Anyone have experience with Cuatro Ciengas (Herichthys minckleyi)

Natediesel69

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Nov 22, 2021
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They seem to be rather rare in the fish hobby. I got 4 fry (.75"-1.5"ish) from imperial (sorry not sure if name's are allowed) and have not seen them there nor anywhere else since. In the roughly 3 months I've had them they have all but one died off one by one rather inexplicably. One thing is they were by far the smallest fish in the tank, with 3 starry night/bleekeri /paratilapia 2.5"ish, 3 red head symp 2.5" and a red devil 2.5"ish in a 90 gallon and all other fish are thriving and still going strong in the same tank. There were two larger one's (1.5") and two very small ones (0.75", maybe smaller honestly) and one of the smaller two died first and was found floating with a torn stomach, unclear if died or was killed, but was acting odd prior to this and not really eating and just swimming aimlessly around the tank. Then one of the two bigger ones began acting the same and just stopped eating and disappeared. The last large one seemed like a male and was super active throughout and would constantly be swimming the bottom of the tank looking for scraps and would compete for food with the other much larger fish, the last smaller one would hide in these floating plants as he was sooo much smaller than the other fish but was active and ate smaller food particles. The vibrant larger one then began to out of nowhere stop eating, I isolated him into a 40 gallon after 2-3 days of this and he died the next day :(. So I have one left, who was the runt of the litter and was doing great until 2 days ago and is not acting similar to the others, I moved him into the 40 gallon and he seems pretty active but is not eating, I tried treating the tank with gencure and some aquarium salt, I really don't know whats going on, these are literally the only fish out of roughly 25 other SA/CA that I have in 3 other tanks in the same house with similar setups (usually a canister filter plus aquaclear hang on the back and sponge filter). Maybe a stomach parasite? I try to do pretty regular water changes and filter maintenance so I'm at a loss. Sorry for the novel, I am new here
 

duanes

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I kept them about 15 to 20 years ago.
Since that time Cuatro Cienigas has become a protected site, and taking fish is almost totally restricted.
They are very prone to intestinal issues unless water is immaculate.
There is no measurable nitrate in the pools they come from, or any other nutrient buildup, and water from the underground springs changes constantly.
So water changes keeping nitrate below 5ppm would be minimal to keep them from bloating.
Tank mates like other cichlids may be too stressful as they are the only cichlid in the habitat, and could also cause stress induced disease.
 
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Natediesel69

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Nov 22, 2021
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That makes a lot of sense, thanks a lot for the reply. Hoping the gencure does the trick, it does seem like a stomach parasite it I had to guess. I'm also open to any and all other suggestions. He's still in the 40 breeder doing ok, looks interested in food but not eating, going on 3 days of little to no eating and just treated with gen yesterday so fingers crossed!
 

Deadeye

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Welcome to the forum!
Try to get levamisole based medicine or hex shield, both treat internal parasites. If there is white stringy poop, that is a telltale sign. With wild caught fish, parasites are quite common.
I wouldn’t have been surprised if the first few died due to aggression, though most of those fish (despite growing to be very mean) are too small to show their true colors.
 
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