Need Help - Beaten Up Cichlids

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volcomstone

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 6, 2006
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SoCal
I just setup a new 120 gallon CA/SA cichlid tank (added fish after fully cycled). I put tons of hiding places and the tank is not overcrowded. However, just this morning I noticed that a 3 of my cichlids went at it all late night/early morning and gave each other a pretty decent beating.

I noticed that some of the fins are ripped and some of their scales are damaged or missing. What's the best way to treat this? For now, I don't think the damages are enough for me to start up a hospital tank. So far I've separated them in the tank.

I did a small water change, raised the temp to 84 and then gradually added aquarium salt right now. Any other things I should do? How often should I do a WC and how much? Should I continue to add salt after each WC? Please help...I want my cichlids to get their beauty back the fastest way possible
 
Have they stopped their fighting.. so far you did everything right... but its up to them now to call a truce and recover... or rehome who ever is the bully...
 
Red Devil;3053675; said:
Have they stopped their fighting.. so far you did everything right... but its up to them now to call a truce and recover... or rehome who ever is the bully...
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Thanks for the feedback..separated all 3 of them for now

How often should I do WC? Should I just continue to add salt after each WC so that it aids in their heal process quicker?
 
volcomstone;3053696; said:
Thanks for the feedback..separated all 3 of them for now

How often should I do WC? Should I just continue to add salt after each WC so that it aids in their heal process quicker?
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you can do 25% every couple of days while they are healing.. if possible.. yes add a tiny amount of salt after the water change... as long as they are in their own tank separated ...they should recover fast.. keep us updated
 
You nitrate levels should dictate how much water changes you should do. Keep your nitrates under 10ppm this will aid in the healing of your fish.
 
Update: All but 1 of the 3 cichlids are doing good. I've been treating with melafix.

For the 1 that doesn't look too good I've noticed two things:

1) On his damaged pectoral fin, there seems to be some type of fungus or white dot looking thing around the base of the fin. It so far doesn't look like ich (I've seen ich before)

2) On his right eye, there seems to be a also a white looking thing that's hanging out on the top. It almost like it was some sort of spec that was in the water and landed on this eye. However, it's been there for the last 2 days so I'm think it is something more serious than that! I'm thinking he had an eye injury which may have got worse.

I'm not 100% sure what I'm dealing with here and how to treat it. Initially I thought I was just going to be treating for damaged/missing scales and torn fins. However, it seems that for 1 of fishes, the damages are little more severe. I'm trying to take pictures but I have been unsuccessful in taking some. I'll keep trying. Please help!
 
It's been two days? Just keep doing the wc and adding meds. Definitely keep an eye on it. Pictures would help.
 
ProblEmZ;3060048; said:
It's been two days? Just keep doing the wc and adding meds. Definitely keep an eye on it. Pictures would help.
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I'm not doing any wc as of now since I'm following the directions on the melafix bottle which indicates to do a wc after the 7th day of dosage. My water parameters are so far good 0ppm for ammonia and nitrite...and ~10ppm for nitrate.

However, as for the fungus looking thing on the eye...I'm thinking its eye fluke but I'm not 100% sure. I dont have a good enough camera to take a pic of the problem since its soo small on his right eye.

Anybody have any experience w/ eye flukes and whether it sounds similar to what I'm describing?
 
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