African Chiclids are DYING. NEED HELP

[dhiatt41056]

I have 13 African Chiclids in a 90 gallon tank and they are slowly dying one by one. I have let my filter cycle until my ammonia is at 0 my nitrites is at 0 and my nitrates are at 20 ppm. But my fish are still dying.

 

[shawmutt]

How long has the tank been set up?

What are the symptoms the fish are experiencing?

 

[dhiatt41056]

The tank has been set up for a little over a month.

 

[dhiatt41056]

I just recently had a Nimbochromis livingstonii die and it stopped eating for about three days and all it did was hang out at the bottom and top of the tank.

 

[poppab02]

What are your ph and kh levels? It definitely sounds stress related.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

You haven't happened to have done a major water change have you?
It's a bug-bear of mine, but I find that in Toronto they are using Chloramine in the water which is lethal. If you're tank is only a month old, did you put all the Africans in at the same time. I did that once with similar results. The original foursome survived, while all the news one did not. I had put the new ones in all together hoping that there would be less agression by mixing it up. I was quite wrong. Slowly I have been adding fish, 1 or 3 a week and all now is well. What happened to the first bunch remains a mystery. Jeff
PS Does anyone know about the African Cichlid tank at the Toronto Zoo. It's literally stuffed to the gills with hundreds of Africans.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:9bc6f6175e] Welcome to AA, dhiatt41056! [/center:9bc6f6175e]
What dechlor are you using?
Are you using liquid tests or strips for your water parameters?
Have you rechecked the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate since the fish started dieing?
What is the temp, pH and kh/gh?
Are there any signs at all, aside from loss of appetite, before the fish dies? Any bloating? Gill redness?
What are you feeding them?
Please list all the fish in the tank and what you are using as decor. If possible, please post a pic of your set up and the fish.

I know this is a lot of Qs, but in order to help you we need more information.

 

[Guest]

Is their poop white?

 

[dhiatt41056]

I will try to answer all these questions. Here is all my water tests as of 700 am on 10/28/04. PH 8.3 KH 120ppm GH 200 ppm Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0 ppm Nitrate 30 ppm and my temp is 78 F. I use liquid tests for all but KH and GH. I let the tank run until all my readings were good and then I slowly added in the chiclids. My tank setup is acually two 90 gallon tanks that share the same sump bio filter. In the other 90 I have 2 Tiger Oscars and a pleco. They are doing great and are growing fast. They were in the tank from the beginning to establish my filter. I am feeding them Wardley chiclid flakes. I feed the Oscars Hikari Chiclid Gold Pellets. As far as symptoms for the most part the just lay at the bottom. I did notice that they were breathing heavy also. There was no bloating or any color changes that I could see. I will try and posts some pics of my fish and tanks.

 

[Cafe Jeff]

Although they are both Cichlid tanks, they are Cichlids from different continents. I wonder if the Americans carried an infectious disease that the Africans are more susceptible. Also, Oscars and Plecos for most part are much hardier than their African brethren.
I am not sure what you should do.
Jeff