Help with Malawi Cichlids

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livifivil

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 14, 2008
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I have just started my 75 gallon tank. Here is what i have in it so far:

1 Pleco
3 Bala Sharks
2 Iridecent Sharks
12 Lake Malawi Cichlids (4 electric Yellow, 4 pale blue, 4 blue and black horizontal stripes)

I have rock caves.
I keep the temp between 77 and 80 at all times.
I use API stress coat water conditioner for the tap.
I use a wet dry filter made of a 25 gallon tank.

Recently I purchased the 12 Lake Mawali Cichlids and I have already lost two and I am pretty sure that another one will be dead by tomorrow. I lost one of the blue ones and one of the blue and black ones and tonight I came home and another blue and black one is not moving too much. I can't understand it because I am attending to the tank everyday. I feed the fish twice a day using frozen brine shrimp and blood worms, Omega One pellets and an algae supplement for the pleco. All the other fish are doing fine. There was even one of teh blue Malawi's that had a white fungus on his eye and I added some copper and now he is fine. All of the Cichlids are about an inch long as opposed to the other fish which are all about 2 inches. They seem to get along just fine and I cannot understand what happened to the two that died. All the other fish seem to do fine but I will probably have lost 3 out of the 12 Malawi's by tomorrow and I have only had them for two weeks. Any help would be greatly appriciated. Thanks in advance!!!!
 
Well those sharks will get awefully big for a 75 gal tank with lots of cichlids. They will get big with no cichlids,and like lots of swimming area. Without pics hard to tell about the cichlids..
 
Well I can probably get pics soon but right now I don't have a camera. They all look very healthy. I am planning on giving back all the sharks to the aquarium once they get too big for the tank and keeping it strictly for cichlids but at this rate I don't know if they will out last the sharks. The water is clear and all te cichlids look great color wise and this is my problem.
 
what are the water conditions? pH? Hardness? Ammonia? Nitrate? Nitrite? Water being clear is no indication of how suited it is for fish. As i once read "Vodka is clear, but fish will not live in it" SO check your other conditions as well :)
 
It has been up for at least 2 months now and I did cycle it for the first two weeks using some test fish and they seemed to do fine. I just did a check last night and Nitrate, Nitrite and Amonia levels are all at 0. The PH is a little low but nothing drastic. Last night is was at 7.6 but I added a little PHup to get it back up to 7.8. Other than that I can't really think of anything else that would be effecting the fish.
 
ok if you arent registering nitrates there is a problem, with a fully cycled tank you will get a reading for nitrates you arent so there is a problem, you may have cleaned up your tank too much (water change and cleaning the filter within a few days will cause this) I dont know what test kits you are using but API makes a master test kit, get one...for the adjutment of the ph in your tank put some crushed coral in your filter (put in filter bags) and when doing water changes you should put one teaspoon of baking soda per 5 gallons to help buffer the carbonate hardness of the water so your ph will stay at a consistent level. it sounds as though your tank is going through a mini cycle as I stated a fully cycled aquarium will not register 0 for nitrates. adding the coral and baking soda with give you a consistent ph of 8.2 and adding one teaspoon of baking soda per 5 gallons with give you a KH reading of 16 which are perfect prams for malawis.
 
also it takes longer than 2 weeks to cycle an aquarium unless you added BB (beneficial bacteria) like bio spira or got some dirty water from an established aquarium. takes more like 5 to 6 weeks to fully cycle an aquarium.
 
ok I must have missed what you were feeding them when I left the last 2 posts...you have basically killed the fish the way you are feeding them...I guarantee you lost the fish to malawi bloat. the fish you described blue and black horizontal bars sound alot like p demasoni which are herbivores and call for a vegetable based diet (spirulina flakes). the way you are feeding the fish 2 times a day with frozen is a big no no. brine every other day is fine but the blood worms are the killer here, once or twice a month max... get a good quality spirulina based flake (tetra) and feed that in small amounts ( what the fish can eat within 2 minutes) 2 or 3 times a day. if you look up the feeding habits of herbivores you will get a lot of useful info...but I am 100% sure you lost them to bloat
 
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