African Cichlid Shedding?

[HakimChef]

Hello everyone,
I brought home two African Cichilds yesterday. I don't know the exact tank parameters, but the water was tested at the store and they told me everything was great for adding new fish. The fish are exploring and eating normally, but I noticed some white matter in the tank that looks like shed skin. Is this normal? The fish themselves have no spots that look peeled or torn or anything like that. Thanks for any help!

 

[Colin_T]

fish don't shed skin. If you can post a picture of the fish we can look at them.

 

[HakimChef]

The fish look the same as when we brought them from the store. At first one was stalking the other a little, but then they each found their own hiding spaces away from each other to retreat to when needed.

 

[Colin_T]

What species of fish is it? It looks like a young severum with velvet.

Is the fish meant to have little gold spots on it?
Besides the gold dust on the fish, which could be velvet but is just hopefully colouration, the fish looks fine.

Fish do have a thin layer of clear slime/ mucous over their body but they don't normally shed that in a big piece like the photo.

Is there anything else in the tank that might have shed mucous into the water, a snail perhaps?

 

[HakimChef]

The spots are just from the light it doesn't have any diseases or stuff like that. I honestly don't know the fishes exact species since my father went to the store and got the fish for me. But I assumed it was a Buttikoferi Cichlid from the pictures I saw online. The only other thing that could have shed is one of our ghost shrimp, but it's a really small baby. So it couldn't have made anything that big.

 

[Colin_T]

how big is the fish?
Butterkoferi are normally longer in the body but if its a little baby (less than 1 inch long) it might be but it looks too high in the body (too round like a discus).

if it is a butterkoferi they get big and angry

 

[HakimChef]

I looked at the severum cichlids, it's a green severum. It'll still grow pretty big, like up to 12 inches. But I only have a 30 gallon, so I might just move to a sixty gallon after it reaches 7 or 8 inches.

 

[Colin_T]

I have never seen a severum that is 12 inches long. About the biggest I have seen is 6-7 inches. But it will need a bigger tank eventually.