Sick Cichlid

[Hannya]

Hello everyone. I'm not a big poster here but thought I would try to utilize the community now.

I have a 49 Gallon bow front corner tank with 1 red jewel and 4 giant danios.

At 3 the jewel was fine. Starting last night around 5 or so (EST), when I went to watch the tank for a while I noticed the jewel was sitting very still in her cave. She didn't even flinch when the danios zoomed past her. Usually she will charge at them or chase them a bit anytime they come near one of her caves. I got a close as a look as I could and didn't see anything outwardly noticeable. With the sponge on a stick type algae cleaner i moved it near her cave then slowly close to her and nudged her gently. She still did not move but was breathing. She has been hovering still in that spot since and I have no idea what to do!

The particulars:

Ph 7.0
Temp 78-80F
NH3 0
NO2 0

AquaClear 200 power filter (200 gal/h iirc)
spectrastone gravel
Visitherm (i think!) 200 watt heater

4 Giant Danios about 3-4" on average.
1 Red Jewel Cichlid 4-5"
Various slate, stone, pvc and artificial caves.

Tank has been established for about 2 years now. Danios went in first followed by the Jewel (Loved her when I saw her). I never added anything else as she could be rather aggressive.

I did a small water change (10-15%) about a week ago and vacuum. Nothing new has been added decor wise. I do a small water change (10% or so) about once a week and vacuum the gravel every other week. Have been keeping this schedule from the beginning.

They eat flakes, tubifex, and I add about 10 feeder minnows a week for the jewel. I added minnows 2 days ago. 10 from the usual LFS i get them from. They appeared to be healthy as far as feeders go.


Any ideas? I would hate to loose her

 

[macman7010]

I would guess your problem has occurred with your feeder fish. Many, many feeder fish carry a plethora of internal parasites/bacterias that can make aquarium fish very sick. When I kept large predatory cichlids years ago I always stayed away from feeders, especially goldfish.

I would also say that feeding a female Jewel Cichlid 10 feeder minnows per week would constitute overfeeding. She may have excessive scales and other indigestible matter lodged in her intestine which would could cause her listless behavior. Hopefully in time she may come around; if there are no signs of external parasites then chances are she doesn't have any.

 

[Hannya]

Well, she only eats the minnows. She won't touch any other food so I'm not sure what else to do to feed her- she eats on average 1 a day, rarely she will have 2. I just restock the 10 minnows when she finishes them it usually takes 7-10 days so its an approximation when i say weekly Not to discount what your saying!

If she had more then her fill is there anything I can do to help her out with her digestion? Hate to see her sick

 

[Zagz]

Have you seen her poop at all? Is it white and stringy? I would try feeding her some frozen peas just to see if she will eat them and if she is constipated it will help. Skin the pea and nuke it for a few seconds. Have you tried feeding her frozen bloodworms at all? Doing a pwc certainly can't hurt and in many instances helps the fish immediately. Whenever I have a problem in one of my tanks, the first thing I do is pwc.
What kind of test kit are you using? What is your Nitrate? I would recommend doing larger water changes once a week. I do 50% on all my tanks per week.

 

[Hannya]

well I did the water change right away, didnt change the water readings but I thought it best anyways. She didnt respond to the pea idea but I wasn't suprised. In the 2 years I had her she never ate anything but minnows except for once when she sampled a cichlid pellet and never touched another one.

Sorry to say though that she did not pull through and I found her this morning at the bottom of the tank. Im not sure what happened still but I guess if I had to go with anything it would be macman's suggestion of overeating. She must have gulped on one that was to big for her.

 

[Zagz]

I'm so sorry for your loss.