Sick Red Devil Cichlid

[Neesmo]

hey guys,

We really need your help. Our 5 inch Red devil cichlid is not eating, he probably hasnt eaten in about 11 days. he took food in his mouth chewed it and spit it out. we have tried New Life Spectrum (which he used to gobble down), Dainichi ultimate Krill/ color supreme/ ultimate spirulina/ xl pro, freeze dried krill, cichlid excel, pleco pellet, and cichlid flake.

We talked to a moderator from "alberta aquatica" another forum. (just happened to buy a tank off him the other day.) He told us it might be a internal parasite but his poops have been ok. Not clear or white. He recomended Parasite clear

He is living in a 55 gallon by himself
filter:tetra whisper EX70, 10-15% water changes once a week. this tank has been cycling for about 6 months and have had this red devil for about 1-1.5 years off the top of my head

ammonia is at 0 ppm with a api test kit and his PH is at 7.3. We ran out of out nitrate/nitrite test but I will be new one asap.

He is still very active, digging lots, attacking his reflection on the surface of the water, ect.. we are at the end of our ropes here. we have treated the tank once with parasite clear medication. one dose yesterday. we will do another dose tomorrow. we tried talking to LFS but they dont know what could be the matter. any info would help us out.

Up until the last 11-12 days he had been pretty much only eating cichlid excel(his choice) which is a spirulina based food. He has not been swallowing any of that either for this period of time. He would always have some new life spectrum when ever he felt like it. He has always been very very picky eater. He seems to have interest in the food we put in the tank no matter what it is but he never swallows it. He responds with great interest to a bag of food being shaken in front on the tank, especially when it is the cichlid excel bag

Thanks

Amy and Kyle

 

[Kitty_Nin]

Wow, he's gorgeous. Have you checked for a mouth injury of some sort that would cause him to spit out food? That's the only thing I can think of, hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along soon to help you.

 

[WILDER]

We really need full water stats.
has the tank been cycling for six months. Or do you mean the tank been set up six months.

Spitting food out can mean.
The fish dosn't like the food being offered.
Internal parasites.
Bacterial infection.
Sores in mouth.
Flukes.

Does the fish look skinny or bloated.
Does his anus look enlarged or red and inflamed.
Does he look pale or darker in colour.
Does he swim on his side.
Does he act listless and lethagic.
Do his gills look pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.
Any excess mucas on his body.
Any red pin prick marks on his body.
Does he swim in an odd manor.

 

[Neesmo]

I understand that you need the nitite and nitrate stats for this to be effective so I will do my best to attain a test today. We only just used the last of our tests to test his tank and all the other tanks about 2 weeks ago and both tests came up 0.0. I should have current tests up tonight
Tank has been running for about 6 months with very good biological media in the filter currently.

Spitting food out can mean.
The fish dosn't like the food being offered. - Thats why we have given him many different foods including flakes to pellets
Internal parasites.
Bacterial infection.
Sores in mouth.
Flukes.

Does the fish look skinny or bloated. - His stomach is sunken in as he hasnt ate in 12+ days now. He is not bloated at all
Does his anus look enlarged or red and inflamed. - I took a good look at there is no discoloration, not red at all and looks to be normal.
Does he look pale or darker in colour. - He looks to be his typical color and even looking at older pics, he looks the typical yellow/orange shade
Does he swim on his side. - He is swimming as per usual and seems very balanced as far as his swim bladder goes. Swims to the top and bottom comfortably
Does he act listless and lethagic. - He is acting normal with his typical patrolling of his tank. Attacks his reflection in the surface of the water with enthusiasm. Swims around most of the day with the typical time spent sitting in his "safe spot"
Do his gills look pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed. - Gills look perfect with a light pink tinge at best which you can see in his picture I posted that was tanken a while ago. So its the typical amount of color
Any excess mucas on his body. - no
Any red pin prick marks on his body. - The only damage/marks to his body is a couple of scales that he damaged when attacking his reflection a few weeks ago. He made contact with some plastic somewhere when he came out of the water but is almost completely healed
Does he swim in an odd manor. - All is normal


I looked into his mouth and gills as best I can while holding a mirror to the glass to get him to flare and attack the glass. Visually in the mouth there is nothing that stands out and no discoloration from what I can see. He still digs almost every day so that could be a sign that his mouth is normal.
He is getting quite hungry you can tell from his reaction to the bags of food when I hold them up but just spits food out..

Kyle and Amy

 

[WILDER]

So his stomach has definately sunken in due to not eating. Wasn't sunken in before.

I would advise buying liquid test kits there more acccurate. Test strip cards are a waste of money as the readings are not always accurate.

All you can do really is try a bacterial med.
Soak his food in garlic juice to stimulate appetite and boost the immune system.

 

[Neesmo]

So his stomach has definately sunken in due to not eating. Wasn't sunken in before.

I would advise buying liquid test kits there more acccurate. Test strip cards are a waste of money as the readings are not always accurate.

All you can do really is try a bacterial med.
Soak his food in garlic juice to stimulate appetite and boost the immune system.

Both the amonia and PH kits that I have are drip test. I wouldnt bother with strip tests. I just dont have any no2 and no3 tests left. I have no car at the moment and live in a small town. Thats why I havent been able to replace those yet.

His stomach has sunken in and it wasnt like that before the last 7-9 ish days.

We have used the parasite clear fizz tabs and I am doing the second dose tonight. Hoping for results soon.
Any way to soak food with garlic cloves? I have nothing in liquid form and like I said, no car. If I chop it up really small could I use that somehow?

Tried New life with Therra and he didnt even look at it.

Kyle

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
You will need to back up with a bacterial med if the wormer dosn't treat bacterial infections.

You can force feed fish but I don't know how to do it.
I would only do that as a last resort.

 

[Neesmo]

The med Im currently using does not treat bacterial infectoions fro what I can tell on the box. I might have to follow up with one like you say, if this one doesnt do the trick

Kyle

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
I would treat with a bacterial med afterwards. Once the med been removed from the tank.
Internal parasites cause bacterial infections.

 

[Neesmo]

Will do.

Update: Diablo has swallowed some new life spectrum 1mm sinking pellets as of this afternoon! He isnt eating a lot but he has eaten 2 pinches of pellets now. Hope he starts to get more appitite back in the next day or 2. I will just stick with new life from now on so he cant have a choice to be picky again

Thanks for all the concern and advise I have recieved from all of the nice people on the forums I posted on. We care quite a bit about Diablo and the rest of our fish too!

Kyle

 

[WILDER]

Bless Him.
Let us all know how he gets on.
Sounds more promising.

 

[Neesmo]

Ive fed him a couple more pinches of the 1mm sinking pellets, and I have a lot of it so thats a good thing. Hes digging a lot today haha.
13 days was a long time.

Kyle

 

[WILDER]

Thanks for the update.
If any changes get back to the board.
Good Luck.

 

[roadmaster]

I am glad the fish is feeling better. I might were it me, consider changing 50 percent of the water each week rather than 10 to 15 percent. Fish is outgrowing the tank and present filter. May have been sufficient filtration when fish was younger and smaller but as thse fish grow, they produce more waste which means larger water changes and more filtration may be needed to maintain water quality.IMHO

 

[Neesmo]

I was going by AquaAdvisor for the 15% changes

You have plenty of aquarium filtration capacity.

Your aquarium filtration capacity for above selected species is 178%.
Recommended water change schedule: 14% per week.
Your aquarium stocking level is 58%

He has an 80 to go into in about a month when Im done my piranha project and move them to their new tank. At that point Diablo will have their 80 gallon with an XP3 filter. I will do larger water changes until then anyhow

Kyle