[Aratingettar]

HI!
I have a 64gallon tank housing 14 young tropheus moori Ikola. One of the fish behaves very oddly. It is only staying next to the water surface (generally behaves in an apathetic way). Furthermore, this fish has sunken spots behind his eyes. I'm worried this fish can die soon. Does anyone know, what could that be? Please help! I also attached a photo of this fishie from yesterday. Today he got worse

P.S.
All the others behave and look normally.

 

[Aratingettar]

This is a photo of the same fish from today.

 

[Deeda]

My guess is that fish is being harassed as it is at the top of the tank and trying to avoid the other fish. Do you have a separate cycled tank that you can move it to?

 

[Aratingettar]

Not really... I have an almost 8 years old, up and running 30 gallon, with cardinal tetras and a pleco. Maybe i could put a breeder box into that tank, and put him/her in there. What about that?

 

[DJRansome]

It does sound like the fish is being harassed and may be becoming sick. What are the dimensions of your 64G? You mention you have an 8-year-old tank...is the tropheus tank new? What are test results for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

I would do the breeder box within the tropheus tank as an overnight solution.

 

[Aratingettar]

The dimentions are 120cmX40cmX50cm (standard 64g). The tropheus tank got fish 2 weeks ago, but its been running scince june of this year. Ph is something in between 7,5 and 8. With nitrogen compounds- ammonia and nitrite 0, and nitrate small ammounts.

 

[sir_keith]

I agree with the comments above- this is likely a stressed fish that is being harassed. Your only course of action is to isolate the fish and let him recover, however you are able to do that. A breeder box is not a long-term solution.

What you're seeing here is one reason that it is difficult to keep just one Tropheus tank- you have no place to put individual fishes when they get harassed, something which in the long-term is inevitable. Good luck.

 

[Aratingettar]

Thanks. Sadly he died overnight...
The lesson from this is probably to get en extra tank, as a recovery one. Thanks for all help

 

[sir_keith]

Thanks. Sadly he died overnight...
The lesson from this is probably to get en extra tank, as a recovery one. Thanks for all help

Anyone who has ever kept Tropheus for any period of time has suffered a loss like this; it comes with the territory. That said, just getting an extra 'recovery tank' may not solve the problem, for example, see the recent thread on 'Time Out' in the Malawi section (Does cichlid time out work?). I have several Tropheus species tanks in my fish room, and when one individual is being harassed, I move him into another tank that is devoid of conspecifics. For example, I recently had to move one of my T. sp. 'Red' Lunangwa South individuals into a tank with less aggressive fishes (T. moorii Mpulungu) to recover, and after a few months, I will move him back into the original tank. This has worked for me on several occasions in the past, but only after a long hiatus. A more typical solution is to re-home harassed individuals as the colony matures.