Help! Red Rainbowfish Not Eating!

joel.uejio

joel.uejio

AC Members
Jun 1, 2009
909
0
16
Real Name
Joel
Yesterday I picked up 4 red rainbow fish (Glossolepis incisus) to go in my 75g with a salvini, firemouth, and raphael cat. Today I picked up 2 boesemani and 2 turquoise (Melanotaenia lacustris) to go with them (couldn't get more reds).

So far the reds just hang out near the top of the tank, but aren't eating. Should I be concerned? What should I do to help them thrive?

The other 4 are still adjusting, so I'll see how they are tomorrow.

Thanks!
 
I've been doing some more reading on rainbow fish. Should I add an air stone or power head for more dissolved oxygen?
 
AHH! Of the 8 rainbows:

6 ate a little, now are hanging out at top of tank.
I found one dead, stuck on the AC110 input tube
Just now found another floating upside down just twitching a little

HELP!!

Floater looked bad so I'm doing a euthanize situation....what should I do to prevent more loss?

As soon as I can I'm going to do a water test, and then go from there.

Please help! Thanks!
 
Check your water parameters. If all your fish are hanging at the top of the tank trying to get air maybe add an airstone.
 
Water params are: Temp = 79F, pH = 7.9, NH3 = 0, NO2 = 0, NO3 = ~8.

Thanks for the suggestion -- the remaining rainbows are hanging out near the output from my AC110 so I think an air stone or power jet is in order. The salvini, fm, and raphael are all over the tank though and not having any problems, but maybe the 'bows are more sensitive to lack of O2...

Please keep the suggestions coming! I'll post more updates as thins change.
 
Ok, I picked up an AquaClear 50 power head and installed it to see if more aeration will help out things. So far it seems like a hit! The 4 big reds are all hanging out by it. The smaller 2 rainbows aren't as close, but maybe the force is too much. Other tank occupants seem fine with it.

Here are some pics:
pets0001.JPG

pets0003.JPG

pets0001.JPG pets0003.JPG
 
This morning I checked and the other turquoise rainbow was dead :(. The thing about this one, though, is that his eyes were gone...

Actually, yesterday I saw the firemouth nip at one of the other rainbow's eye, so I'm thinking maybe he's the culprit. Do fm's do that? Go after other fish's eyes?

The remaining 5 rainbows seem ok so I think I'm just going to monitor the situation and not add anymore fish. If I can go a few weeks with the remaining rainbows, maybe I'll add some more to boost the school, but I wonder if they're going to get whomped by the fm...
 
I've always thought FMs were more peaceful but I can't say for sure as I've never kept them myself. The bows should be able to get away from the aggression. The eyes could have been picked out after it died too.

I'm not sure if its the camera or the lighting or what but in the first pic I just noticed that the colors of the bows look...strange...could you get some more pics?

Did you test params again?
 
almost all cichlids are aggressive, some are just more aggressive than others.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom