More tank pics, updated

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Almost lost a fish today.

I moved (acara) Jazz into an epsom salt soak bucket to see if it will help her with the vertical problem. It still seems to be tied to stuffing herself with the blackworms...she gorges on them and gets floaty. After a day or two she's pretty normal. I don't feed her the cubes anymore. I soak and break them up for the other fish and she seems unhappy with this new arrangement. She's stopped eating pellets. Also when she's floaty her tube sticks out again.

Some bizarre behavior by my red rainbow cichlid Salt. When Jazz was hovering head down he came up and 'tasted' her tube. It didn't seem to bother her. I've never had any fish do this before and I have no idea what that's about.

So anyway, she's in the bucket with the salt and 2 air stones, some plant cover and a wide net over one side of the bucket. I had stuff to do. Lucky I had to go downstairs and take out some trash. Figured I'd check on her. Bucket's empty. I'm like nooooo. But she's not on the floor anywhere either.

After a minute of searching something made me check the garbage disposal. You read that right. I felt her as soon as I reached in...she moved a little. The bucket was sitting in the sink OVER the drain hole (it's a basement kitchenette). Now how the F did she jump out and force herself UNDER the bucket to fall IN??? I swear these acaras and their insane jumping ability will be the end of me.

So I'm careful lifting her out because of the blades. She's stiff and I have no idea how long she's been out of water. I think the only thing that saved her is that the disposal was wet with a bit of water. I dropped her in fresh water and held the air stone near her gills. She came to and started moving. Next I ran the faucet full blast into the bucket for water movement and oxygenation over top of her.

She seemed cautiously ok. I also noticed she wasn't head down either but setting normally at the bottom. Got a few marks on her head and a loose scale on one side.

In the 225 Salt seemed to be looking for her. I'll check Jazz later tonight. If she seems normal she goes back in the 225. I've covered the top with more dense plants and took a zip laundry mesh bag and placed it over the bucket. There's aeration at the surface. I don't trust her. :irked:
 
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FINWIN said:
Almost lost a fish today.

I moved (acara) Jazz into an epsom salt soak bucket to see if it will help her with the vertical problem. It still seems to be tied to stuffing herself with the blackworms...she gorges on them and gets floaty. After a day or two she's pretty normal. I don't feed her the cubes anymore. I soak and break them up for the other fish and she seems unhappy with this new arrangement. She's stopped eating pellets. Also when she's floaty her tube sticks out again.

Some bizarre behavior by my red rainbow cichlid Salt. When Jazz was hovering head down he came up and 'tasted' her tube. It didn't seem to bother her. I've never had any fish do this before and I have no idea what that's about.

So anyway, she's in the bucket with the salt and 2 air stones, some plant cover and a wide net over one side of the bucket. I had stuff to do. Lucky I had to go downstairs and take out some trash. Figured I'd check on her. Bucket's empty. I'm like nooooo. But she's not on the floor anywhere either.

After a minute of searching something made me check the garbage disposal. You read that right. I felt her as soon as I reached in...she moved a little. The bucket was sitting in the sink OVER the drain hole (it's a basement kitchenette). Now how the F did she jump out and force herself UNDER the bucket to fall IN??? I swear these acaras and their insane jumping ability will be the end of me.

So I'm careful lifting her out because of the blades. She's stiff and I have no idea how long she's been out of water. I think the only thing that saved her is that the disposal was wet with a bit of water. I dropped her in fresh water and held the air stone near her gills. She came to and started moving. Next I ran the faucet full blast into the bucket for water movement and oxygenation over top of her.

She seemed cautiously ok. I also noticed she wasn't head down either but setting normally at the bottom. Got a few marks on her head and a loose scale on one side.

In the 225 Salt seemed to be looking for her. I'll check Jazz later tonight. If she seems normal she goes back in the 225. I've covered the top with more dense plants and took a zip laundry mesh bag and placed it over the bucket. There's aeration at the surface. I don't trust her. :irked:
Click to expand...
Thank god she seems to be doing okay atm. I can only imagine your level of panic in those moments. Just reading this makes me feel anxious.
 
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Ok, update.

Jazz is back in the 225 but I'm still monitoring. She seems a bit 'off' and stressed although she was fine when I transported her. She immediately dropped to the bottom and some of the hrps have her a hard time . But...

Salt to the rescue! He cleared everyone out from his friend.

Salt Jazz.jpg
 
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FINWIN said:
Ok, update.

Jazz is back in the 225 but I'm still monitoring. She seems a bit 'off' and stressed although she was fine when I transported her. She immediately dropped to the bottom and some of the hrps have her a hard time . But...

Salt to the rescue! He cleared everyone out from his friend.

View attachment 1519294
Click to expand...
I hope she gets well!

I love how your cichlids develop a relationship with each other that's beyond the usual aggression that cichlids show to each other. This definitely shows they have intelligence and emotion levels far past what people expect as they can develop care and affection for another species.
 
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Latest news on Jazz. She's swimming around the tank more, mostly near the top. Still kind of 'off' but can swim straight at times. She definitely has appetite...this evening when everyone was getting fed she came up. But when I didn't offer the blackworms she refused pellets and swam off. She's developed a taste for the spirulina/spinach/blackworm cubes at the expense of other foods. She's not getting cubes indefinitely because of her gorging which I think is causing impaction. She literally grabs cubes and tries to force them down while she swims. It's the equivalent of a person trying to gulp down a whole chicken. Because she can' t control herself no cubes for the foreseeable future. She is showing slow but steady improvement. Still hovers vertical at times but less than before, sometimes swims at a 45 degree angle then straightens herself. My biggest concern is that she could have some long term trauma/injury.

I also think because of her struggles the hrps might be picking on her a bit. Normally she holds her own but when cichlids sense a weakness or vulnerability they'll go at a fish. But she has the red rainbow and parrot for protection right now. Brick doesn't bother her at all.

I might have to thin out a couple of the jumbo hrps in the 225 because my Oscar is going through his "I want the whole f-in tank" phase. His pit is getting bigger than ever, causing a squeeze for floor space. The hrps scamper for places to go (sometimes clipping Brick's tail) so he uses them for target practice. Then he watches their hides, daring them to come out.

As usual Boss the bp is unaffected and does his own chasing often clearing the pit. Even the monstrous Hulk can't beat the parrot. If he forces his way into Boss's log the parrot rams him back out.
 
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