African Cichlids seem unhappy

[Colin_T]

If the small fish is eating well but not gaining weight or growing, it's a 99.9% chance of worms.

Add some Duckweed to the tank. It's a small floating plant and the cichlids will eat it.

 

[CraiginWales]

Have you checked the hardness of the water. African cichlids, Malawi’s especially like an alkaline hard water. Mbunas (I think they’re the ones you have) are mostly herbivores. They love to graze algae off rocks. Have you been cleaning it all off?

 

[koleary317]

If the small fish is eating well but not gaining weight or growing, it's a 99.9% chance of worms.

Add some Duckweed to the tank. It's a small floating plant and the cichlids will eat it.

If the small fish is eating well but not gaining weight or growing, it's a 99.9% chance of worms.

Add some Duckweed to the tank. It's a small floating plant and the cichlids will eat it.

Thank you. I asked the shop next to us about duckweed. They said they just need to let it grow back, so I’ll be picking some up in a week or so!

 

[koleary317]

Have you checked the hardness of the water. African cichlids, Malawi’s especially like an alkaline hard water. Mbunas (I think they’re the ones you have) are mostly herbivores. They love to graze algae off rocks. Have you been cleaning it all off?

I haven’t been cleaning the brown algae off of the decor, just the blue green stuff when it pops up. I’ve been doing the water changes and largely leaving the algae untouched and it seems to be slowly but surely taking care of the problem. I’m picking up a hardness test kit today to make sure about the hardness parameters. Also waiting on the store next to us to let their duckweed grow back so we can get some floating plants in their to reduce light and let them have a snack. They seem to love chasing plants around whenever they come loose from the sand.

 

[koleary317]

Alright, so as an update, for the moment, we have taken the blood parrot out of the tank and moved him into our 36 gallon tank with just our red tailed shark. The blood parrot seems a lot happier, as we are consistently catching him roaming about the tank. He just hides whenever we come into the room, but will come out and play with the red tail after a few minutes if we stay still enough. Since then, the African Cichlids are much more active within the tank and hiding occasionally. We put some duckweed in there today and they immediately started chasing it around and seem to be making a game out of catching it to nibble on it. So thank you again for all of the suggestions and advice. We are still monitoring the fish to see if any of them are being overly aggressive, at which point, we will donate them to the local aquarium store to see that they find better situations. And we are definitely done taking the advice of the chain pet store people when it comes to fish. I’m glad to have found this forum and I wish it didn’t take so long to do so!

 

[Colin_T]

If fish are shy and hide when you enter the room, you can desensitise them a bit by having a small television on in the room. You don't need sound and it doesn't have to be on all the time but a few hours a day with flickering lights and movement on the screen can help reduce the fish's fear.

You can also use a mobile that hangs above the but in front of the tank.

An oscillating fan with some streamers tied to the front cage can be used as well. Have the streamers around 12-18 inches long. As the fan moves and blows air, the streamers wave about and the movement can help the fish settle down.

The best place for an aquarium is in a room where lots of people move past it and around it. The worst place is a dark quiet room where nobody goes except to feed them.