Cichlid Tank Cichlid SICK !!!! and some other questions

E

eylk

AC Members
Aug 5, 2007
265
0
0
Hello,

I have a Cichlid Tank set up for a while now...











60 Gallons
KH : 8-10 dh
PH : 8.0-8.2
GH : My GH set is defective !! but I use SeaChem Cichlid Salt

Ammonia : 0 ppm
Nitrite : 0 ppm
Nitrate : <20 ppm

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have a sick Cichlid that I scooped out of the Main Tank. It was behaving fine the night before but was resting and getting harrassed when I found it the next day.
I got him out and when I was doing so, It twitched and I saw a very short 1-2cm white/translucent worm , not segmented swimming away from it.
I gave it a salt dip and put it in the quarantine tank WITHOUT added Pima and Melafix into the QT (stupid move)
The next day, Fungus and Blood can be seen on the victim.
That was 3 days ago, ever since then I have been dosing Mela and Pimafix along with 5 teaspoon of salt everyday.
Water volume is about 10 gallons, monitoring and maintaining 0 amm, nitriand nitra.





The blood seems to have reduced a lot but the Fungus isnt. The picture isnt very good so I'll describe more. Fins are clamped, fish hardly able to move around. It seems that there is a vertical cut (with blood) at the mid section of the fish, the lower part of the body is wasting away... with a lot of fungus.

And I still do not know if the parasite is gone. I cant see any visible ones and the fish is too weak to scratch or move. It does bat its fins frequently though.

Should I change the meds? What should I do?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Parasite - pain in the ***.

If a fish is salt water dipped, the parasites do not die right? From what I've read, they parasite simply dettaches itself from the fish and try to swim away. And that you scope the fish back up with a net and into what ever tank it gets housed it. So what if you scope up the parasite? Wont it re-infect the fish again?
What does one do?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now Im paranoid.

The other cichlids in my main tank looks and behave fine. The are very active, agressive and gathers near any humans , hopeful for food.
but are they really ok?

When one talks about Cichlids having clamped fins... what exactly do they mean?







The 1st image is obvious, its healthy... Unfortunately, not all of my Cichlids display that to me.. They usually look like the 2nd or 3rd image.
I understand that fishes will clamp their fins when they are moving or if they remain still in areas of high current, so I turned off the filter to see if the immobile ones will spread their fins (image 1). No!
Does that mean they are infected with some sorta of parasite or have some health problems?
However, I dont see they scratching against the rocks often... Maybe... once.. in 2 weeks..

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lastly,
Do they inject ink or tattoo onto Cichlids? I have one whose colour is fading... sort of like ink being smeared or smudged. You can try to find it in the photos.. It doesnt display signs of sickness though...except possibly CLAMPED FINS !!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can also help me out in this Sister Thread : http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2036775#post2036775
 
I think what would help is to keep the fish separated and keep the water very clean. You could even go as far as doing daily large water changes. I would keep dosing with the meds until the fungus disappears. Don't turn up the heat or that will cause the fungus to grow faster. Then it's just a waiting game. He may make it he may be too far gone. Mbuna are tough though and I've seen some make a full recovery when very close to death.
I think when fish is said to have clamped fins it's more like the third picture but is usually not as active as the rest as well. Sometimes fish will look like the third picture but they are just relaxing and are not necessarily sick. As far as scratching I wouldn't worry about it as long as it's not frequent and there is no other sign of disease. For whatever reason mbuna tend to flash more that most other fish.
Mbuna are not typically died. They can change their color at will. I'm not sure which fish it is so I'm not sure why it's changing color. It could be maturing or has had a change in it's dominance status.
 
thanks for the reply , blue2fyre

can you also help me out with the parasite question?

also, Im relieved to hear about the clamped fin answers... that really helps

thanks

------------

oh ya, you can see the cichlid that im talking about in the 3rd picture from the top. Its in the middle, with the rock in the background. Notice its blacks are not as sharp or as defined as the other ones... its like.. a case of back printing quality from a low end toner...

haha
 
I can tell you the first fish in your black and white series there is a Neolamprologus Tretocephalus... quite different from the Mbuna I see in your other tank pics as it is a molluscivore from Lake Tanganyika, whereas your other fish appear to be Mbuna from Lake Malawi. This may explain the difference in appearance and behavior.
What do you feed your fish? How often do you perform water changes ( it looks like you allow signifigant evaporation before adding/ changing water )? In another thread you mention using cichlid salts to buffer hardness but you have no hardness testing kit. What is the pH of your water out of the tap?
 
OH no, I shld have done more research before trusting the LFS... will they be able to thrive in the water?

Haha .. I think the tainted glass at the top of the water gave that away... will it have any long term side effects on the glass?

I usually do a 15% PWC every 8 days (no grav vac for now). I do not replace the evaporated water as I will be PWC-ing.

I thought I can cheat on the GH test kit part. I bought a KH and GH kit, but the GH kit isnt working. I jsut add in how ever much cich salt that I PWC-ed as the instruction was not to replace the salt for evaporated water.

The PH out of the tap is 6.6 - 6.8. I use baking soda and coral sand and chips.

Have you had any cases of parasites infection?

Thanks
 
I can't help much on this one except the fact that you can certainly up the WC amount. These cichlids can handle LARGE WCs up to 90% in drastic situations. They love new clean water & nothing helps cure sick fish faster. I would definitely do at least 20-30% WC regularly and with the current possible health issue up to 50%.

That seems like a lot of evaporated water in just 8 days. What kind of light is on this tank? May be contributing to your algae issue mentioned in your other thread too.
 
eylk said:
OH no, I shld have done more research before trusting the LFS... will they be able to thrive in the water?

Haha .. I think the tainted glass at the top of the water gave that away... will it have any long term side effects on the glass?

I usually do a 15% PWC every 8 days (no grav vac for now). I do not replace the evaporated water as I will be PWC-ing.

I thought I can cheat on the GH test kit part. I bought a KH and GH kit, but the GH kit isnt working. I jsut add in how ever much cich salt that I PWC-ed as the instruction was not to replace the salt for evaporated water.

The PH out of the tap is 6.6 - 6.8. I use baking soda and coral sand and chips.

Have you had any cases of parasites infection?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Not so much the water as they have different temperaments and diets. I suggest replacing the trets with a more suitable mbuna/malawi species.

15% is far too small a water change. Up that to at least 20-30% weekly.
 
Yes I guess I will more of a PWC...

No, I cant return the non malawi fishes... its not the culture of LFS here...

Im using 2 64000k, 36w tube for 8 hours a day... Its okay... I'll wait for a while more and then see how the algae goes..
 
M concern is always with buffers and chemicals added. The problem is that when you do a water change, you're only diluting the chemicals you added last time, eventually leading to a build up in the buffer in the tank. If the fish are locally bred I would use crushed coral ( either in your setup or in a bag in the filter ) and limestone rocks to buffer hardness. Most Mbuna are pretty adaptable to water conditions, and though your water is soft from the tap I think it would be okay with CC or limestone buffers. The chemical stuff can cause rapid fluctuations that can affect the fishes' health making them more susceptible to disease. Water changes and gravel vacs are important for Africans. As others mentioned, Africans seem to appreciate large water changes but done regularly. Slowly up your amount weekly until you reach the 20-30% range. My LFS runs RO water in their cichlid tanks and they're fine. I take them home and acclimate them from 7.0 water to 8.6, after which the pH and hardness remains steady up to a week, when it begins to dip a few points. That's where being diilligent in changes helps. For now, I'd search through Wetwebmedia.com's disease pages and diagnose your problem. Start treatment from there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom