This forum probably saved my rope. He’s getting triple sulfa treatment now. I think it’s a combination of injury plus bacteria. The cichlids have been hiding a lot when you walk by the aquarium. It’s a new response as of the last month. When ever they speed to a hiding spot when you walk by they startle the rope, so I’m guessing he scattered one time, hit his head and the injury became infected. Just a theory. Either way I wouldn’t have known what to treat the rope with since I’m definitely not a poly expert. I’ve had this rope a while but it seems like there’s not a ton of good info out there about them besides what you find on MFK. Just the basics.
Good luck with the rope. I agree its probably an injury but dont completely rule out aggression. Being raised together is often a false sense of security imo.
How big is the tank ? The 1 cichlids are the only tank mates ? Can yoo post a pic ?
How big is the tank ? The 1 cichlids are the only tank mates ? Can yoo post a pic ?
Tank is a 65 they are growing in. I’m building an acrylic 125 currently that they will move into once it’s finished and cycled. Tank mates are a green terror that’s about 6 to 7 inches and a rotkiel severum that’s about 5 inches. There are some dither fish as well but they’re small and only there because the cichlids like to hide. The rope will stay in the 65 and the cichlids will move. I’m growing out a delhezi in another tank currently and he will join the rope. The delhezi is only about 5 inches. The rope is about 15 inches. That’s the plan on paper currently. Eventually I’ll probably build another tank for the polys that focuses on floor space but that will be about 12 months down the road. The pic I added was from when I added the dark driftwood. I have more to add, but I’m leery now so I’m soaking it for much longer. Also trying to get plants established in it as well. The HOB filter is only there to collect bb. I keep HOBs and sponge filters on all my tanks so I always have cycled media available. May not be the best idea, but I’m sure you guys will let me know. I’m fairly new to the hobby so I always welcome input.
You actually have one of the best HOB filters out there, im running two myself with the same size of tank, if i ever needed to cycle a new tank i take the sponge from the HOB and squeeze the sponge in the new tank to help the cycling faster, i also have some sponge filters that i can cycle for weeks and used that in a new tank. Your actually doing good.
Another thing I do is if I have new sponges I will take the water from my one of my canisters and pour it in a bucket and let the new sponge soak in it for a few min. Usually wait and do this when I’m changing carbon out of the canister. Seems to help speed things up. I love the aqua clear hobs though. I own 6 of them in various sizes. Often I’ll use them for phosphate removal as the main purpose because I deal with algae so much. I don’t know if it’s my water or where I’m at but I have the hardest time with brown algae. I keep uv sterilizers in my larger tanks in addition to filtering phosphates and I still have to fight the algae like crazy.
I dint use carbon in my tanks, i replace the cardon part with more sponge for more housing for the bacteria, lol
I use a fluval 306 on the tank in question and I only keep a small amount of carbon in the middle section. I’m on municipal water currently so just in case my home filtration misses some chlorine I keep it in there. Also it seems to keep any fish smell away. Wife is currently preggo so any smells are bad. If she doesn’t have any issues with the current tanks it keeps my battle minimal for the larger ones to come lol
