adopted cichlid

[aquarius75]

Hi all. I just adopted, very rapidly a supposed African Cichlid....the original owner has owned it for a year? She was trying to starve it to death over last few weeks she said, as she did not want it anymore n wanted it to just die....quess it kept eating all the other fish in her tank.....anyway due to lack of proper care I am sure it is not displaying its true colors. I am having a hard time trying to figure out exactly what it is....she said a Texas Cichlid at first...now says it is an African Cichlid. SO can anyone tell me, n yes I will be researching, the way to bring about true healthy look. I had to transfer it to a tank that was just set up last night, luckily she let me bring some of its natural water n combine it with the new...its eating n swimming fine..so hopefull it will continue to be "the neverending fish" as she called it. It so far has eating the little pellets n the brine shrimp, though I can tell its hungry I have been giving little amounts so it does not over eat n suffer issues with that. I truly was surprised to see it alive this morning.....

Any advice in how to help this little fighter get to its healty state would be greatly appreciated...

Thank you very much.....

 

[Joker741]

If the tank was set up last night it will go through a cycle even with water from the other tank because the bacteria lives in the filter and substrait. Pictures would be helpfull to identify.

 

[aquarius75]

IMG00542.jpg (63.9 KB)

 

[Joker741]

You have a better side picture?

 

[aquarius75]

I am trying to upload two more, i apologize the water is still murky from adding from the other tank...we pulled some stuff from out of the rock to try n help out the new temp tank...

 

[aquarius75]

adopted cichlid 3 pic

Hopefully this one will be better yet?!

 

[Joker741]

Looks like it might be a Jack Dempsey.

Tropical Fish for Freshwater Aquariums: Jack Dempsey

 

[aquarius75]

Ok thank you for your help I will go n research that n see what comes up....does it look pale to you also, (granted the picture is very poor)?

 

[aquarius75]

I think you are right on the jack has the same red along the fins as this one n the same patterns....just mine is lacking its full color....but I will keep looking....

 

[Joker741]

Yeah, it looks like it is pretty stressed. Make sure you don't over feed, it is bad for the fish and bad for the water. Also, test the water, because it will probably cycle and you will need to do water changes.

 

[aquarius75]

update

Ok spoke to the original owner n she did verify that she had bought a jack dempsey also...but thought it was one that was eaten.....she said this was basically the last one standing so she assumed it was eating all the others...she only fed it when she thought about it there for awhile but then picked back up n started feeding more regularly...she thought it was the texas cichlid she bought from petsmart...but???? there at the last she quit feeding again to make room for a fish about ten times bigger....until the weekend I came into feed her pets n fed the poor little fish too...that is how it all came about. This fish has been with her for about a year n half....I was reading the females can be lighter not as bright...do you think this one could possibly be a female....i would like to eventually get it a mate...way down the road with bigger tank...right now it is in a rescue ten gallon sooo hopefully get in bigger one in a couple of months....dont want to keep moving too much n stress it out more.

 

[Joker741]

It needs to be in a bigger tank as soon as you can, leaving it in the 10 gallon can continue to stress it out.

 

[aquarius75]

ok well hopefully it can hang on just a little bit as i was not financially ready to take on such a project...but i could not let that situation go on without trying to help....n the lfs wont take it sooooo...cross fingers for me please.....i always seem to get the straysss...lol...no matter what species.

 

[mfdrookie516]

It is most certainly a jack dempsey, i have one that looks identical to it ( just not so stressed)... give it a couple weeks with proper treatment and it should perk back up and get some more color to it... Jack Dempseys are a South/Central American Cichlid, some sites even say they can be found in north america.. That looks nothing like a "texas cichlid", the big thing with texas cichlids are the big white looking spots all over them... One thing ive noticed with my jd is that he really likes sand much more than he did the pea gravel i had in there when i first started... And if you want to get him a friend, ive found that convicts make good tankmates... mine even bred with a convict and i have mixed babies... and thank you for making its life better, its a shame how some people treat their fsh

 

[mfdrookie516]

ok well hopefully it can hang on just a little bit as i was not financially ready to take on such a project...but i could not let that situation go on without trying to help....n the lfs wont take it sooooo...cross fingers for me please.....i always seem to get the straysss...lol...no matter what species.

check craigslist, there are usually some awesome deals there, a 30 or bigger would be optimal i have mine in a 55... one other thing you need to make sure of is that it has plenty of caves and hiding places... that will reduce alot of stress in itself

 

[spoonman]

Anything you can get from the tank it was in would help also. I.E. Some of the gravel, filter media, ornaments anything with the bacteria on it that will help with the cycle of the tank that you put it in. Watch the parameters of this tank and get it in a bigger tank ASAP!

 

[aquarius75]

Thank you for the encouragment and the responses....I did take water from its original tank n I filtered some of the gravel n its contents...unfortunatley there was only one ornament in her whole tank sooo was not much for me to work with.....

I do hope it does well I have noticed that if I leave the light on, it is calm n roaming around the tank kinda at peace...but when I turn out the light n walk away it gets frantic n swims rapidly up n down tank....kinda like a puppy at the fence as you walk away.....is this normal?....her lights we not run 24 7 so not sure whats going on with that......Id like to say its because it really likes me ...but sure thats not the case. Again thank you for all the help.

 

[mfdrookie516]

If you dont have anywhere for it to hide, that could explain it... when i first got mine, i knew nothing about cichlids and didnt know to have caves and hiding places... i noticed alot of odd behavior until i got them some caves... even just rock stacked up can provide a nice little cave (just make sure its solid) or if you dont have that, walmart usually has little ornaments for $5 that would work... if you have any clay pots 4-6" those are ideal... i took and broke some in half and thats what i use for all of my cichlids... oh and good luck... once you get a little more experience with it, you will see just how neat jack dempseys are

 

[aquarius75]

That makes sense...I was actually thinking about going down to the river n picking up some pretty pieces....thought I could clean them up n make it some hiding places.... Thank you again for all the ideas....

 

[mfdrookie516]

good idea... dont forget, make sure they arent limestone... and make sure you scrub them really good. cichlids like high ph, but limestone will make it too high... good luck with everything, you will soon find that cichlids are incredibly awesome fish to keep