Malawi Chicilids With Black Head

[Frankie H]

Ok, so I have a 55 gal with of cousre chiids! this is the deal, yesterday my girlfreind was feeding the fish and noticed that one of our fishes heads had turned black! His eyes are a little buggy too, now I hopped online last noght to see if I could find anything and no such luck, so today got up checked on him and well still the same, hes not that old, only about 3 1/2 inches long, and I've had him for about 2 2 1/2 months give or take a few. Today I called this Liquid sunshine fish store here the guy that owns it is big time chiclid dude, so from what he told me they're were symptoms but no definate disease that he could place iwht it... So called a few people that I know that at one point breed the little guys and nobody had heard of it! So I'm up that creek without a paddle! None of my other fish are seeming to act any diffrently so yeah I need help!

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

ok m8 im pretty sure this is ph burn from memory. if not its poisoning from either nitrite or ammonia but im pretty sure its ph. i had this happen with one of my labido chromis and it died after a few days. what i found was id done a few water changes and forgot my 8.3 buffer when id first started using it and my ph went from 8.3 to 7 luckily it only knocked out one of 40 fish. check ur ph and get it back up if its down and if u dont use buffer and ur water from tap etc is below 8.3 then get it back up there with buffer from lfs

 

[Frankie H]

ok m8 im pretty sure this is ph burn from memory. if not its poisoning from either nitrite or ammonia but im pretty sure its ph. i had this happen with one of my labido chromis and it died after a few days. what i found was id done a few water changes and forgot my 8.3 buffer when id first started using it and my ph went from 8.3 to 7 luckily it only knocked out one of 40 fish. check ur ph and get it back up if its down and if u dont use buffer and ur water from tap etc is below 8.3 then get it back up there with buffer from lfs

So that sounds like it could be the case, the weird thing is that I have been putting the buffer in their and the fish has gone dead, so I will check the nitrate levels and ammonia too! Thanks a million!

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

if you dont already deffinately get a full testing kit. here in aus theyr bout 60$ and can be a real life saver. i test whenever ive got a spare minute just to make sure. the best stuff ive used is seachem malawi /victoria buffer. now im gona tell u a few things i do to make complete sure.

always premix the buffer in new water befor adding it to the tnak. to make complete sure it mixes in it can also be seen to be appropriate to let the buffer sit for a day to make complete sure that youve got it all dissolved in and you can keep the water heated with a cheap heater.

remember that your only buffing a small amount of water also so if its your first time buffering it. just take it slow. u dont want to raise it to quickly as this can screw with your fish and cause acclimatising sickness, stress and death.

if youve already had it at 8.3 and its dropped way down then i would probably insist on dire action or only the most resistant of ur fish survive and i stress u need to get it back up asap. now i will probably hit ridicule for this but ive had this happen once b4 as mensioned as i'd stupidly forgotten about the buffer then noticed what id done after loosing a yellow lab. So my quick way to raising it back up was to dissolve 2 to 3 tablespoons per bucket on water changes but also to dissolve a few teaspoons into the tank away from any fish. im not saying that its a good idea or whether it should be tried or not but if you need to get it buffed back up quick u need to be adding buffer any time you can. i got good results fom this and didnt loose anouther fish and its been 5 months since the incident and since then my fish have been alot happier and even started breeding.

the buffer ive found to work best is malawi/victoria buffer from seachem.

 

[Frankie H]

if you dont already deffinately get a full testing kit. here in aus theyr bout 60$ and can be a real life saver. i test whenever ive got a spare minute just to make sure. the best stuff ive used is seachem malawi /victoria buffer. now im gona tell u a few things i do to make complete sure.

always premix the buffer in new water befor adding it to the tnak. to make complete sure it mixes in it can also be seen to be appropriate to let the buffer sit for a day to make complete sure that youve got it all dissolved in and you can keep the water heated with a cheap heater.

remember that your only buffing a small amount of water also so if its your first time buffering it. just take it slow. u dont want to raise it to quickly as this can screw with your fish and cause acclimatising sickness, stress and death.

if youve already had it at 8.3 and its dropped way down then i would probably insist on dire action or only the most resistant of ur fish survive and i stress u need to get it back up asap. now i will probably hit ridicule for this but ive had this happen once b4 as mensioned as i'd stupidly forgotten about the buffer then noticed what id done after loosing a yellow lab. So my quick way to raising it back up was to dissolve 2 to 3 tablespoons per bucket on water changes but also to dissolve a few teaspoons into the tank away from any fish. im not saying that its a good idea or whether it should be tried or not but if you need to get it buffed back up quick u need to be adding buffer any time you can. i got good results fom this and didnt loose anouther fish and its been 5 months since the incident and since then my fish have been alot happier and even started breeding.

the buffer ive found to work best is malawi/victoria buffer from seachem.

Do you know of a site to get the buffer at or do you find it were ever you can? I know I got some buffer at the liquid sunshine place here they sold it in bulk, nd its what they use, I don't have a test kit anymore, got ride of it when I swiched back to fresh, I didn't think that I would need it, but I guess more money to spend! HA, thanks man if you have any other suggestions please let me know I'm open!

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

yeah all id suggest is get as much of the buffer in as u can atm dude. atleast for now try to find a ph test kit and find out what your ph is and yeah go from there if theres one thing ive found out about beggining aquariuming is itll cost ya in the beggining no matter how well you do it all sometimes you just get unlucky. f'ing marine whitespot!!!!