Mbuna has not eaten for two days!!

[joshuaisblink182]

I have an ice blue red top zebra that has not eaten for two days. My water parimeters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, PH 8.1 and nitrate about 20. I did a 50% water change yesterday. today I bought CLOUT and am currently treating it. He also seems to be breathing hard and sometimes hangs around the surface just below the filter, right where the filter spits the water back.I feed him spirulina flakes, and an a once every two weeks a little brime shrimp. I have him in a 45 gallon tank with 5 other big Mbuna and 5 small Mbuna. I don't know what els to treat if CLOUT don't work. Or how long to treat him with CLOUT. :?

Please help

Joshua

[WorldNation]

sounds like it might be parasite or jsut stress.

add aquarium salt asap. i havent tried clout myslf, but i hear good things from it. if clout doesnt work. use MelaFix, very very good solution.

[FishoPhile J]

mabey (s)he's holding... my cichlid didn't touch any food for 2 weeks before she let her fry loose.

[joshuaisblink182]

I know she is not holding because her mouth is opening and closing like she is breathing hard. I treated the tank now for three days and I think I'm going to give up on clout now. What should I do now???

P.S. I put aquarium salt in today

Thanks Joshua

[FishoPhile J]

i had a bacterial problem with my fish for a little while and the lfs prescibed 'phelo green'(mabey thelo?). he told me it was the penissilin of the fish world and it would cure just about any bacteria/parasite problem... it worked, but it died the silicone in my tank light blue, mabey you should try that. oh, and did you take the carbon out of your filter? if not, it will unmedicate the clout.

[joshuaisblink182]

Where can I get that stuff called phelo green??? Where do you live??

Thanks
joshua

[FishoPhile J]

ok, so i was wrong, it's not phelo, it's 'furazone-green' (i was way off). there's also a 'furazone-light' i'm not sure what the difference is, but a did a google search and found a list of places you can order it off the net... i live in san francisco, and am blessed with 7+ fish stores within a 20 min drive, so i usually don't have any trouble finding products. perhaps an on-looker can suggest a site with quick delivery. i would call your lfs first and ask for there recommendation (i'm by no means a fish dr.), but from what i understand, it can't hurt the fish, so its probably worth a shot. the "diagnostic chart" it came with says it'll treat just about any bacteria/ fungus problem (it says nothing about not eating). anyway, hope this helps, watch him closely, if he starts to show any other symptoms, it'll be easier to diagnose the problem.

[joshuaisblink182]

Today I checked my nitrates and they were of the SCALE!!!! about 160!!
I did a 50 percent water change tonight and tommorrow going to buy nitra-zorb. Could this in fact be my problem??

Thanks Joshua
P.S. I live in stockton not to far from you.

[WorldNation]

160! holy ****! i'll bet that is the problem...have u checked your tap water for nitrates? i heard some taps have nitrates in'em, and water changes would hardly do anything. but anyways, they, the nitrates are way off the charts

[FishoPhile J]

hey, have you check your nitrite levels? my cichlid books say that if you have relatively high nitrite levels, your nitrate readings will be extreamly high and unreliable... eigther way, keep changing 20-30% of the water a day till they come down (assuming your tap isn't tainted). i set up a gravity fed denitrifing hose on my tank and ist seems to be working pretty well (it de-nitrifies about 1/2gal of h20/ day), that won't help you in the short term, but if you wanna know how it works, let me know. and definately get some nitrizorb, i would be willing to bet this is why he's not eating.

[joshuaisblink182]

I did another reading today and it is at about 50-30. I'm going to do another 50% water change today. Is that okay or will it hurt my auarium??? Beacause I did a 50% water change yesterday. Than I'm going to put de-nitrate in. I'm also wondering all my fish are ichy and I'm going to put rid-ich+ in because one fish has ich. Do you think that will maybe kill other parasites in there??? I know everybody says rid-ich+ does not work but I have always used it and it seems to do better than quickcure.

Thanks
Joshua

[FishoPhile J]

sounds like a good plan... i usually don't change a full 50%, but my tap water has a hardness of 2gh, and i don't think my fish like it when i change too much (if your tap is similar to the tank h20, i assume you could change as much as often as you like and it wouldn't matter). i think the rid-ich is a good idea, high nitrates lower their immune systems, thus making them more suceptable. i don't think it'll kill any other parasites, but there's not any hard proof that there are any other parasites. keep do'n what your do'n, they'll get better.