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I have an 55gal tank with 3 African cichlids and one pleco. *** had the tank since july with no issues. I had 1 male and 2 females. The largest and most aggressive died this morning. It's a long story so I'll try to make brief.
The 2 females have been taking turns holding eggs that the male evidently hasn't fertilized. So when the largest female didn't eat this past thursday I wasn't concerned. I actually look forward to her holding eggs because it makes it easier to get the other 2 fish food. On friday, the large on again did not eat. One of the other 2 fish would eat, spit it out, eat it again, spit it back out , then give up. Last night, again the large fish didn't attempt to eat, and the other two would spit out their food. About an hour later, we noticed the large fish at the bottom of the tank, on its side. It stayed like that for awhile, then would swim to the other end of the tank, and roll on its side again. When I went to bed at midnight, it was still hanging in, but this morning was dead.
I have also noticed that one of the other fish has one cloudy eye. I gave them frozen blood worms today. The one with the cloudy eye didn't bother with it and the other one picked at it and seemed to eat some. They usually consume a cube in about 25 seconds. Eventually the worms were gone and the cloudy eye had a few worms and the other one ate the rest. Here are the details:
Nitrite
Nitrate <5
Ammonia 0
PH between 8.0 and 8.2
Tank temp 82 degrees
Water changes every 2 weeks (35-40%) with well water. I add Aquarium salt and API stress coat with water changes.
The eat floating pellets every day and blood worms 5-6 times a week.
The remaining fish seem to be acting normal with the exception of the lack of appetite.
An important note is we added the pleco a month ago to get rid of the typical algae. I' wondering if he introduced a parasite into the tank. And if so, I'm surprised it got to the biggest sized, biggest eating, most aggressive fish in the tank and not the smaller weaker fish.
Browsing the net, I've found similar posts(people with fish spitting out the food and not eating) and recommendations have been to treat the tank with metronidazole as they suggested it was a parasite. I went to the pet store and the only product the had with metronidazole was jungle lab Hole-n-head guard. My fish definetly dont have that, so my question is:
1. Should I treat the tank with this?
2. Will it hurt the biological filter? I know I have to remove the carbon filters if I do
3. Will it hurt the pleco?
I did a 40% water change this morning also.
The 2 females have been taking turns holding eggs that the male evidently hasn't fertilized. So when the largest female didn't eat this past thursday I wasn't concerned. I actually look forward to her holding eggs because it makes it easier to get the other 2 fish food. On friday, the large on again did not eat. One of the other 2 fish would eat, spit it out, eat it again, spit it back out , then give up. Last night, again the large fish didn't attempt to eat, and the other two would spit out their food. About an hour later, we noticed the large fish at the bottom of the tank, on its side. It stayed like that for awhile, then would swim to the other end of the tank, and roll on its side again. When I went to bed at midnight, it was still hanging in, but this morning was dead.
I have also noticed that one of the other fish has one cloudy eye. I gave them frozen blood worms today. The one with the cloudy eye didn't bother with it and the other one picked at it and seemed to eat some. They usually consume a cube in about 25 seconds. Eventually the worms were gone and the cloudy eye had a few worms and the other one ate the rest. Here are the details:
Nitrite
Nitrate <5
Ammonia 0
PH between 8.0 and 8.2
Tank temp 82 degrees
Water changes every 2 weeks (35-40%) with well water. I add Aquarium salt and API stress coat with water changes.
The eat floating pellets every day and blood worms 5-6 times a week.
The remaining fish seem to be acting normal with the exception of the lack of appetite.
An important note is we added the pleco a month ago to get rid of the typical algae. I' wondering if he introduced a parasite into the tank. And if so, I'm surprised it got to the biggest sized, biggest eating, most aggressive fish in the tank and not the smaller weaker fish.
Browsing the net, I've found similar posts(people with fish spitting out the food and not eating) and recommendations have been to treat the tank with metronidazole as they suggested it was a parasite. I went to the pet store and the only product the had with metronidazole was jungle lab Hole-n-head guard. My fish definetly dont have that, so my question is:
1. Should I treat the tank with this?
2. Will it hurt the biological filter? I know I have to remove the carbon filters if I do
3. Will it hurt the pleco?
I did a 40% water change this morning also.
