yep another id this cichla thread. hes aprox 8 to 10 inchs

[octavusprime]

bummer deal you might have an issue in that tank considering the crap from that lizard im not a reptile guy but im assuming its waste could be poisoning your fish btw white gravel does wash out a basses colors i like the more natural colors or black it makes the gold on bass explode

I'm with you on this. The waste from the lizard is probably killing the fish. It may be disease or could be the chemical makeup of the lizard excrements. The only way I can see this working is if the lizards was very small (small amount of waste produced) or the volume of water was large enough to dilute the toxic byproducts.

I'm not an expert but I'm guessing this is causing the deaths.

 

[WckedMidas]

the thing that puzzles me the most is why dont any of the other fish die lke the jurense , or the pleco salvinis polleni somehting else should die to im disgusted bout this

 

[WckedMidas]

DOES ANYONE THINK CRICKETS COULD BE TOXIC TO CICHLA? I dump around 10 bucks a week worth of crickets in the habitat for the lizard Crickets hit the water and get ate to. What u all think?

 

[octavusprime]

It is possible that too many crickets are fallin into the water. The p bass will eat till it can't fi anymore in it's mouth and then still try and eat more. Anything it can't eat will eventually drown and start decomposing. The break down of the uneaten food, waste from the over fed fish plus the reptile excrements could be making a toxic cocktale.

It is odd that the other fish aren't dying too though. The Two other fish may be more tolerant to these conditions. How much volume of water does the tank hold? Are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels in check? I love the idea of you setup but something unusual is going on here.

 

[WckedMidas]

its between 135 and 150 gallons of water. Do two or more water changes a week 15 to 30 percent change over each time. 2 ehiem pro 2 filters a ehiem knock off filter 2 powerheads with filter atachments. I figured the jurense pleco would have died from bad water befor the cichla did. Hell the loachs should be dead to. But only the cichla die.

 

[octavusprime]

I have another hypothosis. Most carnivores have very distinct nutritional requirements. Perhaps a diet of all or mostly crickets is lackin in crude protein content a particular lipid or amino acid required by p bass'?

Another possibility is the exoskeleton of crickets. If enough builds up in the fishes digestive track I wonder if it could cause a blockage and eventual death?

I've been mulling over your issue all day. Hoping to find some more info to shed some light on your issue.

 

[fishwhisperer]

iv never had a probmlem feeding crickets, but my guess would be that pbass over each, maybe its the quantity, i like the impacted theory, try starting with larger pbass, maybe throw a catfish in there to compete for the crickets

 

[WckedMidas]

theres two salvini. 1 poleni. 1 jurensecatfish. and had the 9 or ten inch cichla in there. pluss the lizard running around,. I figured i had it coverd. its driveing me crazy. everything else is looking sooooooooooooooooooooooooo goood hell even the cichla was rocking some awsom markings and colors the night befor he died. its like homicide or something. Do you think they could be jumping out the water to get the crickets off the wood and hurt them selfs in process?

 

[WckedMidas]

this guy and my salvini have a issue with each other.