It's been months of water cleaning and keeping everything in check, yet my 2 red jewel cichlids are still lethargic, hiding, and uneventful. They spend most of their time at the tank bottom in a somewhat crooked/leaning over posture. Sometimes their fins are clamped, while other times they aren't. They are easily spooked and tend to swim frantically away from me when I take a look at them.
I'm currently not on any meds except dosing their pellets with garlic. The food seems to be disappearing, but it's extremely rare for me to catch them eating. I did see them last week though. This treatement is based on my theory of internal parasites. (pleco has clear stringy feces, and a puffy stomach)
I'm very frustrated because I want to put more fish in the tank, but don't want to get them sick as well. I'm tired of having a lame fish tank with fish that don't appear happy.
It's been extremely difficult diagnosing diseases and more difficult getting any help.
What the heck does rapid breathing mean? Nobody defined normal breathing, so what am I to make of it? Should there be a clear mucous membrane on the gills? If I look extremely close with my eagle eyes, I see what appears to be a mucous membrane on the gills. If I go crazy and keep staring, I want to say it doesn't look normal, but I dont' know. I'm almost to the point of treating for flukes because I haven't gone there yet. My research so far is pointing me in that direction. Some of the symptoms are different. No red gills, and they don't sit near the surface. I found this quote on a site
"When fishes 'flash" against objects, yet you see no visible parasites, gill flukes (egg-laying Dactylogyrus) or body flukes (livebearing Gyrodactylus) are among the likely suspects. Other symptoms of flukes are clamped fins, inactivity, and rocking motions. Part of the host fishes' response to gill flukes is to secrete additional mucus. In bad infestations you might even see mucus trailing off the gills and you might misidentify a thread of mucus as a "gillworm." The physical abrasions that trematodes inflict can open the way for bacterial/fungal "finrot," even bacterial "gillrot" or body lesions."
The fish used to flash, now they're lethargic. Lethargic unless I startle them and they swim like crazy to the other side of the tank.
I'm wondering if I have 2 males/females and they just don't like each other. Neither of the jewels appear nipped or damaged. I have seen them swim with eachother in the past. I've also seen the larger one bully the smaller one a bit.
So far I've diagnosed/treated the fish with parasites both internal/external, ich, fungus/bacterial infections. I wish I could figure out how to get better help on here..
The ich went away. The open sore healed up.... The mysterious red spot on one of the cichlids disappeared a day later.... The excess mucous on the fish cleared up.
Here is what I'm working with.... 40 gallon breeder... yes it's been cycled for months.... There is a 6" sailfin leopard pleco in the tank, along with these 2 red jewel cichlids. No I don't know the latin name for the fish or the specific species. The Nitrates have never been above 20ppm. I change at least 25% of the water weekly.
If I'm doing something wrong here please tell me. It seems rare that I get a response, almost to the point where I think I've done something wrong and people are ignoring me. Am I posting in the correct forum? Is my spelling good enough? Have I done my fair share of research to try and help myself?
I'm currently not on any meds except dosing their pellets with garlic. The food seems to be disappearing, but it's extremely rare for me to catch them eating. I did see them last week though. This treatement is based on my theory of internal parasites. (pleco has clear stringy feces, and a puffy stomach)
I'm very frustrated because I want to put more fish in the tank, but don't want to get them sick as well. I'm tired of having a lame fish tank with fish that don't appear happy.
It's been extremely difficult diagnosing diseases and more difficult getting any help.
What the heck does rapid breathing mean? Nobody defined normal breathing, so what am I to make of it? Should there be a clear mucous membrane on the gills? If I look extremely close with my eagle eyes, I see what appears to be a mucous membrane on the gills. If I go crazy and keep staring, I want to say it doesn't look normal, but I dont' know. I'm almost to the point of treating for flukes because I haven't gone there yet. My research so far is pointing me in that direction. Some of the symptoms are different. No red gills, and they don't sit near the surface. I found this quote on a site
"When fishes 'flash" against objects, yet you see no visible parasites, gill flukes (egg-laying Dactylogyrus) or body flukes (livebearing Gyrodactylus) are among the likely suspects. Other symptoms of flukes are clamped fins, inactivity, and rocking motions. Part of the host fishes' response to gill flukes is to secrete additional mucus. In bad infestations you might even see mucus trailing off the gills and you might misidentify a thread of mucus as a "gillworm." The physical abrasions that trematodes inflict can open the way for bacterial/fungal "finrot," even bacterial "gillrot" or body lesions."
The fish used to flash, now they're lethargic. Lethargic unless I startle them and they swim like crazy to the other side of the tank.
I'm wondering if I have 2 males/females and they just don't like each other. Neither of the jewels appear nipped or damaged. I have seen them swim with eachother in the past. I've also seen the larger one bully the smaller one a bit.
So far I've diagnosed/treated the fish with parasites both internal/external, ich, fungus/bacterial infections. I wish I could figure out how to get better help on here..
The ich went away. The open sore healed up.... The mysterious red spot on one of the cichlids disappeared a day later.... The excess mucous on the fish cleared up.
Here is what I'm working with.... 40 gallon breeder... yes it's been cycled for months.... There is a 6" sailfin leopard pleco in the tank, along with these 2 red jewel cichlids. No I don't know the latin name for the fish or the specific species. The Nitrates have never been above 20ppm. I change at least 25% of the water weekly.
If I'm doing something wrong here please tell me. It seems rare that I get a response, almost to the point where I think I've done something wrong and people are ignoring me. Am I posting in the correct forum? Is my spelling good enough? Have I done my fair share of research to try and help myself?
), or if my questions/fish issues are just not interesting enough. As well, I tend to post at the end of the day, when fewer people are oline (I live in the Mountain time zone, so a good number of members are offline by the time I post.)
