Lots and Lots of questions.

[unknown_7]

I have a lot of questions:
1. In my 55 gallon cichlid tank, I had a male and female p.demasoni. Just yesterday I found the female with all her fins torn up, her scales torn and one of her eyes appears to have a scar, so I removed the male and put him in my convict tank. The female seems all right, and like she is going to live. But, I was wondering what I should do to ensure that she heals fully without any infections? Right now she is in the 55 gallon tank with about 6 or 7+ yellow lab fry and 2 or 3+ of her own fry. I was amazed that there were fry in there when I moved the rocks and plants. I was surprised how many were hiding in such small cracks and spaces in the rocks, there are a bunch of them. Horray for me.
2. I have a tank between 55 and 60 gallons and it has my senegal bichir and 3 female convicts, 2 giant danios that were bothering the fish in my fathers community tank, he expected the convicts to kill them in about 3 days, but instead it killed a feeder goldfish and are both now harassing the other fish in the tank with their annoying fast nonstop swimming and aggressive bumping, and the male p.demasoni. The p.demasoni doesn't push around the convicts (and who would) or the other fish, but now after about 6 months the convicts are starting to harass my poor senegal bichir. One of them permenantly ran him out of his cave for their territory and the others are taking up residence in all the other hide outs. So my poor bichir is left out in the open and feels uncomfortable. What should I do?
3. Also, to add onto that for some reason all of the fish are trying to hide. They hide in all the hiding spots and only come out to fight off a fish that comes on its turf, but that isn't often. They used to come out and eat the second they would see me lift the lid and wouldn't even give me a chance to put the food in the water, but would jump to catch the food. I thought that my water could be the cause of it, but my pH, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are under control. So what is the cause of this. Should I change there diet? What should I feed them if that is the case?
4. Lastly, I have a 25 gallon tank with 1 redtail shark and 3 black skirt tetras. The skirts are sometimes harassed by the shark but not often, cause I have not seen my shark out of his cave for over a month now. However, what worries me is that since I got him I have never seen him eat anything, all I do is put in flake food and some freezedried brine shrimp cubes in the tank for the tetras and that is it and one time I saw him come out when he saw the food, and it seemed like he wanted the food but he couldn't or wouldn't eat it. What should I do? What should I feed him? Also, what worries me is that at times I am able to only see him tail poking out of his cave when he sleeps and it always looks very pale almost a translucent orange and I heard that its tail changes color depending on how well it feels, but I haven't seen his tail the bright red it was for a really long time. So what should I do? It is not the water cause I tested it so what else could it be?


I know that I asked a lot of questions, but please help me. Thank you all for your help and posts in advanced, hopefully all of my fish will feel a lot better soon.

[Zagz]

Originally Posted by unknown_7

I have a lot of questions:
1. In my 55 gallon cichlid tank, I had a male and female p.demasoni. Just yesterday I found the female with all her fins torn up, her scales torn and one of her eyes appears to have a scar, so I removed the male and put him in my convict tank. The female seems all right, and like she is going to live. But, I was wondering what I should do to ensure that she heals fully without any infections? Right now she is in the 55 gallon tank with about 6 or 7+ yellow lab fry and 2 or 3+ of her own fry. I was amazed that there were fry in there when I moved the rocks and plants. I was surprised how many were hiding in such small cracks and spaces in the rocks, there are a bunch of them. Horray for me.

With fry in the tank you can't add anything, not even salt to help your female. You will just have to watch her and make sure she is healing.

2. I have a tank between 55 and 60 gallons and it has my senegal bichir and 3 female convicts, 2 giant danios that were bothering the fish in my fathers community tank, he expected the convicts to kill them in about 3 days, but instead it killed a feeder goldfish and are both now harassing the other fish in the tank with their annoying fast nonstop swimming and aggressive bumping, and the male p.demasoni. The p.demasoni doesn't push around the convicts (and who would) or the other fish, but now after about 6 months the convicts are starting to harass my poor senegal bichir. One of them permenantly ran him out of his cave for their territory and the others are taking up residence in all the other hide outs. So my poor bichir is left out in the open and feels uncomfortable. What should I do?

Not an expert on these fish but if you are able to get him out of that tank, that is what I would do if I were you.

. Also, to add onto that for some reason all of the fish are trying to hide. They hide in all the hiding spots and only come out to fight off a fish that comes on its turf, but that isn't often. They used to come out and eat the second they would see me lift the lid and wouldn't even give me a chance to put the food in the water, but would jump to catch the food. I thought that my water could be the cause of it, but my pH, nitrates, nitrites and ammonia are under control. So what is the cause of this. Should I change there diet? What should I feed them if that is the case?

What are you feeding them now?

4. Lastly, I have a 25 gallon tank with 1 redtail shark and 3 black skirt tetras. The skirts are sometimes harassed by the shark but not often, cause I have not seen my shark out of his cave for over a month now. However, what worries me is that since I got him I have never seen him eat anything, all I do is put in flake food and some freezedried brine shrimp cubes in the tank for the tetras and that is it and one time I saw him come out when he saw the food, and it seemed like he wanted the food but he couldn't or wouldn't eat it. What should I do? What should I feed him? Also, what worries me is that at times I am able to only see him tail poking out of his cave when he sleeps and it always looks very pale almost a translucent orange and I heard that its tail changes color depending on how well it feels, but I haven't seen his tail the bright red it was for a really long time. So what should I do? It is not the water cause I tested it so what else could it be?

A redtail shark gets too big for a 25 [acronym:fce759aa92="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:fce759aa92]. How big is he now? He may be feeling stressed depending on his actual size. I wouldn't worry that he isn't eating, as he probably eats at night when you don't see him eat.

[acronym:fce759aa92="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:fce759aa92].

[Devilishturtles]

No worry asking lots of questions, that's the purpose of AA.

1. I agree with Zagz. Not much you can do but keep as pristine water as possible. Let your fishes immune system heal the injuries. This won't be a problem if you keep up on [acronym:8ad619bc01="Partial water change"]pwc[/acronym:8ad619bc01]'s.

2. Perhaps you can add another cave for the bichir? Are you sure the convicts aren't pairing off? Do you know how old they are, or can take a good guess? What is their current size?

3. It could be something that is startling them. Is this the tank that you added the male demasoni too?

4. I wouldn't worry about the color change on the shark. When fish hide, color changes are normal. They are nocturnal, and if he is still alive now, he likely gets all of his food at night. Are you feeding before bedtime?

[acronym:8ad619bc01="Hope this helps (or) Happy to help"]HTH[/acronym:8ad619bc01]

[odobenus]

I would agree with everyone else that you don't need to worry about your redtail eating. If you wanted to, though, you could try dropping in a few sinking shrimp pellets after the lights go out at night. (That will prevent your tetras from gobbling them up.)