My poor yellow malawi

[littledevil]

got a pair of them last week just noticed that the male is in his cave on his side lost colour, the guy from the fish shop said that he maybe swallowed a pebble or hit his head any clues?? what can I do/

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

Check your water first: pH, ammonia, nitrites to make sure there's nothing wrong there.

What else is in the tank? What size tank? How long has it been running?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Get your water tested or test it yourself as soon as possible. Also try to answer the questions in the sticky thread ("before posting about sick fish, read this") at the top of this forum. This will help us help you better.

When in doubt, a large water change with dechlorinated wanter usually helps a little.

 

[Ky'smommy]

swallowed a pebble? lol
its not funny, just how he would guess swallow a pebble.
i dont know anything about ur fish in general. but ive never heard of a fish swallowing a pebble or even trying.
do u have big or little gravel?

 

[littledevil]

ok here it goes, got this brand new tank 126 litre last week put in coral sand in for elevating the ph, some kind of white rocks to help with the ph 8) the guy in the local fish shop said I should fill it in 1/3 of water from my other established tanks and the rest with fresh water, using Fluval 3+ he said it would be ok I know I rushed a little bit but I was exited

at the begining of the week the ph was 7.4
now the readings are:
Ammonia 0.50
nitrite 0.25
nitrate 5.0
ph 8.0


I know that the ph level of this fish in africa is high but they are bred in the uk somwhere so I wonder what ph were they using ?
and there is only the 2 fish in it male and female, which is doing very well

 

[Devilishturtles]

Your tank is going through a cycle it seems. Your fish could be suffering from the effects of the ammonia, especially if it was stressed out prior to entering your tank. Generally, you want to keep ammonia less than .5 ppm during a cycle, and ideally it will read 0 ppm when your tank is cycled.

Have you done the large water change I suggested? Give that a go and see if he perks up any.

Ky'smommy, fish can definitley swallow their substrate, but it's not too common.

 

[Ky'smommy]

im thinking your tank is still cycling.
if its only a week old?
i know adding old water and stuff helps speeds it up. but if it hasnt fully cycled yet . that could possibly what it is doing now
everything is up there.
i would recommend doing a water change.
just to get some of that stuff down.
Ammonia and nitrites should be zero.

 

[rich311k]

Just to clarify something adding used water does not help. The bacteria we are looking for are not in the water column they attach to gravel, filter media etc. Is it possible for you to get a used sponge from a friends filter? That woould help a lot, otherwise just keep changing water.

 

[Ky'smommy]

i can see them swallowing subtrate. i meant as in rocks.
gravel.
not sand. i didnt know. thats why i asked.

 

[Zagz]

Definately going through a cycle. If only the lfs's wouldn't offer the advice that the fish will be fine before the cycle is done.

Water changes lots of them will be the way to keep the fish safe and alive. Do 50% right away and check the parameters a couple hours after the change. Depending on your parameters you may have to do water changes every day or 2 to keep the levels low enough.

Stable ph is better for the fish than trying to acheive the optimum ph, ph swings cause more harm than good.

 

[littledevil]

looks like what ever it was is over the fish has his colour again and is swimming happy again
cheers to every one on this one