[TailorO]

I went on vacation for a few days and my room mate was feeding my fish for me. When i got home i noticed one of my Acei was looking sluggish and sick. His colouring was fine and he didn't have any marks or anything on him. So i cleaned the tank and did a large water change and fished him out of the tank. By this time he was floating half upside down at the top of the tank. I moved him to a 10gal QT tank with some aqareum salt and waited. I wasn't sure what was wrong with him. Not a mark on him. Within about an hour he was totally fine. Completely happy and swimming around the tank. None of my other fish have gotten sick. i tested the water on my main tank and it is fine. I kept him in the QT for about a week then tried to put him back in the main tank. The second i put him back in he went belly up again so i grabbed him, put him back in the 10gal. Then about 20 minutes later he was totally fine and happy again. What gives? The only thing i could think of was stress but what do i do? I can keep him in the ten by himself forever! I even added a bunch more rock to my main tank to give more hiding places but he went belly up before he even got the chance to check it out! :-?

 

[CichlidWhisperer]

Is he the only Acei in the tank? What are his tank mates and what are the dimensions of the tank?

I have found that single Acei are not very outgoing and tend to hide. Once you put a second, or even better a third in they come out and are very very social. I have an all male tank with singles of every species except for Acei (I have 4 of them) because when I had one it did the exact same thing. They are wierd in that even though they are all males, they hang out and school together with very little aggression.

 

[TailorO]

he is not the only one in the tank. It is a 55gal with LOTS of rockwork and i have three Acei. I'm not sure what to do with him. He is such a wimp that i am even considering puting him in my community tropical tank with my tetras and gouramis :lol:

 

[pugwash]

What's your stocklist in the 55g? Could be someone else upsetting him, or the other 2 have paired up....

 

[Gibbs]

Malawi's dont pair up, and Acei's feel most comfortable in harems of atleast 4 or 5.
Sounds like he is a little bit stressed to me. I would leave him in the small tank for a couple of weeks feeding it small amounts and doing water changes of 25% every 2nd day.
After a few weeks buy 2 more Acei and add the three of them to the tank together.

Are all your parameters ok in your main tank? What are the rest of the fish you are keeping in it? What are the dimensions? (Gallons is the volume, dimensions are more important)

 

[TailorO]

I have a 55 gallon tank. I checked the water on the main tank and everything was fine. I have a lot of fish in there and recently some of them have started maturing and getting much more aggressive. i can tell some of my fish are getting stressed. I am planning on moving some of my fish to another tank some time this week. Hopefully that will help matters

 

[TailorO]

So i moved all the fish that were getting picked on into another tank. The aggresstion in the main tank is almost totally gone and the milder fish in the new tank are happy and doing great. no longer stressed at all........except for the one Acei!!! Everyone else adjusted great. The other Acei is totally happy. But my larger one kept getting chased and picked on by my 2 labs and my other Acei (which are way smaller than him)! I had to take him out again cuz he started to float at the top on his side. So now i have him in a tank by himself AGAIN and he is totally fine! i don't know what to do with him!