This cichlid needs help!

[Mcass]

Sat night I had introduced a new Fuelleborni to my tank. Before I put him in though I rearranged all of the plants and a couple of rocks, hoping this would help cut down on the aggression of the others. This time it didn't work! This Fuelleborni was chased all over. He did finally find a hiding place after about twenty minutes and seemed to be doing fine. When I woke up this morning he was out swimming in the open, but his fins were frayed and his scales on his sides looked terrible. He must have been chased and picked at all night. I have pulled him out of the tank and put him in a small 1 gallon I had laying around. I put a little "stress coat" in the tank. Is there anything else I can do? Will his fins and scales heal? This is my first "quarantine". Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Mcass]

Here are some more close ups.

 

[garfy]

It's always better to add several fish to an established tank.It spreads the aggression rather than one fish taking all the heat.
As far as your fish goes it should make a full recovery in time but your one gallon tank is way too small for him/her.
I think you either need to take the fish back to the store or find a bigger tank.
Hope this helps.

 

[Mcass]

I do have two other established tanks in the house. The first is a 30 gallon with a bunch of goldfish. The other is my sons tank which is a ten gallon. The only thing in it is one small beta. Could I safely put him in either of those two tanks while he is healing?

 

[Fishkeeper26]

What size tank do you plan on putting him in? With what tank mates?

 

[garfy]

I think he would be too aggressive for the fish in those tanks.
I have seen fish looking much worse than him make a full recovery.Perhaps you could move your small betta into the 1 and your injured fish into the 10 at least he would have a little more room to swim.

 

[garfy]

This would only be short term though he needs at least a 55 really.The tank size is very important for his health.

 

[Mcass]

The tank he was in, and hopefully will return to after he is healed, is a 54 gallon quarter round. Currently in it are (1) pleco, (1) jack Dempsey, (1) male red zebra, (1) female red zebra, (1) Fuelleborni of unknown gender, (1) Venustus, (1) male livingstonii, (2) female livingstonii, (1) male flameback Hap, (1) female flameback Hap, (1) female m. Aurutus

 

[Fishkeeper26]

The tank he was in, and hopefully will return to after he is healed, is a 54 gallon quarter round. Currently in it are (1) pleco, (1) jack Dempsey, (1) male red zebra, (1) female red zebra, (1) Fuelleborni of unknown gender, (1) Venustus, (1) male livingstonii, (2) female livingstonii, (1) male flameback Hap, (1) female flameback Hap, (1) female m. Aurutus

I don't think that stocking plan will work out.
The JD needs basically that tank to himself.
The place will get way to bug for that tank as well.
As far as compatibility goes I'm pretty sure the JD isn't compatible with the other species, however I'm not 100 percent on that.

 

[DragonFish71]

I don't think that stocking plan will work out.
The JD needs basically that tank to himself.
The place will get way to bug for that tank as well.
As far as compatibility goes I'm pretty sure the JD isn't compatible with the other species, however I'm not 100 percent on that.

You are correct.

Different species of cichlids in one tank, not a good idea.

JD's are SA/NW cichlids, they aren't nearly as aggressive as the africans that you have. As time goes on, the JD will suffer the same fate (and possibly) worse as the fish you are segregating. Rarely will africans of any type, other than jewels, leave a SA/NW cichlid alone.

Also food requirements are different. JDs need a high protein diet, where as the other need a more vegetarian diet or at least omnivorous with more veggies.

Water isn't too big a problem. JDs prefer softer water and africans prefer harder. Both a very hardy and can acclimate to either water condition.

 

[kay-bee19]

It will probably be hard to reintegrate this cichlid into the tank for a variety of reasons:

1. As garfy indicated, african cichlids such as mbuna's need to be added in groups when introduced into a new tank.

2. Your mbuna's seem to be fully matured or at least adults (both the established fish and the new one). This increases integration difficulty because a matured new fish will likely be seen as a threat to the territory, not just an intruder. Small juvenile fish are easier to add to an established tank containing adult specimens.

3. Proper gender ratio's aren't in place. Gender ratio's in my opinion can be an effective aggression countermeasure. For every male cichlid in the tank there ideally should be several females of the same species with it.

When your fish heals up the above factors will still exist making the probablilty high that if the labeotropheus is returned to the tank, it will happen again.

Off topic, your nimbochromis species will eventually require a 6ft tank, they get fairly large (9"-11") and are open water swimmers, not rock dwellers.

 

[Mcass]

My jack has been in the tank the longest and is twice the size of my largest African. He is very healthy and gets along incredibly well. Generally any aggression shown in the tank is between the Africans. Normally if two Africans are getting into it with each other, jack will actually swim over and break it up. He is actually the most dominate of the tank. The old saying "walk softly and carry a big stick" applies to him. **** for all I know he might think by now that he is African...lol. I do feed them knowing that they have differing dietary needs as well. For the most part though, all my fish get along pretty well, this group has been established for quite some time. When I added this latest fuellebornii, while I rearranged things, I don't think I rearranged enough. I moved a few plants, but for the most part the rock structures went unchanged. Normally when adding fish I literally pull everything out of the tank and start from scratch, this way they have no territories. That was not the case this time which o think is why the new one didn't do well.

 

[Mcass]

I am aware of most the issues you mention Kay-bee. With these things in mind, I do have another tank out in the garage that has not yet been set up. It is an Oceanic 76 gallon half round. It was given to me from a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. I was going to use it for my first salt water tank. I am considering though, making another cichlid tank. If I do what I thought about doing is moving the livingstonii's to it since they get so much larger. Right now my largest livingstonii is about 5". My biggest issue with doing that right now, it will cost me at least $400, just to get that tank ready to go.

 

[Fishkeeper26]

My jack has been in the tank the longest and is twice the size of my largest African. He is very healthy and gets along incredibly well. Generally any aggression shown in the tank is between the Africans. Normally if two Africans are getting into it with each other, jack will actually swim over and break it up. He is actually the most dominate of the tank. The old saying "walk softly and carry a big stick" applies to him. **** for all I know he might think by now that he is African...lol. I do feed them knowing that they have differing dietary needs as well. For the most part though, all my fish get along pretty well, this group has been established for quite some time. When I added this latest fuellebornii, while I rearranged things, I don't think I rearranged enough. I moved a few plants, but for the most part the rock structures went unchanged. Normally when adding fish I literally pull everything out of the tank and start from scratch, this way they have no territories. That was not the case this time which o think is why the new one didn't do well.

It's your call what you do with your fish, however in the long run it won't work. The JD itself needs a tank that size too itself IMO

 

[Mcass]

I am curious about how this fish will heal. It looks as though much of the connective tissue between the spines of his fins are gone. Does this come back?

 

[garfy]

Yes it should just grow back.I saw a fish in quarantine at my lfs with it's whole tail missing.A month later it had nearly completely grown back.This wat about 3 months ago and now he is as good as new

 

[Mcass]

That's what I was hoping to hear!

 

[DragonFish71]

I am curious about how this fish will heal. It looks as though much of the connective tissue between the spines of his fins are gone. Does this come back?

If you keep the water clean, it should heal just fine. Clean water can do more for healing wounds than meds.

 

[Lady_Alia]

It'll be fine, just give it time. My mom bought a fish for her tank, put it in, and over the course of about 3 days they tore it up! To the point that it's tail was missing...all the way down to the fleshy part! Most of it's other fins were gone as well. I moved it to it's own 5 gallon and it's been about a month-ish, but it's looking great! You'd never know.

 

[Mcass]

He seems to be doing much better. I have isolated him in a 20. His find are looking better but he still looks like he had a really bad haircut.