[Corey]

Hello

On Sunday I bought a group of 1m and 4f Aulonocara sp. Lwanda and other then some brine shrimp Monday night they haven't eaten. I have tried feeding them NLS cichlid 1mm. When they refused to eat it I tried adding the garlic guard stuff, which made no difference. They are housed with 1 BN pleco in a 55 gallon. The water parameters are all where they should be. Any ideas or can this be consider normal? I've never owned this type of peacock before. I have done two small water changes since Sunday just to be safe.

Thank you

Corey

 

[DJRansome]

Wait a month and they should start eating.

 

[Corey]

LoL I take it this is normal then?

 

[noki]

They may be stressed or unfamiliar to the food, but should try the food if hungry enough. Malawi cichlids are usually pigs, I would not call them picky at all. Four days seems odd to me. You could try brine shrimp again and see if they are eating well, or just wait until they are hungry enough.

Not eating is often a bad sign of illness. Not having interest in food or spitting food out is a sign of bloat disease. But having all five act the same at the same time sounds more like they may be unfamiliar with the food. Do they swim around in a lively manner, with the male showing dominance? Or are they rather lethargic?

 

[Corey]

They swim around normally. The male is not showing a lot of dominance yet but he is only 2.5 inches or so. He will flash his fins out when the females come close though. I don't think its bloat because if anything they are a little skinny. Worst case I thought maybe they have a parasite because they had a quick turn around. From the breeder, to store, then to me was only 1 day. According to the store owner they came the night before i bought them.

 

[Corey]

Okay so one of the females is holding her fins close to her body now and is acting rather lethargic. I'm now officially starting to worry. The females ate a little brine shrimp yesterday but still no real food. Could they have a disease? There is no real physical signs i can see and it has been up and running with no issues since October. Any ideas?

 

[Deeda]

Can you post your water test results?

It may be a long shot but contact the store and see if they can contact the breeder to see what he was feeding them and maybe even his particular water conditions he was keeping the fish in.

I wouldn't jump to disease or illness without having more symptoms that can pinpoint either.

Any chance you can post a pic or two of the fish and the tank set up?

 

[DJRansome]

You don't have enough specific symptoms yet to diagnose a disease. Is she lurking under the surface or behing filter intakes or heaters?

 

[Corey]

She is swimming normally now. I might just have been worrying to much. I haven't had this species before so maybe they are just more finicky then I'm used too. Thanks for the suggestions/ help!

 

[Corey]

Okay so now I'm really confused. My pleco who has been healthy is starting to turn white on the top half of his body and has little black marks on him (they look like warts) and his fins have the odd red streak (looks like blood) and he has been sitting in the same spot of for the last day near the top of the aquarium. The other fish still haven't eaten very much but are swimming normally but are now starting to tuck there fins..... I have done 25-30% water changes every other day since the 4th. Any ideas?... Other than a trace amount of nitrates the water seems good.