about my demasoni

[jovetata]

i just bought two demasoni (dunno how to spell it). one is doing just fine but the other is sluggish and has what looks to be one side of his gill like eaten away, like maybe another fish did it? looks like if a bubble or something poped in his gill cover thing and the skin is all , comming off, what do i do?

i have many fish but cant name em all, (mind my spelling) auratus, ahli, demasoni, yellow labs, red empress some dolphin thing and some albino peacock, and my ph is a little low (just started my tank up 3 weeks ago) i have cushed soral and a piece of coral in there, i thought he might have scratched himself on the coral but what do i know, please help, thanx

[Corona]

Hello, Does it look like its infected at all, any signs of fungus, Do you know what ick looks like? advanced stages of ick can couse major gill problems,also with all tem fish you have it could be a battle scare, DO you have a hospital tank you could put him in for some treatment? If not thats fine to but the first thing i would try is a 25% water change add 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 gallons if you havnt already, Add try some stuff called "Melafix" most lfs have this.. its just a natural antibacterial that helps with fungus and bacteria infections and is safe to treat the whole tank with, Be sure and follow the directions and remove any activated carbon in your filters for the whole time of treatment, It recmmends 7 days of treatment but if your not seeig any signs of improvment in 3 days its time to try somthing else, there are stronger meds out there but you always want to try the more mellow ones first as to not do any harm to your other fish.

[jovetata]

no signs of fungus, and no ick, but im betting its another fish, prolly the auratus? anyways, im gonna do a 25% water change today and add some of this salt u talk about, if it is another fish that did this and what im worried about is just a cut, what would be the best medicine for this? or should i not worry. thanx a bunch

[merlyn2221]

Yep, my money is on the auratus! He probably plucked a chunk out of the demasoni on the sneak. They will do that.

I'd add some aquarium salt and watch. You could get Melafix too and add that as well. Helps the healing and helps keep infection off.

Worth a try. The main thing is keep close watch on the demasoni to be sure he doesn't develop fungus. Also, pay close attention to your water conditions to minimize the breeding ground for bacteria.

[jovetata]

im trying to get the water as close to normal as possible, but right now the ph is at like 7.5, dunno about anything else ie nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, none of that, after reading som info online and on these forums, i know i fuked up bad. i just set up the tank and dropped fish in, sorry

i just noticed more bad stuff, one of my red empress has a cloudiness to one of his eyes and my yellow lad (been like this for a while) has like his stumach bent inward, like a void! i think its (with my limited info from the web) that bloat thing desease. i asked about the fish from a friend that gave him to me that it was a herbavore and the kid that had it gave it nothing but feeders and brine shrimp and meat :(

i know i fuked up bad on this but it was my first tank and got everything including fish 4 free... but i know i shouldve gave it more thought first.

man i suck.. poor fish :cry:

[merlyn2221]

Stop beating yourself up and go out an buy a nitrite and nitrate test kit, as well as one for ammonia.

Your pH is too low for Africans, so you need to raise it gradually, then use some type of buffer to stabilize it.

I use Seachem Malawi Buffer and Seachem's Cichlid Lake Salts to keep the mineral content and pH in the tank as close to the natural environment as possible.

All the water readings are critical to the healt of your fish. If ammonia and nitrite are high, it will cause gill damage. If pH is too low, it can cause problems as well.

[jovetata]

ok so the test kit and the buffer and lake salts. oh and, i just found out my tap water ph is 8.6! so im gonna do water changes untill the ph in the tank is 8.6, is that what i should do? and how often should i change the water, i was thinking once a week but if u think i should do it more often tell me thanx.

[matt1066]

Hi jovetata, :)

How big is your tank? What type of filtration do you have. Miami tap water at 8.6 :?: that sounds a bit off, I would re-check it, Florida water generally is pretty neutral @7.0.

The amount of water and the frequency of changes is dictated by your tank size and filtration capacity. Let us know the answers to those ?'s and you will get informed answers to your ?'s. Your tank inhabitants are already known to us by your previous post.

I do hope your tank is on the larger size.

If your tap is actually 8.6 your lucky, as you wont need to add anything to your water, except conditioner.

Regards,

Matt

[jovetata]

ur not gonna like this but m tank is small. 20 g high small :oops:

yes my water is at 8.6, i was like yey, no more buying distilled water.

i have a magnum 400 on the tank. (only means of filtration.) and a 201 powerhead

um, i just put in the required amount of salt in the tank and checked the ph, still at like 7.6, im gonna do another water change as soon as u people tell me when to do it, will use my tap water this time. um.. what else.. oh yea, one of my red empress has this cloudiness to one of his eyes, what can i get to help him out? and is a med tank nessesary?

oh yea, im planning on buying a 55 gallon in a week, so im gonna put the 400 magnum and a 660 sponge filter/powerhead. will this be enough? how should i get this tank started? should i stick with the crushed coral? and what steps should i take (chronological) for this tank to be as fish friendly as possible before i put my fish in, thanx

yep, thats it :|

[jovetata]

another question, i work at a pet store and have these products available to be, nitrozorb and i think phosozorb, what are these and should i get em? thanx

[merlyn2221]

Jovetata: Ok, the salt is good. Did you add the buffer? That will raise the ph and help to keep it at a constant level. If your tap water is at 8.6 (incredibly high) it's too high for the fish. You will have to probably mix it with water of a lower pH. Sometimes distilled water can be as low a pH as 5, so test it first if you still want to use it.
Otherwise this is what I would suggest: When you get the other tank this weekend (or whenever), use the water from the tap without buffer since it is so high already. Just put in the salt required, and get water of a lower pH to add to the tap water. If you try like maybe 2/3 tap water and 1/3 water of a lower pH, it should bring you to around 8.2. (Hopefully) For now what you could do is use small amounts of baking soda every day to raise the pH in the 20. When it gets to around 8.2 stop adding it. That way once you get the 55 set up and it is cycled and at the correct pH, you should be ok. Only then transfer the fish.
Overall, for the long term, I think that you will need to invest in a Tap Water Filter. I am including a link here so you can look at it. It is inexpensive, easy to store/maintain and will solve the high pH problem. You might be able to get it at the lfs. I have used it in the past when I kept regular tropicals that required a pH of 7. This unit, with the chemicals, brings the water to pH 7. Then all you'd need to do is put in the cichlid salts and some buffer and you'd be done.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=6&pCatId=4484

I know all this seems like a big hassle...I used to feel like a chemist trying to adjust my pH...but you usually only need to do it once in a while. If you get the tap water filter, you will be just like mostly every other cichlid keeper; add the salts, add the buffer and done! :wink:

If you need to feel free to PM me on this forum, and if I can be of help I will. :) Let me know how you are doing with this!

[jovetata]

ok, ima do the baking soda thing, but could i use just like regular ph increaser? cuz i can get that at my job.

oh and what about the red empress. the cloudy eye thing? what can i do 4 that?

and i have 2 demasoni, one of them chases the other one all the time. starting to piss me off...punk. why is he doing this? cuz he is alpha male or something like that? can i fix this?

ima try to take some pictures of my fish and tank so u people can give me some suggestions. thanx again

[jovetata]

ok, the one little (passive guy) demasini, his cut is getting better, yey!

i tried the lettuce thing and that worked, they eat it up fast.

im still worried about the red empress, i have 3 and giving 2 away, the one with the eye cloudiness and another one that looks like he has green instead of blue hue to his skin. like my big empress has a blueish to him and this guy has a greenish to him. is this special? should i keep him instead?

and um.. oh yea, my blue dolphin ?( i think thats what it is) has a chin bump. i read something about this on another topic but do i need to do anything or is this normal? thanx

[merlyn2221]

Yes, you can use the pH increaser. Works just as well as baking soda.

The cloudy eye of your Red Empress could be from a variety of things. It could be a side affect of the pH; it could be some type of bacterial problem. Check out the post under [b:f1fcdb5d7b]The Cichlid Clinic[/b:f1fcdb5d7b] on this forum, for web sites, to see if you could find anything about this problem.

I have used ampicillin for the same issue in the past, and it seemed to work. The websites listed in the post, though, may have better advice. I think it might help if you posted something there about your other fish, too.

I am not familiar with dolphins, but there are others here who are. So put up a post in either the Cichlid Clinic, or the African Tank, to get some responses. As far as your empress's color goes, I am not sure if it is a separate color morph, or something that regularly occurs. I don't have any empresses, and I haven't seen anything in any of my books to say whether or not the blue-green fish is special. Again, you might put up a post under the African tank, or in the cichlid identification area of this forum.

[jovetata]

ok cool, the bump on the dolphin guy is gone, it was (i guess) like a scab from a cut he got, cuz now its going away. im gonna try this stuff i have at work, its for the cloudiness of the eye, i think its some fungus stuff.

i just counted my fish (lol) i have 12 ranging from the miniscule yellow lab (1.5") to the dolphin guy (4.5") he is calm and no one bothers him ;)

ok, i've noticed a few things:
1) my big yellow lab chases my little yellow lab all the time, my big yellow lab is yellow, like bright yellow! with some tiny specs of blue. my little yellow lab is sorta like a yellow mixed in with white to make like a off white color. dunno if this means anything.. should i just let them be?

2) one of my red empress (it just got so damn pretty :D ) is blue! like in the right light, he's supa blue! and with like red fins all around , so purdy.
well, this guy chases the other two emprss like a lot. should i just let them be?

3)my ahli chases everyone :roll: im guessing this is all normal, so until told otherwise, i will just let them all be.

4) my weaker demasoni is almost fully healed from his cut, yey!

thats about it, im trying to keep this thing as a journal of some sort so ima post any question i have here, thanx again for ur help!

Jorge

[merlyn2221]

Jorge: sounds like all is happy again in fish-land! :D

There might be aggression/chasing among some of the fish because you seem to have them mostly in pairs (unless I read wrong, which at this hour is possible! :lol:)

Usually to minimize the agression of one fish towards another of the same species at least three of the same are added. Now this can run into a problem if they are all small and you don't know what sex they are, but if you buy a larger one than what you have, you may be able to tell the difference in sex. There are no hard and fast rules for specifically sexing them when they are young, since so many of them change as they mature. Basically it is a shot in the dark. Not very helpful, I'm afraid.

It sounds like the Red Empress is ok with two others to chase. I say he, because his color probably means he is a male. The others may be females or younger males, but you will have to wait and see. As long as he's not picking on one only, it should be ok, but of course they should be watched anyway, as you already do.

Glad to hear you dolphin seems to be ok. They are nice looking fish.

Regarding the eye cloudiness, I think I used either Maracyn or Malachite Green with Archiflavine (?sp?). I would just check at the lfs, because the eye issue could be from several things, as mentioned before. I would just keep watch on it and treat it with whatever is available for this locally. It's usually your best bet.

Glad to be of help anytime! :wink:

[Frontosa29]

it sounds like everything is going very well for you...however i would inverst in a bigger tank for you fish and btw miami tap water IS at an 8.6 and off the scale in some places especially on weekends when the city triples the chemichals added to the water to account for everyone being home...i add my own well water so i dont worry about this so much anyone adding tap water from a larger city should find out if they up the dosage of chemichals on weekends even w. amquel and the managerie of chems out there i would still not add water on weekends..

[jovetata]

how often should i do the salt thing? cuz im gonna do a change of water today and want to know if i should desolve some salt in there aswell. thanx

[SGypsyMermaid]

how often should i do the salt thing? cuz im gonna do a change of water today and want to know if i should desolve some salt in there aswell. thanx


what kind of salt are you using? for medicinal purposes, you should be using aquarium salt(as opposed to cichlid salt). if your tap water is 8. and you are using crushed coral, you should not need any other buffering agents. although 8. is a little high(my six key doesn't work), i don't see it as a problem--these fish are very adaptable. my suggestion is that you continue the water changes, and work your way up to changing fifty to seventy-five percent each week. a good way to make up for jumping blindly into fish-keeping is to read all of our prior posts--you'll learn a ton!! :wink:

[jovetata]

cool thanx, wow 50% water shanges a week.. wow, yea my fish are doing very well, cept i put the damn auratus/johannii (dunno for sure what it is yet.) in solitary confinement. bastard chases everything in my tank. may just give him away. ;( oh well, ill post up when i get my new tank, 40g heaven ;)

[jovetata]

wheeeee :D new tank!

fish are fine. no worries, the were just like hm. its bigger in here. oh and the red empress is staying in its semi color state ;) pretty

auratus still picks on people, demasoni still chase eachother around, just with more space now. um... thats it i guess, nothing too new to report, omg almost 4got, i got synodonstis cats! yey 4 me. one upsidedown cat and two multipunctialis <= pretty

that is all, goodnight