Lesson Learned the Hard Way

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Menagerie

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
13,230
Location
Vancouver, WA
For a week-or-so, I have said the Jack Dempsey will go because he's rougher than the other fish (mostly Mbuna). I wanted to pull him from the tank on Tuesday, but our two QT tanks are being used. When I called the LFS yesterday, they said to call back on Monday. (Since moving to Calgary, I have lost 4 cichlids [posted as the "QT tank of Death"]--the 80 gal is looking VERY empty.) My fiancé and I are going strictly with Mbuna cichlids, once Jack is taken care of. Over the last few days, I noticed Nimbochromis venustus was missing a few scales and then she had a major dorsal fin split, but she was eating and generally looked okay.
I was hoping she would make it to Monday. This evening, I went to watch TV (only night of the week I watch TV!) and I saw her; she looks AWFUL. She has bruises, pectoral fins are frayed, one eye has a white film and there is white film all along her body. We raised her from just 1 1/2"--now she's 6". We have been so busy with our pleco who is recovering from hemorrhagic septicemia (now in with the Mollies—no salt yet, the gobies did not arrive) and the Badis badis who are dwindling in number (velvet—and I know the ones at the LFS are in bad shape too). In the past week, we have made three trips to the not so local LFS with body bags and water samples. If the Badis were well, I would have had more time with the cichlids and one of the QT tanks would have been free. If only….


Venustus is with us, but she is so weak—there was no fight trying to net her. We are treating with Kanamycin for the infection to her eye and skin and Melafix to stop secondary infections.

I don’t really need advice; I hope someone can learn from my mistake.
 
not to say this has anything to do with your situation but I'll throw it out there for others... when fish don't get along it's not always just the fish that cause injury... This pet store that I use to help out in had a 100 gal tank that was definitely overstalked. I think at one time there may have been a blood parrot that was smaller than some larger fish in there but was mean... there was a yoyo loach, a large pleco, several of varying sizes of jack dempsey as well as some mixed convicts, those were the smaller fish, anywhere from 4-6 inches...then there was an oscar and a red bellied pacu both had to be over ten inches... we ended up adding a few more fish as well but they didn't all stay in the tank after that. The lady that owned it didn't think she could catch any in that tank so she wasn't selling them... so I started catching them and selling them for her. It really wasnt hard, but that's another story... anyway, there was this really HUGE piece of driftwood, supposedly took a few people to put it in, that was really cool, perfect for the tank... but not for fish that big... anyway, different fish would chase each other around and especially the large oscar and pacu would really freak on occasion and not have far to go... anyway, one of them hit it's forhead on the driftwood and it left quite a ding let me tell you... It took a while for it to heal... you could also see a few scrapes here and there that were also probably from the driftwood but not as bad... SOOooooo
Even if a fish can outswim another fish, it doesn't mean it is safe...
 
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