I just took over this aquarium 3 days ago. A older guy had passed away and his wife had been caring for them for 2.5 years now. It was getting to be a little much on her so she was giving it away. I want to continue this mans work with honor and allow his fish to thrive for as long as possible. I'm new to the hobby myself, and am in the beginners freak out/paranoia stage, lol. Gained a lot of knowledge already from the internet over time, but not too much talk with fellow hobbyist with actual dedicated experience. There's 15 cichlids in this tank, I need to re-home a few as I want to add some bottom feeders and plecos to help the environment. 3 are pretty big as well, which is taken into factor about needing to re-home so I can add in. Otherwise I'd keep them in. Even if I wasn't gonna add in, I'd have to rehome something to make something work cause the 3 big ones.
Cichlid Tank, Need Info Please!
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I just took over this aquarium 3 days ago. A older guy had passed away and his wife had been caring for them for 2.5 years now. It was getting to be a little much on her so she was giving it away. I want to continue this mans work with honor and allow his fish to thrive for as long as possible. I'm new to the hobby myself, and am in the beginners freak out/paranoia stage, lol. Gained a lot of knowledge already from the internet over time, but not too much talk with fellow hobbyist with actual dedicated experience. There's 15 cichlids in this tank, I need to re-home a few as I want to add some bottom feeders and plecos to help the environment. 3 are pretty big as well, which is taken into factor about needing to re-home so I can add in. Otherwise I'd keep them in. Even if I wasn't gonna add in, I'd have to rehome something to make something work cause the 3 big ones.
Hi and welcome to the forum 
Do you know about the filter cycle?
Do you know how to clean the filter?
Do you know what the ammonia, nitrite & nitrate of the water are?
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
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Diseases don't cause that, it's lack of food.
If the filter is working properly and hasn't been messed up when you moved the tank, then feed the fish 3-5 times a day for a month or two so the fish can rebuild the muscle.
Do big (75%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate every day or two when feeding more often to keep the tank clean. After the fish has recovered, you can reduce feeding to once or twice a day and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
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The tank contains African Rift Lake cichlids from Lake Malawi. These fishes require hard water (GH above 300ppm) and a high pH (above 7.6).
Plecostomus and most other catfishes sold in pet shops come from soft water and do not do well long term in tanks with Rift Lake cichlids.
Do you know about the filter cycle?
Do you know how to clean the filter?
Do you know what the ammonia, nitrite & nitrate of the water are?
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply?
This information can usually be obtained from your water supply company's website or by telephoning them. If they can't help you, take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it for you. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
-------------------------
Diseases don't cause that, it's lack of food.
If the filter is working properly and hasn't been messed up when you moved the tank, then feed the fish 3-5 times a day for a month or two so the fish can rebuild the muscle.
Do big (75%) water changes and gravel clean the substrate every day or two when feeding more often to keep the tank clean. After the fish has recovered, you can reduce feeding to once or twice a day and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate once a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
-------------------------
The tank contains African Rift Lake cichlids from Lake Malawi. These fishes require hard water (GH above 300ppm) and a high pH (above 7.6).
Plecostomus and most other catfishes sold in pet shops come from soft water and do not do well long term in tanks with Rift Lake cichlids.
Wow, this will be some project for you. Don't think of adding anything else yet. The most important thing is to know your water parameters and how they match with the fish you have. So you will need a good test kit and then post the results of those tests.
That is a female mouthbrooding Mbuna and I'll wager she has had a couple of broods. During the period she is incubating eggs and then larvae, her mouth is full of them, and she doesn't dare eat. Eating could cause swallowing of eggs or larvae, and her maternal instinct is strong.
If she has carried a series of broods in a row, she can die as a result. You have to keep her away from males until she gets some weight back on.
If she has carried a series of broods in a row, she can die as a result. You have to keep her away from males until she gets some weight back on.
I appreciate the responses! Sadly, I had 2 fish euthanized, and it being one of them. There was another that was looking a little on the sick side and almost "twitching" or shaking for no reason. It had a red thing on it's side and a wound on it's head. I was afraid of disease or parasites and had no option of being able to quarantine them separate from the rest and seemed to be my only option. Now I'm sad about them and still need to worry about the rest of the tank, but hoping it'll be more manageable now rather then singling out those 2 plus the main tank making it 3 things to worry about instead of 1 as a whole. I do feel terrible for not saving them, but as of rn, they were (in my thoughts) jeopardizing the rest of the tank. And lack of experience, myself jeopardizing the tank by taking on more than I'd be able to handle. I won't be adding fish or taking on any more challenges until I know I have enough knowledge and hands on experience to do so comfortably.
The water levels were pretty good when I checked with a test strip. I've been working on my gourami tank fighting levels in that, so when I tested the cichlid tank and seen good results off the rip, I was very happy. It helped that I saved 70-80% of the water to put back in so I wouldn't have to reestablish their conditions but just continue to maintain.
The water levels were pretty good when I checked with a test strip. I've been working on my gourami tank fighting levels in that, so when I tested the cichlid tank and seen good results off the rip, I was very happy. It helped that I saved 70-80% of the water to put back in so I wouldn't have to reestablish their conditions but just continue to maintain.
Just looks like an old fish to me, you may find that the population dwindles a little as the old fish die out.
I'm upset with myself. Sounds like I took out 2 good fish. One that just needed some extra attention Similar threads
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