Poorly Cichlids....

[DrEvil]

Hi all,

This may be a little cheeky as a first post, but I've been experiencing problems, well I think I am, with some of my Malawi cichlids.

I have a Juwell Rio 300ltr tank, with standard internal (jumbo) filter system + heater, and a Fluval 404 also running externally.

There is ocean rock stacked up the back, on top of coral sand, with a couple of aquatic plants (lava ferns).

At the moment I have:

6x Yellow Labs
3x Double Reds
3x Blue Dolphines (Moori)
3x figure of 8 puffers
1x catfish (forgotten the name of this one, but its Malawi based).

I've tried treating the water with Protizin and Meda-Fix (full treatment course, removed carbon from filters) to no effect.

The symptoms are that 2x of the Blue Dolphines are side swiping the coarse corel sand, also on the Yellow labs started doing it too.
Now, I can't see anything obviously wrong with them, apart from it seems the yellow lab has 'shed' some of its skin potentially - which I find hard to believe, but its skin on one side is quite dark causing the stripes to be more prominant. Unfortunately I can't post pics, and don't expect a diagnosis based on the above, but I just wondered what scenarios others may have seen this in?

Any pointers much appreciated.

:confused:

[DrEvil]

I'm going to get check the water quality again this weekend and write down the results, will post these on Monday.

[vjvl51]

Many people use their first post to ask for help. :) It's what we're here for - to help each other.

Water test results will help so I'll check back on Mon.

I'm not the greatest at conversions, but I think that you are close if not over to the maximum bio-load. The rule of thumb (for community fish) is 2.5 cm per 3.8 l (this is using the adult size). This does NOT apply to cichlids because they need more room for their territory. Here is a good article on stocking a tank http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/stockguide.shtml.
Another consideration is how many caves, hiding spots, etc that you have. It doesn't sound like to many if all the rocks are piled in one spot. If your tank is overcrowded, that will cause stress. Stress is one of the biggest causes of disease in fish.

Another thing is your puffers. Most puffers are so territorial that most people say they require a species tank. If there is a lot of aggression going on, that can be another cause of stress.

Usually when fish start rubbing rocks, sand, etc, it is a sign of ich. Ich looks like salt has been sprinkled on your fish. Again, ich is present in all tanks but only affects the fish when they are under stress - poor water conditions, over crowding, aggressive tank mates - injury, etc.

Adding medicine also adds stress because it changes the water chemistry. This is a no win situation. You medicate because of illnes which causes stress which causes more illness. :( It is a balancing act to know when to medicate and when to improve conditions.

You asked for senarios and I have tried to mention some possibilities. What would I do? I would double dose with Stress Coat (or something like that). It improves the slime coating that the fish require. I would also do a 15 to 20% water change to help remove the medication from your tank. On Monday, when you post your test results, maybe we'll see something else that could have caused the problem.

Vickie

[DrEvil]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Right, water tests have shown high Nitrite levels, and on this basis I've opted for 20-25% water changes every other day (Friday/Sunday so far) to help reduce this, in addition to placing a nitra-zorb pack in one of the filters. This should help temporarily.

I've also identified Ich on at least one of the fish in question and have purchased some treatment that I will start later this week, once the Nitrite is under control.

I will have to keep a close on eye on things for a while. And may well remove (take back) the 3 Blue Dolphins to alleviate the load on the tank/filtration.

Someone(in the Aquatics Centre) mentioned that Stress Coat has a fair amount of ammonia in it and perhaps not the best solution? Could this cause issue with Ammonia levels or assuming adequate biological filtration be OK?

As for the puffers, they are figures of eight, and have been extremely well behaved in the tank. TBH the only fish I've seen 'giving it large' are the Blues.

The rock is positioned across the whole of the back of the tank, and stacked against the glass to about 1ft high. There are loads of caves and other places to hide, and the fish on the whole don't fight. I might but a little more rock to build up either side of the tank (left/right, not front and back).

Thanks again for the details above, hopefully I will able to contribute at some point to help others, but fairly new to it all.

Cheers, Alex

[vjvl51]

Hi Alex

Stress Coat does not contain any ammonia. Here is our store web site that explains in greater detail what Stress Coat will do for your fish http://aquariumpros.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=APH85G&Category_Code=ADcr&Product_Count=6

One good source of info for any chemical is our store. Just click on the links on the left until you find what you're looking for. Dave stocks items that he has used over the years when setting up and maintaining hundreds of aquariums for their customers. If it didn't work for them, they don't stock it in the store.

Here is a good web site that explains the life cycle of ich and some treatments http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1791&articleid=2421

I would start reducing your partial water change to 10 to 15%. By now your nitrites should be diluted and you want to promote the growth of the bacteria to turn the nitrites to nitrates. If you remove too much water, this will slow down the growth of this bacteria.

Here are some web sites with good info

http://www.aquariumpros.com/articles/
http://aquariumpros.com/faqpro/
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

I highly recommend browsing these sites. You never know what you will learn :) (In fact I do this when I have some extra time. It is amazing sometimes what I learn from other people's questions or ideas.) These sites apply to marine tanks as well as fresh water but I don't think you will have any trouble knowing which type of tank the info applies to.

If you have any questions, just repost.

Vickie