Howdy folks! New here. I've got a 75 and a 40 gallon tank at a preschool.
I've got a Red Devil Cichlid. I think he's about 8-9 years old. Very hardy.
He's in a 75 gallon tank by himself. (turns out he does not play well with others)
As he sometimes does after a water change / decoration cleaning, he turned whiter last week.
In the past he's usually back to his red self an a day or two.
But not this time. I came in today to notice he is still white and has a bloated belly.
He is also hanging out near the surface.
He seemed to eat fine last week. He's on Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets on an auto feeder. (but I am there to see him eat about half the time)
Water parameters look pretty good. I don't test all that often anymore.
PH is kinda high at 8.4, ammonia and nitrites are nil, nitrates between 20 and 40.
(which all look good to me)
Temp is right around 80.
I have been having an algae problem in this tank for the last year or year and a half, but I've been keeping up with it.
He won't let any helpers in there to clean it out, so I have to do it.
Only odd thing I noticed today is that my air stone broke, and that cut the air down in the tank.
I put in a small spare one and he seemed to react to that by swimming down to one of the other marginally working ones.
Going to replace all the stones and put in an even stronger pump if he pulls through.
I want to medicate him immediately.
I've heard clout is better than Metronidazole. Any recommendations?
I've also heard clout stains the tank, so I want to setup a small hospital tank to keep the main tank clean.
How fast can I do that?
Can I just buy a 10 gallon tank, pump my tank water into it, add a heater, add a small filter of some sort using materials from one of my main filters?
(I've got dual filters, but they are both 110's, and too powerful for a small tank. Again, if he pulls through, I may swap one out for a smaller filter for future emergencies)
I can do this in a few hours, will that work?
Someone online also suggested maybe a treatment of epsom salts to get his system moving? Anyone have experience with that?
Thanks for any help.
Jim
I've got a Red Devil Cichlid. I think he's about 8-9 years old. Very hardy.
He's in a 75 gallon tank by himself. (turns out he does not play well with others)
As he sometimes does after a water change / decoration cleaning, he turned whiter last week.
In the past he's usually back to his red self an a day or two.
But not this time. I came in today to notice he is still white and has a bloated belly.
He is also hanging out near the surface.
He seemed to eat fine last week. He's on Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets on an auto feeder. (but I am there to see him eat about half the time)
Water parameters look pretty good. I don't test all that often anymore.
PH is kinda high at 8.4, ammonia and nitrites are nil, nitrates between 20 and 40.
(which all look good to me)
Temp is right around 80.
I have been having an algae problem in this tank for the last year or year and a half, but I've been keeping up with it.
He won't let any helpers in there to clean it out, so I have to do it.
Only odd thing I noticed today is that my air stone broke, and that cut the air down in the tank.
I put in a small spare one and he seemed to react to that by swimming down to one of the other marginally working ones.
Going to replace all the stones and put in an even stronger pump if he pulls through.
I want to medicate him immediately.
I've heard clout is better than Metronidazole. Any recommendations?
I've also heard clout stains the tank, so I want to setup a small hospital tank to keep the main tank clean.
How fast can I do that?
Can I just buy a 10 gallon tank, pump my tank water into it, add a heater, add a small filter of some sort using materials from one of my main filters?
(I've got dual filters, but they are both 110's, and too powerful for a small tank. Again, if he pulls through, I may swap one out for a smaller filter for future emergencies)
I can do this in a few hours, will that work?
Someone online also suggested maybe a treatment of epsom salts to get his system moving? Anyone have experience with that?
Thanks for any help.
Jim
