Eggbound Keyhole? Dropsy? Bloat?

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Minawri

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 29, 2010
Messages
12
Location
British Columbia, Canada
I picked up two keyhole cichlids from someone about a week ago. I noticed right away that one of them was extremely fat. I didn't think much of it because it was obvious the person I was getting them from wasn't a very good cichlid keeper.

They were put into my tank with two severums and were very shy for the first couple of days. Now the normal sized one is hanging out in sight more often than not but the fat one stays at the bottom of the tank laying on the substrate.

She will not eat, she rarely leaves that spot. She isn't "pineconing" and her eyes look normal.

I have tried several foods (going light on the protein), and tonight i will drop some peas down to her.

I can't get a decent picture, but I will try again tomorrow.

Just looking for some advice, maybe an epsom salt bath?

I have some Maracyn Two but I really don't like using stuff like that unless its a last resort because I don't have a hospital tank and don't want to expose the other fish to chemicals.

I added some aquarium salt about 4 days ago because my severum scratched himself trying to wedge into a cave he is far too large for.
 
I can't really make a suggestion without a pic, but you can probably rule out eggbind, I've yet to see a cichlid that won't lay eggs just to get rid of them.
 
Possibly Epsom salt... But not a bath. Just QT the fish in it (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons) until it gets better. It sounds like swimbladder or bloat.
 
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