Kenyi Chiclid not eating??

[Marianne]

Hi, I have and 86 gallon tank which was set up 3 weeks prior to introducing fish. I put in 10 African Chiclids on Oct 10/04 and another 10 put in on Oct 24/04. All the fish seem very active and look very happy except the one of 3 Kenyi chiclids. It looks healthy but it is not eating now for 3 days and sits on the bottom of the tank. It looks like it is falling sideways. If it is disturbed by other fish, it will swim off a bit and then find another spot to sit on the bottom of the tank. Is it sick and should I remove it from the tank, does it need meds??
I did a water change yesterday 1/2 of the tank, just thought it may want fresh clean water even though it hasn't really built up too much dirt.
Help
Thanks,
Marianne 8O

 

[poppab02]

Did you cycle the tank before introducing the fish or did the tank simply just sit for three weeks? This does seem like water quality issues. What are your tank parameters?

oh yeah, and welcome to AA

 

[Marianne]

I had the filter running for 3 weeks prior to adding fish. I don't know what the parameters are I haven't bought a kit yet. Prior to this new setup, I had 1 big chiclid left and didn't want to add anymore with it as he was very aggressive and was attacking the others that were in the tank. I did a major change of the water after 3 year which cause its death. The strange thing is that all the other fish seem totally fine. I will get a water test kit on the weekend just to make sure it is where it should be. Hopefully the fish will last that long.
Thanks.
Marianne

 

[Menagerie]

[center:a51ff9dcb0] :smilecolors: Welcome to AA, Marianne!! [/center:a51ff9dcb0]

It looks like it is falling sideways. If it is disturbed by other fish, it will swim off a bit and then find another spot to sit on the bottom of the tank. Is it sick and should I remove it from the tank, does it need meds??

You should QT this fish. Observe this fish be itself. If it does have a balance problem, it may be correctable.

Prior to this new setup, I had 1 big chiclid left and didn't want to add anymore with it as he was very aggressive and was attacking the others that were in the tank. I did a major change of the water after 3 year which cause its death.

A major change after 3 years would cause any fish's death. If that fish was used to a polluted system, adding clean water would shock the fish.

Do you know exactly what African cichlids you have?

 

[Marianne]

The book I have says to change 1/3 to 2/3 of the water weekly which I always did. What i meant by a major water change was I emptied out the whole tank and cleaned the gravel and everything in the tank. While cleaning the tank, I think the fish was just to disturbed and died. The chiclids I have now are 4 Gold Zebra Mel Aratus, 3 Kenyi, 3 Mel Maingano, 2 Mpenga Elongatus, 4 Aebra Hap Obliquedens and 3 SM Yellow Lats.

 

[Newbneedshelp]

im no cichlid expert but i think why it died is because you emptied so much water and killed off all the good bactieria from cycling, i dont think it was becuase you disturbed it.

 

[Menagerie]

The chiclids I have now are 4 Gold Zebra Mel Aratus, 3 Kenyi, 3 Mel Maingano, 2 Mpenga Elongatus, 4 Aebra Hap Obliquedens and 3 SM Yellow Lats.

I don't think these fish are a good mix. I am not familiar with most of them, but Kenyis are a pretty aggressive Mbuna. The Haps have a different "pecking order" than Mbuna and are not as aggressive.


If you were keeping up on PWC and vacuuming the gravel, there is no need to empty and clean up the entire tank.