What wrong with my Cichlid? Suddenly it is sick?

M

Mantis_22

Blue Dreams Webmaster
Mar 24, 2003
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Somerset, KY
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Hello everyone, I have had this one single Cichlid in a 10GL tank since it was a fry. Now it is around 2 inches long (estimate) and it seems the other day when I came home It looked sick. Here are the symptons..

The belly of the Cichlid is way out of proportion. It is beer-belly like and huge. Not just on the lower part under the chin also. It extends on the girth of the fish too.

Another thing is the Scales, They protrude from the body very sharply always and never ease up.

Also the fish has not came out to eat in about 2 days and hides in its rock lava cave.

The water conditions are decent and im running temps at 77-78 degrees. I did a Filter/Water change the other day and this tank is cycled. Does anyone know whats going on with this little guy?

This is the exact looking fish...

http://www.cichlidlovers.com/p-cherry-red.jpg

Someone please help, thanks :confused:
 
Malawi Bloat

Your fish has Malawi Bloat.

Are you feeding it a high protein diet?
Most (not all) African cichlids cannot tolerate allot of protein in their diet.

Check out here for some help on what to do
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

I have used Metronidazole on our Africans before. Works great.

Hope it helps.

Good luck.
 
It looks like you have a red zebra (called Maylandia estherae or Pseudotropheus estherae, depending on the source). A number of problems seem to present themselves.

First, I agree that your fish may have bloat. Bloat can be caused by a number of things, but food and tank conditions are the likely suspects. These fish need very low fat, low protein diets. Algae wafers and fresh veggies are best. Also, a 10 is way too small for this fish; a 30 gallon is minimum. I wouldn't keep a red zebra in anything less than a 55 or 75, personally.

Once fish are showing obvious signs of bloat, there's a fair chance the fish won't make it. If the cause is food too high in fat or protein, I'll fast the fish for 3-5 days and start with massive water changes. Meds don't seem to help much; Clout is often cited as a useful drug, but it is very powerful and seems to kill the fish within 24 hours about half the time.

I don't know if I'd give the metro that Scotto recommends... it's for internal parasites, which your fish may or may not have.

HTH,
Jim
 
Im thinking it is bloat also, since I only feed this fish tropical flakes and etc since it wont eat more natural things. I think he might die yet im not sure at the same time. I doubt its a Parasite that is killing him, its more than likely the Malawi bloat as you said.
 
what is your ph?

they need high ph like above 8.0

the temp seems fine for this fish

feeding tropical flakes will most likely kill it... especially a mbuna which pretty much eats only algae.

its too bad you didn't research your fish before you started keeping/feeding it.... :shake: but its okay we all make mistakes.
 
Well its not that I did not just research. I have had other cichlids also in the past which could take on flake food and never had a problem. So what should I be feeding this cichlid mainly if it comes back to peace ?
 
You want low fat, low protein foods. Most mbuna will eventually eat veggies if you offer them (and only them) daily for a week or so.

For commercially prepared foods, I like either Hikari algae wafers or Hikari Cichlid Excel. Excel is pellet food, so you need to feed very sparingly, or soak the pellets in water for 5 minutes before feeding.

Good luck with your fish.

Jim
 
Okay, so last night here is what I did...

-Little guy still isint darting or searching for food :(
-I did a 25% water change and cleaned the Filter media
-Then I add half-and-half of table salt and epsom salt (Natural Laxative)
-I add then one tablet of Jungle (Parasite clear)
-Increased temperature to 79 degrees
-Added more aeration to the tank
-And have been running the tank without the lights on to give less stress to the fish


The reason that I added the Parasite Clear was due to it saying it does sucessufully remove excessive amounts of internal protozoans. (What I think is messing with the guy). Also it removes any other external or internal parasites. It says it also cures for flukes and so on which the cichlid has. Im going to do another water change tomorrow morning and then drop in another tablet. And adding epsom salt, etc. Every other water change. Hopefully he makes it :(


Thanks for your help guys..
 
Personally, I try to avoid medicating unless I have a pretty strong idea what I'm treating. In this case, I'm not sure leads you to suspect protozoans. You have to be careful... many of these meds can finish off an already weakened fish. Withholding food and insuring the water is super-clean is probably the most effective treatment. Keeping the lights off is probably not a bad idea, either.

Let us know how he's doing...

Jim
 
I would starve the fish for several days as JSchmidt said to do. Malawi bloat is a common and serious occurance amoung Malawi Africans, especially wild caughts. You just can't feed it high protien foods. You will kill it.

I've never treated malawi bloat, but i would suspect adding the salts would be good. But i really dont think its nessecary to add the Jungle medication unless you are sure the fish also has internal/external parasites.

Here is a really good thread with lots of people offering thier advice for the treatment of malawi bloat.... and for a red zebra at that.

http://malawimayhem.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=328

Cichlids are all different. I really wish they weren't all classified under this 'cichlid' label because people always think they all need the same requirments, when they are all so different with thier needs.
 
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