Sick SAE

Hi all! I'm posting this for my father. So, I've got the info he provided and can probably get anything else needed.

He set up his tank about two months ago after his GF and I bought him a used tank set up. It's a 55 gallon. Way over filtered. It's running the two Emperor 400's that came with it. The seller had used the tank for his cichlids and had upgraded, but kept the bio-wheels floating in his new tank. Dad's GF, transferred those to floating in her tank until Dad set up and stocked his. I added an extra filter to one of my Penguins and had them both running for several weeks and then gave him my oldest one. He has never shown any ammonia or nitrite and started showing low nitrates after a week or so of stocking his tank. He easily keeps the nitrates under control with regular, weekly 25% water changes. (Lucky dog - he basically seems to have gotten a instant cycle from the women in his life!)

Stock:

Fish:
1 Jewel Cichlid (Hemichromis bimaculatus)
1 Kenyi Cichlid - female (Maylandia lombardoi)
1 Kenyi Cichlid - male (Maylandia lombardoi)
5 Giant Danio (Devario aequipinnatus)
2 Siamese algae eaters (Crossocheilus siamensis) Originally stocked 4 , now down to two including the one pictured.

He had the Danio's about two or three weeks and when they did well he added the cichlids and then the SAE's fairly soon after.

His PH is high for the cichlids and I've never dealt with that.

I'm just going to copy and paste from his email:

"

• Sand substrate includes crushed coral and several pieces of coral rock to aid in raising pH for cichlids.
• pH is 8.6 to 8.8 and seems to be well buffered with a total alkalinity of about 300ppm

• Water source is a well with pH typically about 6.4 if tested right out of tap. 12 hours later the same well water will have pH of 7.4 - 7.6. This water is soft with kH of less than one. It is considered "aggressive" in that it attacks copper pipe and fittings and stains white sinks blue green; it is likely that the aquarium water contains dissolved copper at some level.

Four algae eaters went in the tank on March 26th. I noticed the fish in the picture was looking bad on April 8th. At that time he was swollen, had bulging eyes, very red area behind the mouth (gills?) and his head was beginning to turn a lighter color. Now he acts more healthy and does not seem to be swollen. However he still has a very pale head and the red in his gill area. Ammonia has been checked repeatedly and always shown 0ppm. An API master test kit is used. His remaining tank-mate does not look good either, but the physical changes are not nearly so dramatic. Both fish now appear to be acting reasonably normally."

He attempted to catch the fish when it was initially showing problems and was completely unable to capture it. He has lots of coral and slate "hidy holes" and the little guy is apparently very fast. Dad is currently setting up a 10 gallon quarantine tank, but has no idea how to catch this fish if he does.



Any thoughts or suggestions greatly appreciated.

(He's an engineer, so even though he's new to the fish thing, he's big on doing water testing and reading and studying like crazy!)

Thanks everyone! Yes, I looked in my book and looks like poor Dad got duped and didn't get a SAE as marked. That's just crummy.

Cerianthus, the coral is real, but the remaining two seem to be doing well. They are healthy enough to completely evade the net, anyway. ;-) Of course, if they make it they will likely end up much too large for a 55, right? I like my oto's and bushy nosed pleco for algae, so haven't dealt with SAE or mislabelled CAE's. Anyway, he hasn't seen any signs of aggression from anybody.

PH is quite high at 8.6-8.8. Nitrites have remained at 0, along with the ammonia.