover]

ummm...it doesn't have eggs in it's mouth does it? When they are going to have babies they hold the eggs in their mouth and they don't eat for weeks.

[Catlid]

i only have one in there

[mtdewlover]

Yes I realize this, but if you just got it I was thinking maybe it could have got pregnant before you took it home. :rolleyes: Just a possibility :)

[Catlid]

well hes starting to eat a little bit

[Catlid]

he really looks in distressed now. Sunken belly not very active, what should i treat him with? Also should i move him into another tanK? The only other tank i got is this 10 gallon im using to cycle the bio-wheels with some goldfish in there, if he did get better there are som goldfish in there that are bit sized, so now when i think about it its prolly not a good idea, or i could treat the whole tank, but i do have some catfish in there...