Fish Permanently Sick?

[haydenm315]

Besides changing some more water yesterday and feeding, I didn't pay them much mind. I did notice that both of the poor frightened souls were bearing themselves to publicity this morning. I think even the pleco was out. They weren't swimming around much, but they were out. Shortly thereafter, one of the babies got scared and swam into hiding along with the pleco. I think one of the jewels thinks it's a pleco. Last week it was in a vertical position behind the tank mounted plastic rock formation.

I hope things improve. It kinda stinks having a 40 gallon tank that looks like a ghost town

 

[haydenm315]

The shielded light doesn't seem to be doing a whole lot in terms of making the fish active/curious. I have noticed that one seems to rotate hiding spots now. It's dug out a space under a porcelain bridge where it likes to sit and chill. They might be a little more accurate now. I've spotted them on a few occassions out of hiding resting near eachother.

The food seems to disappear, and there is definately waste matter in the tank, so I know someone is eating. The poor fellows are just deathly afraid of anything that moves outside the tank.

Maybe this is just how they behave once acclimated? I've read that Jewel Cichlids like to hide out a lot. I'm thinking about getting 2 more, but I'm not sure how well it will work out and I dont' want to put more fish in a tank that might somehow still be sick. I think it's about time to take the water to the LFS for testing.

 

[haydenm315]

Things are still crappy in the tank. I think I'm on to something though. There is something bad going on in the tank. The fish are dropping a mixture of clear/brown feces, and it's really nasty. The stuff is stringy/slimy and sticks to all sorts of things. I lifted up one of the ornaments and found what looked to be a colony of some sort of nasty stuff. I removed the ornament and did a 50% water change.

The stuff is hard for me to describe. It was speckled white/brown and slimy. I don't know how else to describe it. There still looks to be some more in the tank. I noticed there is some on the sunken ship ornament. It looks almost stringy, but not quite.

I dosed the tank with jungle labs parasite tabs. I read on here that the clear feces is caused by internal parasites.

Here is a picture of the smaller jewel. It seem to be more active now that I've rearranged all the hiding spots, but it's still lazy and reclusive like the other. THe other seems to hide more... It's most always in the ship. I did notice the end of the one in the ship's tail is red now, so maybe they're doing better.

Pardon the dirty and scratched glass.