beaten cichlids in hospital aquarium

aschmidtlpn

AC Members
Aug 15, 2005
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i have a 55 gallon sa cichlid tank. i bought 4 new fish yeserday and 2 of them have taken a major beating overnight. i got a 10 gallon aquarium from a friend that is established and have moved the 2 fish into this. how long should i keep them in there, are there any certain chemicals i shoud put in there to help them heal, certain foods better than others for healing???? when it is time to put them back into the 55 gallon, any suggestions for a safer introduction?? :sad:
 
I would keep them in the 10 gal for a couple of weeks,until they heal.
Do you have any idea what beat them up?
You may have to grow them a little in the 10 gal untill they can hold their own.
 
my red zebra and snow white scolofi got pretty aggressive when i introduced the new ones to the 55 gal so i assume they did it. funny though the white one has never been the aggressive type he usually keeps to himself. as far as the size of these 2 fish in the hospital tank, they are just as large as the aggressive ones. i peaked on them when i got home from work this morning and they are already swimming around not lying sideways on the rocks like they were earlier yesterday so i am happy :clap:
 
What do you have in the tank know, and what were you adding? Most SA and CA cichlids aren't real good at froming "communites". I've heard of some people doing it, but introducing new fish to an already established pecking order may not even be possible with these guys. Even if sized are comprable "home court advantage" is a huge deal to these guys. In my opinion, a 55g could only hold four or five medium sized SA/CA cichlids to begin with. Sorry, I know that's not what you want to hear.
 
my tank consist of way more than what you say i should thats for sure. i have probably up to 25 fish. i have always been told to pack them in. i had no intentions on adding anymore since i got these new ones. one of them has now died. they are all south africans mainly from lake tang...whatever :) i havent added anything other than what is compatible...until i purchased 3- 1 in jewels that i was told were compatible than was told they are not so far all is well my fish range from 1/4 in. (my 1 fry) to 5 in. (snow white and male arautus) anymore advice you have would be helpful i have had my tank for 2 yrs now and just love them. will take any advice i can get to keep them beautiful. THANK YOU
 
Many cichlids are very aggressive. If you are going to add new tankmates with them be sure to do the following.

1) make sure the new tankmates are about the same size no huge size difference.
2) move the rocks and plants around in your tank to a new setting so your current fish don't already have their own territory.
3) Feed your cichlids before adding the new ones.
4) Let the new ones float in their bags for about an hour or two (this will not hurt them)
5) Let them out of their bags when its dark or @ night
6) Leave the aquarium light OFF after that and do not turn it on until the morning

This will help them get along better but they also may fight just due to size differences or if they are from different lakes that don't get along with each other.

Good Luck! I hope my advice helps for the future! :)
 
We don't even know what species they are yet we are giving all this advice about things to do with them? Sorry but that is not a wise thing to be doing. Unless we know what they are we can not provide good advice.

Puppy, I do not agree with your method of aclimatizing new fish or preparing current fish to accept new ones, let alone the fact you do not advocate quarantining fish at all.
 
Point of clarification: SA in the hobby usually means South American. For the fish you are talking about the term Rift Lake, or the name of the actual lake they come from, is more customary.

However, you are clearly confusing Rift Lake cichlids with Africans in general. Jewels are from West Africa, and are not at all compatible, either in water requirements or temperament, with the fishes of Lakes Malawi and Tanganika. Also, you make a comment regarding "Lake Tanganyika, whatever" and yet the only species you specifically mention, other than the Jewels, are from Lake Malawi.

You may have had this tank for two years, but I would suggest that a good deal of reading is in order in order to straighten it out. You appear to have randomly mixed a number of incompatible species from different areas, and are now facing the consequences.
 
One of my fish got beat up pretty good and I moved it to a 10gal hospital tank. I used melafix as directed and it works great!
 
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