Need help

[Melissa87]

Hi I'm new to this but I need help with one of my chichlids I have a 40 gallon with 2 kenyi 1 electric blue 1 peacock and 1 maingiano my blue and black striped kenyi is acting like his swim bladder is messed up but it's like it comes and goes every few days I turned there light on this morning and he couldn't barely swim away to hide like they normally do at first and it's stripes disappeared and then came back? Idk what to do

 

[Melissa87]

My fish

 

[fozziebear]

What are you feeding first and foremost? most swim bladder issues come from diet.

 

[fluttermoth]

Is your tank cycled, and have you tested the water at all? Looking at the water should always be the first thing you do if you're ever worried about a fish's health. Is your water of an appropriate hardness for your cichlids?

One thing I can say is that your tank is far too bare, and you don't have enough fish, for a successful Rift Valley set up. These fish need cliffs of rockwork, filled with small caves, and need to be kept more crowded than 'normal' fish, as they're so aggressive; your fish could be being injured by one of the more aggressive fish.

Diet can certainly be in issue with these fish too, as fozzie rightly mentions. They are very prone to a thing called 'Malawi bloat' if they're on the wrong diet; pellets are often a cause.

 

[fozziebear]

I love your replies flutter, i always forget cycling! i have a brain like a sieve, floating pellets was my initial thought, but it could definitely be a reaction to water conditions, test your water straight away, and if you havent already carry out a 25% water change.

 

[Melissa87]

What are you feeding first and foremost? most swim bladder issues come from diet.

I feed them chiclid flakes always have and I just did 25 percent water change about a week ago I'll have to go into the city and get different decore for them and I wasn't sure how many to put in the tank didn't want to over crowd them I have 5 now and a big plexo how many should I keep in my tank

 

[Melissa87]

And now he's swimming around fine and eating he has this every few days or so randomly

 

[fozziebear]

Get some more rocks and caves and stuff, it will limit aggression in the tank, and will give everybody a place to hide out and rest, get an aquarium test kit, and test your water for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, maybe PH too if your water is soft usually you will have to buffer it with malawi cichlids via rocks coral sand etc, im sorry i can't help more as i don't keep cichlids.

 

[fozziebear]

also if it were a swim bladder problem it wouldn't just go away all of a sudden, if a fish has a swimbladder problem it is usually disabled by it and cannot maintain propper equilibrium.