My fish look unhappy

[GrapeGuy]

Personally I wouldn't worry about the pleco hiding. Plecos tend to be more nocturnal anyways. As for the other fish it could easily be fin rot but it could also be aggression amongst tank mates. Tank parameters are going to be a must to rule out fin rot or any other diseases. It would also be helpful to get a pic of the whole tank along with meserments of how large it is. Also if you don't mind what is all stocked in the tank?

The tank parameters are
Ph 8.0
Ammonia sorry I couldn’t test it
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 30
This is with me doing a 60 percent water change five days ago.
They’re haps and peacocks I believe.

 

[Vampire fish]

Add hiding places.

 

[GrapeGuy]

See duanes post #2. Start addressing the questions that are asked in order for us to help you. So a good start is always parameters and full water change details????

Sorry my ammonia test is faulty so I couldn’t say. Although would there being 0 free ammonia help?

 

[GrapeGuy]

Add hiding places.

Are there’s not enough already. I see a fish hiding between rocks. Also I don’t want my fish to run out of space.

 

[GrapeGuy]

If you have enough filtration change 50 % water and add more hiding places

See duanes post #2. Start addressing the questions that are asked in order for us to help you. So a good start is always parameters and full water change details????

What else is there to say? Sorry if I missed something.

 

[GrapeGuy]

I’d check ur water quality to make sure ur water isn’t bad. Is the pleco being outcompeted for food? Pleco has some missing pieces in its tail. Will need to figure out the pecking order as there’s some stress and aggression going on.

Yes I feel like that’s the case exactly. Sadly my vampire pleco died after a month and a half. Whenever I feed my catfish wafers, my cichlids al get them before they reach the bottom. And when they do my plecos don’t go for it. Could this be due to it being unappetizing for the plecos or too appetizing for the cichlids.

 

[Vampire fish]

Yes I feel like that’s the case exactly. Sadly my vampire pleco died after a month and a half. Whenever I feed my catfish wafers, my cichlids al get them before they reach the bottom. And when they do my plecos don’t go for it. Could this be due to it being unappetizing for the plecos or too appetizing for the cichlids.

The pleco is too stressed with all the cichlids im sure. I have tons of cichlids and plecos been through all this. There are a lot of ways to create hiding places like tiles against the glass is one example but I get it, aesthetics are important gotta figure something out. GL

and I Have to say some plecos even with a ton of hiding spots wont eat in a tank like that.

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Pleco looks too skinny from the angle of the picture of it. Can you get better picture of the snowballs belly? And IMO PH of 8 is on the borderline of too high for snowballs.

 

[Magnus_Bane]

For the pleco I would recommend adding a piece of wood to the tank. Not all plecos eat wood but the majority love to attach themselves to it and hide in it. Granted you'll have to boil the wood first so it doesn't affect the PH of the tank. Also you'll want to Target feed the plecos at night with the lights off, plecos target food by sense of smell and taste so it takes them a bit to find it in the tank, along with them being mainly active at night. As for the cichlids I agree with everyone else saying they need more hiding spots. Cichlids are highly aggressive/territorial so anything that can help break lines of sight helps to minimize aggression between tank mates. It would also help to increase the amount of water changes on the tank to eliminate that nitrate level.

 

[duanes]

I consider 30 ppm, a non-healthy nitrate level, so instead of one 60 % water change, I'd do two 40% water changes per week, to see what that does.
Although it appears the larger cichlids, are simply beating up the smaller ones.