I have some cichlids that i have been raising for a month and out of no where they look to be sick. They are pooing normal, i have been doing 50% water changes every other day since they were born and have been feeding them the same high quality baby food. The only thing that changed was that my sponge filter didnt seem to be getting enough oxygen in the tank for the 60 fish(in a 20 gallon) so i put another aerator in there. The fish were all fine and about 3 days later i see them swimming all weird and jetting around the tank. They jet around the tank and then stop and kinda float head first towards the top. It looks like a pre-spiral of death. Is there anything i should treat the tank with or anything i can do??? The only thing i could possibly think could have caused this was something on the airstone?? I did a 50% water change today and yesterday so I dont think it would be in the water anymore. Anything i should treat the tank with just in case? Add salt or raise the temp or anything like that?
Pre-spiral of death? Help please!
- Thread starter cgronko
- Start date
just thought about this... I was using this air stone to rear eggs. the batch went bad though and was full of fungus so i took out this airstone, got all the white fungus off and rinsed it in tap water and put it into the baby cichlid tank... Could this all be caused by fungus from the eggs!?
i doubt it was caused by the egg fungi. what i think is that now that your fry are getting bigger they need a bigger tank. I would say spilt the batch in two and get another 20 gal or even go one step further with a 30. hopw everything turns out for the best
I dont think its the tank size, its some kind of sickness. Some of the fish are starting to swim in circles and are getting pushed around by the current. They are swimming with their bodies at a 45 degree angle and kinda dragging their back ends. I have no idea what it is, but this has happened before to some of my cichlids and they all died from it eventually. Last time it happened i tried searching for the disease and couldnt find anything either. Hopefully this doesnt spread to all my fish.
The most important things to consider when raising fry are food and water parameters. Most people dont even put the fry in cycled tanks. And then wonder why they die in month or so.
So what are your water param's
So what are your water param's
You said you took the sponge filter out. Is that the only source of biological filtration that was in the tank? Or do you have a hang-on-back filter on there?
Sounds like this tank has been up for a while. I would assume all is good...
But I have to agree spjc, it sounds like there's not enough swimming space.
That's all I can really make out from your description...
@ Twisted, reread the post, he said he added another air pump, not take the sponge filter out.
But I have to agree spjc, it sounds like there's not enough swimming space.
That's all I can really make out from your description...
@ Twisted, reread the post, he said he added another air pump, not take the sponge filter out.
it has a ton of filtration, it has a cannister filter, a sponge filter and then i added the extra aerator. I do 50% water changes every other day and the water parameters are perfect, meaning no nitrite, no ammonia and pretty much no nitrate(i think i have a small amount in my tap water so it never really hits zero). The reason i dont think its the tank size is because it happened all of a sudden. I did a big water change and they seem to be doing a little better. I have been feeding them very high quality food and have kept the water perfect. There must have been some kind of bacteria on the airstone or something? or something got into my water? Will see how they are doing tomorrow.
Do you notice any red marks?
I've had similar experiences (not same symptoms) where I added a power head and it gave all my fish what appeared to be ammonia burns, but my ammonia was 0. After removing it everybody got better.
I've had similar experiences (not same symptoms) where I added a power head and it gave all my fish what appeared to be ammonia burns, but my ammonia was 0. After removing it everybody got better.
no, i dont see any physical changes to the fish in any way. Thats strange how that happened to your fish though. I have no idea what it is, is it possible that the fish could swallow the air on accident? They have never had air bubbles in the tank that they could swim though until i put the extra aerator in. I once had an angelfish shipped to me where it was on its side when it arrived and it swallowed alot of air and showed very simliar effects as these fish are, but he was able to get rid of the air and was fine in the next couple of days.