TankMate

Hi there, This species eats a lot - loves bloodworms (we feed them frozen ones). Apparently, it is an aggressive species, but ours aren't too aggressive and get on well with the others. Tends to grab at the food (like Oscars), especially the females. Males tend to stay on one side - our male one did not like hanging around the female one (breeding pair that didn't end up breeding cause my female died of 'plague'). We love its 'pre-historic' look and is a very good conversation piece. Its mouth can stretch really wide so make sure you don't put in with small fish. Capable of growing at a fast rate providing you give them ample food without sacrificing ammonia/nitrite levels, so make sure you have a decent, powerful filter/s. Would advise 4000 litres/per hour filtration. Ensure food is high in amino acids and protein for max growth. In a 550 tank with powerful current, they grow very quick.

It is heart-breaking. Huge philosophical lesson on how life goes on. It's a very grounding hobby - you reap what you put in.

Hi Rob, We keep African Cichlids and a whole heap died from a combination of things, BUT we did feed them a lot of bloodworms. They loved it, so we got carried away and fed them a lot (will opt out of posting here how much exactly as it will elicit a a bundle of hate-posts aimed at me, I'm sure :oops: ). If you decide to feed them bloodworms, DO NOT feed live bloodworms unless you know how they were bred or bred them yourself as they may carry diseases which could wipe out your Africans. The high-quality frozen ones are excellent products - I used the Japanese-made one - Hikari, I think. Also, I would not recommend to feed them blood worms everyday. TankMate

MYXAZIN!!!!! not Melafix. MYXAZIN!

Hi All, Goldie: Cycled tank 25% then another 25% then another 20%. All is well now. The Melafix fixed the PopEye so well, and I think we did it just in time to save the two fishes. However: lost my clown loach and two rainbow sharks to a cannibal (rather, piscibal!). Seems like one large cichlid thought midnight snacking on growth-challenged fishies is the way to go. They are all alive and kickin' (still), thanks to all your help and support. To summarise TankMate's epic: (1)New tank under-cycled (2)Fish put in (3)Cichlids started dying at rate of one a day. (4)Probably due to ammonia-spiking (5)Cichlids also developed pop-eye (6)Water change 25%. This immediately slowed death rate (7)Limit food and constantly removed excreta (8)Treated with Melafix for PopEye, Prime (9)Water change 25% again, all the while monitoring ammonia/nitrite (10)More treatment - water was very kinda green due to medication (11)Water change 20% again (12)Constant monitoring and treatment Thanks again, y'all, and hope other people learn from my sleep-depriving, pocket-hurting, stress-inducing experience, as I would not want to wish that on my worst enemies (Hmm, on second thought....). Ciao for now!

Poor Ira. I can relate to how you feel about the sharks. I hope they recover soon. My fish, on the other hand, are surviving. No more deaths - pop eye one is getting better - slow, but at least he's hanging in there. What does it mean when they're just floating with the current, and even spinning around and around, until it hits something or someone bumps it> The pop-eye fish was doing yesterday - was going to euthanise him, but gave him another chance. He's swimming normally now, albeit slowly.

RE Names LOL! I named my 2 Electric yellows B1 & B2...ergo, other naming conventions could be T1, T2, T3... Or the 7 dwarves - Happy, Doc, Grumpy...(hey, that's a good idea for the fish i just bought - ONLY JOKING! Pegasus & co would kill me if I got new fish considering what they're going through right now). My lionfish are Simba and Mufasa ,Clownfish is Krusty,Catfish is Quasimodo. ====== OH NO! I just looked at the pop-eye fish and it's spinning round and round, and everyone is picking on him! I don't think he's going to make it through.

What salts? How much? I've got a 550L tank.

Wednesday 13 Nov Hi y'all! Update - lost one more Zebra Monday night BUT...no more since then. All fish look great now. One looks really scabby and flaky (Desert Storm - he was the one we thought we were going to lose 3 days ago), but he's up and about. Mild case of fin rot on armoured catfish and 2 cichs. Looks like pop-eye getting worse on one cich, affecting both eyes. Has fin rot too, the poor thing. And yes, NO MORE FISH to be added (for a while, anyway). We've gone through too much pain in the last two weeks. Got new meds today - Myxazin. The box says : "Lowers count of harmful bacteria, treats fin rot, body rot, ulcers, etc, controls Pop Eye, cloudy eyes, mouth fungus, whitespot." Comments on this meds, anyone? TankMate (not Rusty, Pegasus!) PS. Should stop naming my fish - I get too attached. Am I the only one who names their fish? Was viewing my previous posts and laughed at my crazy ramblings, reference to fish by proper names :lol:

Pegasus - Guilty of multiple posting but I was frantic! Thanks for your help. Pop eye was both eyes, and affected lots of fish, so definitely not an accident.

An update on the ongoing saga: Red jewel cichlid - RIP (last night, Sun) Female Compressiceps - RIP (today, Mon) The rest look better since last night (apart from Female Compressiceps aka Chong; guess other half Cheech is destined to be single) Good appetite, good feces, actively swimming, better coloration. Filtration increased to 4500/hr, with 2 bio & 3 mech (no carbon), current reduced to 50% so sick fish can recover. Prime used - 90% show massive improvement on using Protozin. Zebras now showing normal territorial aggression (whoo-hoo!) & Frontosa is looking soo much better. Monitoring the readings TWICE a day. Ammonia = 0, Nitrate = 0, PH = 7 to 7.5 Am controlling the ph as the LFS did not say to add this slowly (Thanks, Rusty!). Well, we learned the hard way, didn't we? Patience IS a virtue. Will keep you posted, and will try to insert a photo of the survivors when I manage to get hold of a digicam. Thanks so much for your help.

Thanks. Will keep you all posted. In the meantime, will monitor all levels, reduce feeding, (I suspect other people in house feed fish when we're not looking), add prime. Fins crossed. TankMate

Hi all! Thanks for the replies. Sorry - writing in despair and forgot the most important bits: Tank is 550L (4 x 2.5 x 2) Do I still have too much fish? Most of them are small. Mech filter on old tank was put on new tank. Got a new bio filter for new tank. Set up tank for 3-4 days before putting fish in. Put some old water, maybe 20%, in new tank. Aaaargh! Should we have waited 2-3 weeks?! Ammonia levels were high in past week (2nd highest on chart), BUT is back to 0 now, for 2 days now. And yes - added fish all together =( Now, they seem to be moving about, including the zebras which were v-e-r-y sluggish yesterday morning. One, however, does not look very good. End of gills are feathery, face is very dark (not normal for this fish at all), colour is all splotched together, and stays in one spot. Got stuck upside down for a little while & we thought that was the end for poor Desert Storm. Ammonia = 0 for the past 2 days to date. Nitrate = 0 for the past 2 days to date. Last death was yesterday afternoon. QUESTION: Do I still need to do a water change, even if all levels are OK? Do you think we are in the clear? The things we are worried about: gill redness - SA cich no appetite, no poo - 1 male Compressiceps pop eye - zebras and some of the other fish but not as bad as yesterday one fish which seems to be very ill (see above)

Hi! I know what you mean about the # of fish. The family went MAD about fish and couldn't stop buying 'em. Had a tank before (no deaths), then upgraded to a bigger one three weeks ago. So far, 25% water change only in new tank. What other foods do you feed ? -Cichlid sticks -Sera granules -Tetra Tropical fish food -Cichlid pellets -Goldfish food (to enhance growth of lumps, eg lionheads, etc.) These are all mixed in a container (approx 20% of each is fed), and scooped into tank. What medications or additives have you used to date ? -Water conditioner -Prime Ammonia remover -Cycle -Protozin -Sera biostart What Water changes do you do, and how often ? -New tank - so far, 25% How long have you had the tank setup ? -3 weeks When did the probs start... and what was the last thing you added before they did ? -Fed em live bloodworms two weeks ago - they loved it and they were fine. -Got new fish - Sleepy Cod. Two days later, fish started dying. Have you checked for dead fish under rocks etc, ? -All removed What substrate and filtration are you using ? -2 Bio via Aqua 250 & 850 -1 Powerhead 2000L/hr Is the water cloudy at all ? -Yes How often do you feed ? -2 to 4 times a day What are your present readings of the water ? kdh = 6 to 8 pH = 8 Ammonia & Nitrates = 0 ===== Does the strength of current matter much? Also, noticed parts of the eyes (outer ring) losing colour. I've been reading posts for a few hours now - could this be Malawi bloat?

I'm glad you replied! Hang on - will find out.

we don't know what to do anymore. Deaths one after another in span of 1 1/2 weeks. Been feeding them highgrade frozen bloodworms no probs. Two weeks ago they were fine, until four of the five clown loaches died. No obvious reason why, and we just attributed it to the strong current (current increased as the cichlids liked it). Then, we fed them live bloodworms. They loved it. Three days later: 1.A cichlid died (forgot what it was - blue with orange-tippped fins). We've had him for 5 days.It was upside down and struggling to right itself. We noticed it wasn't excreting much a day or two before it died, wasn't eating much either. 2.Then Ozzie, Australian grunter died. We've had him for over a week. 3.Then a kuhli loach went to loach heaven. 4.Then Jaws (Ornatus) went. 5.Then Bifrinatus went - he squeezed between the filter and glass. 6.Then Moby (Malawi Blue dolphin?Looks like a mini whale). Found him upside down like #1. 7.Then Braveheart, the Electric blue, kicked the bucket. Struggled upside down until the end =( 8.Then Slick, a Daffodil, pushed up daisies. Ammonia was so high, so worked on clearing it. Increased aeration too. So broken hearted we were, we watched them all night. Noticed that Prince's (a zebra cichlid) eyes were nearly gonna pop out of their sockets! Then noticed the rest had some sort of googly look to their eyes - the worst was Prince and Liberace, both zebra cichlids. 9.Then Sgt Vivian, (don't know what she is but is a green and black camouflage cichlid) bit the bullet yesterday, Sat. All these did not show any obvious signs of death or disease. Only that they looked great day before they died. Ammonia = 0 Nitrates = 0 pH = ok Went to the fish shop for advise and they said to put crushed coral, so we got a bag (what else can you do?) Been cleaning excreta all the time to keep it clean. Now, another mottled-coloured fish looks worse for wear. It's a cichlid with black and grey camouflage spots (Desert Storm). Reddish sports on belly and on the tips of the fins. Face has gone really, really dark. The zebra cichs are still there, one is active, one is not. Eyes do not look as bulgy as before but it is still there. No white spots that I can see, however it could be internal parasites. Lowered aeration in case the bubbles/oxygen was causing gas-bubble disease. Remaining fish are: 2 Oscars 2 Kompressiceps, male & female 1 clown loach 2 Zebra cichs 2 SoAmerican cichs - one has reddish gills 1 Frontosa 2 Convict cichs - the most active of the lot 2 black sharks with red fins 1 Daffodil 2 Electric yellows - eyes are a bit googly 2 lionheads - eyes are a bit googly 1 Sleepy cod 1 Armoured catfish 1 cichlid, white with blue splotches (called him Levis) I read in the posts about Ich - can't see anything - no white spots, no cysts (not that I can see them anyway). Maybe Ichophonus? Wanted to open up Sgt Vivian to see if there were worms, but I couldnt do it. Hope someone can help out there. We're in Sydney, Australia, so if you know of any local meds, or a fish helpline number, we would gladly appreciate it. TankMate