What on earth is going on with the Flowerhorn and my tank? At a loss!
- Thread starter Meeji90
- Start date
As said by others, your tap water seems to be soft, with very little buffering capacity (alkalinity).
Your public water provider can provide you the average values such as its pH, alkalinity , hardness etc.
It may be that you'd be better off with fish that live in your type water.
The origin of the FH is Amphilophus trimaculatus, and either Hericthys or Vieja specie all from hard, mineral rich, type water with pH around 8, found in wind swept area of Mexico where water temps are in the 70sF.
In soft water, bacteria that it has not evolved to resist in its natural conditions, may cause problems.
One of the double edged swords in your tank, is that this bacteria is often most virulent in temps in the 80sF (26'C and above), but because the FH is a hybrid, high water temps, and loads of antibiotics were used to increase production creating bacteria that are resistant to the normal antibiotics, resulting in disease and other bacterial and fungal maladies.
It could be, that your previous fish were resistant to those, but because you had to hastily combine the FH with them, exposed the new fish to soon, to those bacteria benign to your old fish, but oportunistall infective to the FH.
The purpose of quarantine is not only to protect old fish from the new, but also to slowly expose the new fish to low doses of those bacterial species, allowing for acclimatization with non-lethal doses.
Eating your tetras may have hastened that exposure.
Sorry to be so long winded,I was a water microbiologist, and it comes with the territory.
Your public water provider can provide you the average values such as its pH, alkalinity , hardness etc.
It may be that you'd be better off with fish that live in your type water.
The origin of the FH is Amphilophus trimaculatus, and either Hericthys or Vieja specie all from hard, mineral rich, type water with pH around 8, found in wind swept area of Mexico where water temps are in the 70sF.
In soft water, bacteria that it has not evolved to resist in its natural conditions, may cause problems.
One of the double edged swords in your tank, is that this bacteria is often most virulent in temps in the 80sF (26'C and above), but because the FH is a hybrid, high water temps, and loads of antibiotics were used to increase production creating bacteria that are resistant to the normal antibiotics, resulting in disease and other bacterial and fungal maladies.
It could be, that your previous fish were resistant to those, but because you had to hastily combine the FH with them, exposed the new fish to soon, to those bacteria benign to your old fish, but oportunistall infective to the FH.
The purpose of quarantine is not only to protect old fish from the new, but also to slowly expose the new fish to low doses of those bacterial species, allowing for acclimatization with non-lethal doses.
Eating your tetras may have hastened that exposure.
Sorry to be so long winded,I was a water microbiologist, and it comes with the territory.
I see where you are coming from and understand completely what you are saying, but many many people in my area keep FH and other cichlids for that matter. I am relatively new to the hobby and only started in the summer however when I seen this guy I could not resist. I love FH and have been looking at them since day one of being interested in fishkeeping so I would much rather get my water right, rather than look at fish which are suited to my water (which I did previously, but none interested me tbh)
As a small update as of now;
pH: 7.2 - has not dropped since the baking soda was last added. So this tells me that the drop is possibly a weekly or bi-weekly drop if anything.
Ammonia: 0 Nitrite 0: Nitrate: 10
I woke up this morning, and when it came to switching the lights on he was extremely active which I haven't seen him like that before, trying to attack me through the glass and what not and his colour was sensational. He has always been fairly active but this was something I haven't seen before. His colour has always been good but it looked even brighter.
I also notice when I am at my pc desk which is next to the tank he swims up to the corner of the tank and just stares at me as if I'm in his way, so I may cover up that side of the tank or relocate the desk incase me sitting here is stressing him or maybe he just sees me and thinks 'food'.
He is now eating again which is good. I treated him to live brine shrimp today and he loved it, munching his way through the tank so that was a good sign. His staple is Fluval Bug Bites but I'd like to eventually train him for Hikari and Super Premium pellets as they are less expensive longer term.
The blemish is definitely on the other side of his face now too, so it is on both sides. He also has a scrape like cut on his body from scraping against something in the tank (can only be filter or heater). Not quite sure what it is, could it be a water quality thing from the water passing his gills, or is he literally just rubbing it on the heater and getting burnt?
I purchased a second heater today, as when testing the temp at the opposite side of the tank I found it was only 26 celcius and not the same as the 30 on the other side. Temp of the water all over is now 30 celsius. This heater has a guard round it so hopefully he doesn't burn himself again if that is indeed what he done.
Seeing him eat again gives me confidence he will be okay and once the water issues are sorted he will be right as rain so to speak. I have crushed coral, and the water kit on the way and should be with me in the coming days, so I will be prepared when this weeks water change comes around.
Got a bunch of pages bookmarked and have joined a few FH facebook groups. Hopefully soon I will be in a position to have a steady pH and harder water and this will sort any water quality issues.
Longer term plans for the tank include removing the sand all together as almost daily vacuuming is a right pain. Thinking a powerhead/wavemaker also as noticed a dead spot on one side of the tank.
As a small update as of now;
pH: 7.2 - has not dropped since the baking soda was last added. So this tells me that the drop is possibly a weekly or bi-weekly drop if anything.
Ammonia: 0 Nitrite 0: Nitrate: 10
I woke up this morning, and when it came to switching the lights on he was extremely active which I haven't seen him like that before, trying to attack me through the glass and what not and his colour was sensational. He has always been fairly active but this was something I haven't seen before. His colour has always been good but it looked even brighter.
I also notice when I am at my pc desk which is next to the tank he swims up to the corner of the tank and just stares at me as if I'm in his way, so I may cover up that side of the tank or relocate the desk incase me sitting here is stressing him or maybe he just sees me and thinks 'food'.
He is now eating again which is good. I treated him to live brine shrimp today and he loved it, munching his way through the tank so that was a good sign. His staple is Fluval Bug Bites but I'd like to eventually train him for Hikari and Super Premium pellets as they are less expensive longer term.
The blemish is definitely on the other side of his face now too, so it is on both sides. He also has a scrape like cut on his body from scraping against something in the tank (can only be filter or heater). Not quite sure what it is, could it be a water quality thing from the water passing his gills, or is he literally just rubbing it on the heater and getting burnt?
I purchased a second heater today, as when testing the temp at the opposite side of the tank I found it was only 26 celcius and not the same as the 30 on the other side. Temp of the water all over is now 30 celsius. This heater has a guard round it so hopefully he doesn't burn himself again if that is indeed what he done.
Seeing him eat again gives me confidence he will be okay and once the water issues are sorted he will be right as rain so to speak. I have crushed coral, and the water kit on the way and should be with me in the coming days, so I will be prepared when this weeks water change comes around.
Got a bunch of pages bookmarked and have joined a few FH facebook groups. Hopefully soon I will be in a position to have a steady pH and harder water and this will sort any water quality issues.
Longer term plans for the tank include removing the sand all together as almost daily vacuuming is a right pain. Thinking a powerhead/wavemaker also as noticed a dead spot on one side of the tank.
GH should be at least 140ppm for medium-hard water. Better if you get it to 200ppm. KH looks good, it will be fine if it goes higher.
Researching ways to raise GH at the minute.
Side note - whatever is going on with the scales on his gills has now kinda spread upwards a little bit on one side and he has started losing a bit of his blue colour on his kok.
Hello; Those of us who have hard water have a bit of envy. There are a few soft water fish I would like to have but do not bother. maybe tak a look at some of those.
bout the FH and the spreading lesion. Might be time to consider a dip of some sort. Methylene blue perhaps?
bout the FH and the spreading lesion. Might be time to consider a dip of some sort. Methylene blue perhaps?
