What's the problem or is it normal?

[Cincyfish guy]

I have 1 green severum about 3 inches, 1 Acarichthys heckelii about 3 inches, 1 red tail shark around 3 or 4 inches, 1 dwarf blue cobolt gourami 1 inch, 1 pleco about 4 inches 1 rainbow fish abot 2 inches, and 1 baby bala shark around 2 inches (who i plan on switching to a bigger tank as soon as possible)All in a 55 gallon. 13' by 48' by 19'. I have an aqua tech filter which is 30 to 60 gallon compatible my nitrites are at 0 nitrates at around 20 hardness is around 150 or by my test hard alkalinity 80 and ph is between 7.2 and 7.8. in the tank i have an 11 pound holey rock a fake driftwood stump and a few fake plants. I have a hydor theo heater which keeps the water at about 78 to 80 degrees depending on how cold the house is btw 300watt.

i noticed odd almost white or grey poop coming from my heckelii, and my severum hasn't been eating as much as he usually does, I've actually had to pull some of the sticks back out (i feed them tetra cichlid sticks and flakes for the smaller mouth fish). My severum has been hanging out in his corner and when i look in to watch i notice him doing a head shake (kinda like he has turrets). They where itching but i figuered that was due to planarian that i noticed, i think. I have cut down there feeding and it's seem to cut down on them. Anyway whats the deal with them not eating all the food, they usually eat it all and want more, could an internal parassite make then not want to eat and if i do get the food for them it won't make much of a differnce if they don't have it will it.

 

[Lupin]

to MFK, Cincy!

From your post alone, I do believe you may be encountering internal parasites and flukes. Flukes cannot be detected easily unless you have a microscope to conduct skin and gill scrapes wherein you could determine whether flukes are present or not. As flukes are a very common occurrence, I would suggest treating all your fish with praziquantel which covers both the suspected internal parasites and flukes fortunately. Praziquantel is a very mild treatment and will not disrupt your nitrogen cycle so you need not worry about your water parameters going wacky which most treatments contribute to. Prazi does not come cheap which is the downside but it is worth it in the end if you can successfully pull it off. It is available as Prazipro if you can find it in online sites such as Dr. Fosters and Smith and then petstores.

Here's a treatment regimen.

* Remove carbon.
* Add 2.5 milligrams per liter of water.
* If you are using the powdered version, it is difficult to dissolve. Predissolve in tank water by shaking it up in a small container.
* Dosing
Day 1 -- remove carbon, perform water change with vacuuming, and add Prazi to tank
Day 2 -- add Prazi
Day 3 -- do nothing
Day 4 -- do nothing
Day 5 -- do nothing
Day 6 -- add Prazi
Day 7 -- add Prazi
Day 8 -- normal partial water change with vacuuming
Day 14 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
Day 21 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
Day 28 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
Day 35 - normal partial water change, add carbon, treatment is complete

Aside from the praziquantel, please do add garlic on their foods to encourage them to eat. Another bonus from use of garlic is that its allicin substance releases a rather pungent smell that most parasites will not appreciate the presence of garlic especially in the digestive system as it irritates them thus allowing the fish to resist the parasites much more easily. Praziquantel will destroy the parasites.