I setup a 55 gallon tank
2 aquaclear 70 filters
Heater set to 80 degrees
Crushed coral substrate
cycled tank with 3 goldfish
tested water and was perfect when got rid of goldfish.
added 10 juvenile male African cichlids
have been doing 25% water change every 3 days
feeding a mixture of New life spectrum and xtream cichlid pellets. very small amount twice a day. they eat all the food in about 10 seconds
normal aggression...there is a dominant fish but he chased everyone around. no one was targeted all the time.
everything was going well...then about 2 weeks later 2 fish hanging around the bottom, white string poop, not eating for 2 days...raised temperature to 83 degrees and added aquarium salt.
I live in Canada and we dont have access to any good meds.
those 2 fish later died from not eating...i suspect "bloat" even though they didn't swell up
about 4 days later another fish started not eating...so I got some Melafix and started that treatment
couple days later fish was swollen up and later died.
now a week later temperature back to 80 degrees, did 1 degree a day, water is perfect, haven't been replacing the aquarium salt with water changes so I am almost back to just pure water.
another fish is hanging around the bottom not eating.
i've ordered some api general cure from the states but won't be here for a week
questions:
1) should I just medicate the food and the whole tank when I do get the general cure even though no fish are showing symptoms?
2) is it ok to add more fish? the dominant fish is starting to single out another fish and will prolly just kill off everyone one by one
3) should i just wait until everyone dies and start from scratch?
this is very frustrating.
i've owned tanks for over 20 years...took a break and now got this tank for my daughter.
never had to deal with a situation like that before
2 aquaclear 70 filters
Heater set to 80 degrees
Crushed coral substrate
cycled tank with 3 goldfish
tested water and was perfect when got rid of goldfish.
added 10 juvenile male African cichlids
have been doing 25% water change every 3 days
feeding a mixture of New life spectrum and xtream cichlid pellets. very small amount twice a day. they eat all the food in about 10 seconds
normal aggression...there is a dominant fish but he chased everyone around. no one was targeted all the time.
everything was going well...then about 2 weeks later 2 fish hanging around the bottom, white string poop, not eating for 2 days...raised temperature to 83 degrees and added aquarium salt.
I live in Canada and we dont have access to any good meds.
those 2 fish later died from not eating...i suspect "bloat" even though they didn't swell up
about 4 days later another fish started not eating...so I got some Melafix and started that treatment
couple days later fish was swollen up and later died.
now a week later temperature back to 80 degrees, did 1 degree a day, water is perfect, haven't been replacing the aquarium salt with water changes so I am almost back to just pure water.
another fish is hanging around the bottom not eating.
i've ordered some api general cure from the states but won't be here for a week
questions:
1) should I just medicate the food and the whole tank when I do get the general cure even though no fish are showing symptoms?
2) is it ok to add more fish? the dominant fish is starting to single out another fish and will prolly just kill off everyone one by one
3) should i just wait until everyone dies and start from scratch?
this is very frustrating.
i've owned tanks for over 20 years...took a break and now got this tank for my daughter.
never had to deal with a situation like that before
