Chocolate Cichlid

M

mima

Registered Member
Aug 24, 2009
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Hey,
Can anyone help me I went to the fish shop and the lady said it was a comet after a few hours of investigation I discovered it was a Chocolate Cichlid. That's not the problem, the problem is she has stopped eating since (Friday) last week and today (Monday) she has started braking out in light blotches on one side. She shares the tank with a gold fish who is smaller then her and the gold fish continues to eat. Chocolate Cichlid was eating 6 to 7 grass hoppers a day plus blood warms. Help She does not look well
 
You need to do some research on your cichlid and offer him a proper setup, and diet. Also, cichlids and goldfish do not tolerate the same environments... so that is a problem you are going to have to handle.
 
I have been trying different food with the Chocolate Cichlid, eg. pea's, thin amount of chicken uncooked and she ate. I also tried fish flakes as that was what the fish shop was feeding her. And she refused to eat it. I have plants in the tank and she was eating the leaves and making a mess that I had to clean daily and replant. On (Saturday) I changed the tank water 20% and that's when she started not eating; I have also stop replanting. I think I might have upset her. The gold fish and Chocolate Cichlid interact very well and I have lowered the temp back to 26.
 
I'm not an avid cichlid keeper, so someone please correct me if I am wrong, but cichlids usually are in higher temp and higher ph tanks. Goldfish like much lower temps. Also, if I fed you chicken and tried to switch to fish food flakes would you want them? It may resist, but feed food that is made for it and it will eat it eventually. Also... goldfish and cichlids require different diets... a goldfish won't be healthy eating the same flakes that will keep a cichlid healthy.
 
Welcome to AC! I will move this to the Cichlid area for you.
 
A tip on how to get picky fish to eat: Soak the food in garlic juice before feeding (at least 10 minutes and up to overnight in the fridge). Garlic is almost universally a great appetite stimulator for fish. There are also some vitamin soaks that can encourage feeding as well as add nutrition to whatever she will accept.

Also, withholding food for a couple days will also encourage feeding on new foods. Since it's already not eating, I would not withhold food for now.

I don't know anything about chocolate cichlids, but I would encourage you to put it in a tank without the goldfish so that they each can have the tank setup they need. Cichlids need higher temps than goldfish, and even though they might be getting along now, cichlids are known for being aggressive in general. That might be why your chocolate cichlid is not looking well in addition to not eating. Who knows how long she was not eating at the LFS, you know? They usually don't have time to sit and observe each of the fish in their stock while they eat, so they don't always know if they are eating well or at all.
 
You need to move the cichlid out of the tank with the goldfish. You are actually keeping the goldfish at unnatural temperatures. Your 26 is fine for the cichlid. I would suggest from reading your post, that you just take the cichlid back to the store it can be in a proper environment.
 
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