whats wronge with my peacock?

[mr funktastic]

he seems to be hovering around the bottom and kind of slouching sideways. he appears to be in perfect health but seems drained of energy. i will put a pic so you can see and make judgement on him. please help he is just starting to get his true colours and i really want to see him grow up. please help. is there any kind of stress coat or something i can add to the water?

EDIT: the female also seems to be protecting him a little. she hangs out in the corner with him and whenever someone comes to close she chases them away.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

He could be stressed. What are the other tankmates?

Have you noticed any unusual behavior? Ie: Not eating, discolored poo, etc.

 

[mr funktastic]

i just noticed him acting like this yesterday and thought nothing of it. but today when i didnt see him eat i was more worried. if u look near his back fin in the second pic there are lighter white spots on him. i think he may be stressed. i have 2 mosobo deep(they dont bother anybody but each other) 2 yellow labs (same as the mosobo deep) and 2 cobalts (the one larger cobalt is a big but head to everybody but mainly the other cobalt) and 1 female peacock who seems to be protecting the male. he is now hiding in a clay pot i have in the corner of the tank. his fins seem to be a little tattered. i did a 25% water change and left the water a little lower from the brim so the filter will create more oxygen in the tank because he also seems to be breathing just a little faster. any idea? he doesnt appear sick in any physical way. i really dont want to loose him i just lost my demasoni and am still upset over that. all the other fish are very active and swimming around and looking healthy

 

[ntswift]

Those yellow labs can be pretty mean. The one I had in with my peacocks I had to get rid of. He was just stressing them out too much. i had a little ngara peacock sort of do the same thing, but he'd stay at the top by the filter and wouldnt eat. he was getting really skinny and so i did a PWC and threw in some melafix for about 10 days. He's doing great now. you might give that a shot if you dont mind removing all your plants and any bio stuff that you have in your tank.

 

[mr funktastic]

what is melafix exactly? i have seen it at a few differnt pet shops but never really knew what it was. i only have one plant which i was gonna take out anyway becasue it isnt thriving. will this effect any of my other fish at all? does it change the colour of the water? i hate those stupid medicines that change the colour of the water because it always takes so long to go back to clear.

 

[DeFeKt]

melafix is clear and is more for skin abrasions and helps heal fins etc..
it's about the only thing I can suggest.

 

[mr funktastic]

ok he died. a checkd on him a few hours after he hid in the pot and he was dead. i think he was just stressed to much. the odd thing is that he wasnt sick at all. this happend in like 2 days. i will be buying a new male in a couple of days when i get back to the store. aswell as 2 more labs so the agression is spread out over 3 instead of one. thanks for your help and i will be buying some melafix for future problems

 

[ntswift]

Sorry to hear about your loss. Sometimes you don't even see them going until its too late. Melafix won't cloud your water any. It kinda smells medicine but it has worked for me in the past. it is more for skin abrasions chewed up fins like DeFeKt said. When you put your next fish in there i would suggest using the melafix for at least a week to help out. Make sure you move the aquascape around so that no fish have any territories and they call all start again in sort of a new environment. Good luck!

 

[greenmaji]

How big is this tank?

 

[mr funktastic]

its a standard 55 gallon tank. there are some pics in my gallery. i really need to build the rock higher though and i want to add some plants in there. as time goes by it will slowly finish itself.

 

[greenmaji]

just remember it's surfase area that's important with the fish you have chosen, they need territory. I havnt read about the stocking of the fish in question in some time so Im not going to coment on that.
good luck