Help, Sick Cichlid! :(

[Bloopie]

I've had this cichlid (albino zebra) for over 2 years now.
He's always been the toughest fish in the aquarium.
I've noticed this morning that he's been acting strange, more floating than swimming.
I checked on him a couple more times during the next 2 hours and it seems like he is getting worse.
He is floating, sometimes completely vertically. He'll slowly fall down to almost the bottom of the tank as if he has no power, and then go up and put his mouth above the surface of the water.
I've also noticed his coloration is off, he used to be pure white and now his body appears very pink/red.
I checked ph and ammonia and both are fine.
I'm gonna do a water change in a minute.

Does anyone have an idea about what this could be?

I don't have a hospital tank.

Please help!

 

[zebadee]

Have you checked for Nitrates and nitrites as well.
Are other fish showing signs of the same symptoms.
What do you feed your fish.
Does the fish appear bloated or swollen in comparison to normal, looking at the fish from above do the scales appear to stick out.
What is the fish's fecal matter like, is it white and stringy?

A quick water change of about 30% of the water in your tank may help assuming you are treating your water with de-chlorinating agents and the temperature of the replacement water is ok.

To be honest the symptoms don't look good.

 

[PRW1988]

Sounds like it's stressed out beyond belief, check ALL of the water perameters, the PH being too low could alos effect the fish negativly, do a 40% water change on the tank and hopfully this will help out a bit. Aswell, if it's gasping at the surface then it sounds liekoxygen depervation. Does the tank have an air pump?

 

[Bloopie]

Have you checked for Nitrates and nitrites as well.
Are other fish showing signs of the same symptoms.
What do you feed your fish.
Does the fish appear bloated or swollen in comparison to normal, looking at the fish from above do the scales appear to stick out.
What is the fish's fecal matter like, is it white and stringy?

A quick water change of about 30% of the water in your tank may help assuming you are treating your water with de-chlorinating agents and the temperature of the replacement water is ok.

To be honest the symptoms don't look good.

Nitrates and nitrites.
The other fish are doing fine.. they're actually picking on the sick fish now.
I feed them a combination of floating pellets, spirulina etc.
He does appear bloated and his scales are sticking out a bit.
I changed the water but he's worse now... falling upside down.
I'm thinking of putting him out of his misery now... should I?

 

[Bloopie]

He's dead.

 

[zebadee]

The symptoms you described sounded like bloat and can arise out of a number of factors, fundamentally they combine to block the fish's digestive tract, the fish becomes bloated with air, the scales protrude and the fish floats about until it dies. Bloat can be caused by the fish eating protien rich food which its system can not digest (a common problem when fish keepers feed normal flake to tangynikan herbivores like tropheus) or if omnivores like mbuna are fed a heavy diet of bloodworm or beef heart.

The usual things apply to prevent it happening again, regular water changes, reduce the amount you feed your fish in one go, vary the diet and get a good food source. I have lost fish by feeding them cichlid pellets from Kent, which is excellent food but small fish greedily gobble up the pellets which then expand in their guts blocking the passage, resulting in dead floaty fish.

Sorry to hear it died.

 

[Bloopie]

The symptoms you described sounded like bloat and can arise out of a number of factors, fundamentally they combine to block the fish's digestive tract, the fish becomes bloated with air, the scales protrude and the fish floats about until it dies. Bloat can be caused by the fish eating protien rich food which its system can not digest (a common problem when fish keepers feed normal flake to tangynikan herbivores like tropheus) or if omnivores like mbuna are fed a heavy diet of bloodworm or beef heart.

The usual things apply to prevent it happening again, regular water changes, reduce the amount you feed your fish in one go, vary the diet and get a good food source. I have lost fish by feeding them cichlid pellets from Kent, which is excellent food but small fish greedily gobble up the pellets which then expand in their guts blocking the passage, resulting in dead floaty fish.

Sorry to hear it died.

Thank you very much for all this info zebadee. I'll definitely do everything I can to prevent any more of my cichlids from dying.
I've been feeding them the same thing for around 6 months now. This is what it looks like:

It's supposed to be a complete diet for my Malawi cichlids.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P.
Sounded bacterial to me as well.