my favorite fish

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C

Camphilophus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 11, 2008
5,202
4
0
Howell, Michigan
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he's going on about 5 years and I'd say he's about 14"TL. Last night the female rose queen laid eggs for the fourth or fifth time. She usually never lets him near the eggs but I always hoped. When I went to bed she had him on one side of the tank and she was on the other side guarding her eggs. I didn't think anything of it until this morning when I came upstairs to let my dog out to find him laying in the same spot of the tank on his side and she still guarding her eggs. I immediately went looking for my master test kit which I then realized I let my girlfriends parents borrow it to test the water in their pond. Knowing I don't have much time I took the female out out and put her in a bucket and gave him a 40% water change. After that I examined him better and he's basically just laying at the bottom of the tank now with a 3-4" heater burn from the top of his nuchal hump to his bottom lip. His gils are barely moving and he's just laying there. I moved him away from the heater (visi-therm stealth) and mounted it at a different angle. I really don't think he's going to pull through this. If he dies I'm probably going to be re-thinking the hobby. Any advice anybody?
 
bummer bro. you got any photos of the burn?

i hate to say this, but when working with very large fish sometimes internal injuries can happen fairly easy. a nice swift shot to his sides from any sizable fish could inflict damage. being as he is apparently 5years old now. he is past his prime and thus it's possible he cannot take as much as he could throughout his life so far. if you notice any swelling or bloatness within the next couple weeks. then this i feel would be the cause. it shouldn't show right off the bat, but will within a couple weeks.

this in my eyes can explain the sudden "fatigue" or lack of movement which caused the heater burn.

i defiantly would keep him in clean water with salt mixed in. temp fairly high, and solo to prevent any more instances.
 
He is my Favorite of yours as well and such a good looking monster. I would seperate and salt, drop temp down to 78 and add some stress coat or mela/pimafix. Keep him in a dark tank and dont feed him for a few days. I sure hope he makes it, he is such a beauty.
 
wow good luck, hope he pulls it through. its always hard to lose something youve grown attached to. he looks like an amazing fish, and hope he gets better :(
 
His tanks always gotten a 50% waterchange a week and its heavily filtered so the water was not the problem. I haven't added anything new or even dipped any new nets or anything in his tank in over a year so its hard to say what is causing this or if its just old age or what. I gave him a waterchange as soon as I noticed I dosed it with salt, a little extra stress coat and I'm not going to adjust the temperature as it's already at 78*.

1 strange thing I noticed about him is that his tube dropped down a little farther than it ever has before about a week ago and never went back up. Instead of coming down to a point it was kind of feathered at the end also but I didn't expect anything of it. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or if he's just been withering away for the last few days.

He's not dead yet but I wouldn't expect him to live through the night. I think it is old age and my mom just told me I have had him for more like 6-7 years. I know large cichlids can live up to 15 years but I also know how difficult it is to keep large hybrids as healthy.

I've probably lost a hundred fish in my life time but this one was my first fish, my favorite, the biggest, had the most personality and I was not expecting this at all. I've been trying to breed him for the last year because I knew he was going to die one day but not like this. Since I was unable to successfully breed him I'm going to get a big tattoo of him to remember him by. This really really sucks.
 
if he makes it then u have to definately breed him
 
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