Problems with Parrot Cichlids

[BlueWater]

Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum here. Let me say one thing, I've been reading through many other posts and you all seem incredibly knowledgable. So I really hope you can help me cure my two fish.

Let me start off by detailing the tank. It's a 29 gallon tank with about 7 plants growing. The water is crystal clear. I just added 4 rocks which I boiled for a while to clean them. I have about 10 small fish mainly different species of tetras and 2 Parrot Cichlids which are the two sick ones.

I just moved my tank downstairs in my house which I did an almost complete water change but left about 15% of the water still in there. However, I'm not sure if this is the problem but I do have .20 ppm of ammonia in my tank. I've been trying to render this with water changes and cleaning the filter often and it's coming down well.

I also tested the ph and it's about 7.6-7.8ppm. I want to get my ph at 7.0 because it's a community tank. However, it just won't come down even when I use the ph down solution.

So that's all I can really think of besides all my other fish, besides the Cichlids are doing great. The Cichlids just stay at the bottom mostly, sometimes hardly moving but on occasion they do some up to the top and still do eat. They also both swim on an angle most of the time. There are no visible sores or discoloring.

Sorry about the huge post but I just really want to get these guys healthy and swimming good again. Thanks a tonne guys and gals.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Did they start right after the move? Could be the ammonia getting to them. You really want to try and keep it at .1 or below, if possible. I would continue daily water changes for now, 30-40% until the ammonia comes down. Don't clean the gravel, filter cartridges, etc. and in a few days you should see the ammonia come back down to 0.

Welcome to AA, btw.

 

[BlueWater]

Well, I've just completed about a 40% water change. Tough work when having to lug the water up and down stairs! lol. But I'm waiting for things to settle than I'll keep you posted on the progress. Thanks, I hope this works.

 

[EXM]

Parrot cichlids like hard water and can become deathly ill in other conditions. Like African cichlids, parrot cichlids come from harder water than what a community tank should be set for. Try de-chlorinating tap water with strong minerals.

 

[joannde]

On the topic of pH - its more important to have stable water quality rather than trying to maintain a target pH. Using chemicals to change pH will generally only lead to swings - which is unhealthy. Just do long acclimations when you get new fish; I drip acclimate everyoen until there is 4 -5 times the original volume of water (my pH is 8.2).
Good luck with the parrots - I hope they get better - water changes should help.