please help fish as soon as possible!!

[duendecillo]

My male convict (my favourite fish) has not been eating for a long while, and sitting very still in a corner of the tank. Now it looks like he's dying.

The whole story:
- he and his girlfriend have breed: 150fry
- after a while he started beating up the female
- I removed the female to a separate tank, next to him
-They both seemed fine, female had bright breeding coloration...
- After a few weeks, the male hid a lot
-I noticed him not eating, now that's going on for more than a week!

Now I removed him from his tank, into a bucket, he's very very skinny. but besides that no real disease symptomes (as far as I can tell)

What to do??

I'm afraid to put him with the female, if he's diseased... don't want to lose her too.

(And I don't have a spare tank)

PLEASE HELP!

 

[cat.fish]

what are your water parameters.

 

[duendecillo]

temp 26°C
ph 7.5
no nitrites
I can't test nitrates, but I do water changes enough to know that's not the problem

 

[Wisperian]

Is he scared??

 

[duendecillo]

I don't know, I wouldn't know what he's scared of, except maybe his own babies...

 

[tstenback]

what if you change the two around put the female in the tank the male is in now and vice versa. Perhaps the male is not eating because of the fry. might be worth a try though.

 

[ger87410]

Some fish don't eat if they got fry. They spend all of their time and energy on their fry. I think mouth brooders are that way.

 

[duendecillo]

The male not eating because of the fry is maybe a good theory...
But if I would put the female with them, she would probably eat them...
I will leave him in the bucket tonight
the temp is okay in my room, so I guess it won't be harmful for a short while...

 

[ger87410]

I always thought that with cichlids breeding, U leave both the parents in with the fry. I know it's that way with firemouths.