Cichlids Flashing...Please advise

Hi

My 220 litre tank has been runing for 4 weeks. First two weeks empty, second two weeks with 4 guppy fry.
Yesterday (12/02/2011) I bought 6 malawi cichlids (3 labs, 2 acei, 1 ahli) and introduced them into my tank after removing the guppy babies. My PH is at approximately 8. I also tested the water in the packet the fish came in, and the ph was 7.5.
Since the introduction of the cichlids. I have noticed that they are rubing against the substrate and rocks.
Could this be a sign of itch/white spot??
What do I treat the fish for, or is the flashing just a natural occurance?
Please can someone assist me?

 

Hi Varachia...Sounds as if your cichlids might have a parasitical problem...could be ich,but also a lot of others...1st check your Nitrite level - in a new tank like yours,you should experince a spike round about now...If so - waterchange...

Ich is easy to treat - raise your temp to 30Degrees - ich gone in 4 days or so - remember to have very good airation during this time,as high temps reduce the ability of the water to carry oxygen..

 

Hi, With the number of fish, in that volume of water, you should not be seeing any spikes in Ammonia oe Nitrites. What filtration do you have on this tank? I would suggest, if you are wanting to keep Malawis, that you have atleast 1000-1500 l/hr. Your water conditions could be causing a little discomfort and they need to scratch. Could also be something irratating them. What you can do is to add a nice heaped handful of course salt to you tank. This should help and this you will see within a day or two. Rather do this before adding in medication. If there is some ick the raise the temp and also add in the salt. If you are able to find a product, ORGANIC AQUA, I would highly recommend you look at using it. The joy is it allows you to start a full tank immediately after reaching your desired temperature. I had to clean and restart a 90cm, about 34 5-6cm Malawis, and I used the correct volume Starter pack. When measureing the Ammonia and Nitrites the readings were that of a fairly stable tank.

 

yaa i agree with all these...also pls check to see that your salt level and hardness are correct...if theres not enough salt then they give off salts(osmo regulate or something) trying to create a balance in their enviroment....they could kill themselves trying to correct this balance....flashng is one symptom

 

@azurekoi, Thanks for the info, I have raised my temperature to 30 deg cel. Will wait and see after 3 days.

@scotty @Dragon Will normal household rough salt work, or should I get specialised aquarium salt. If so what is the name and details of the salt.

 

hmm i've never added salt to a malawi tank.. and you should not use ordinary household (iodised) last in an aquarium in any event.

as far as i know only brackish fish or marine fish would require salt in the water. malawis are neither brackish nor marine fish.

but guys like spider would know better than me.

this really sounds like a water quality issue if its not a parasite or something like that..

this is a new tank and ammonia / nitrite spikes would occurr in any event.

i would do 10% water changes every second day for week or two..

adding salt might make the matter worse.

 

I'm 7 days into treating ich with heat, but now I'm confused. On the web, people are clear that you should continue treatment for 10 days at least? The two infected fish died, and only one single tankmate manifested a single "speck" for one day. Since then, no sign of ich at all.

Can I safely drop the temp back down, or should I see the 10 day period out?

 

Hi Tracy

As far as i know can the ich parasite live up to 7 days even if your fish are clean and healthy so keep going for that 10 days

F

 

Thanks for your reply and advice @Fonkie! Will do!

 

correct bud..

 

Salt is used for lots of reasons in a freshwater tank.

 

• Nitrite Poisoning - The addition of one half ounce of salt per gallon of water is beneficial in the prevention of nitrite poisoning in a newly set up tank. Keep in mind that scaleless fish cannot tolerate much, if any, salt.
• Parasites - Many parasites can be effectively treated with the use of salt, particularly Costia infestations.

(about.com)


All you need to know about salt in FW.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article5.html

 

sorry to hear that you lost fish...

i don't know about jhb's water but here i have to add one teaspoon epsom salt and 3-4teaspoons aquarium salt to every 10 liters i add to the tank...

malawi is a rift lake with a very high salt content...so its good to try and match those conditions...

salt is also very good in treating ich...

ich is also given its chance to thrive when there are temp fluctuations and the fish's immune system is down....so i'd keep it up still and when you decide to take it down again do it gradually...

i keep some wild caught malawis and learrnt the hard way that not enough hardness and salt can be costly...though my tank bred fish didn't stress as easily with the same fluctuations...

colours show better with the right ammount of salt too

hope your fish get better...

 

well guys, i am no expert on malawi's, but i have never heard of them classified as brackish.. which i would assume we would term fish that live in semi-salt water conditions.

there are other members on this forum that are more knowledgeable than me when it comes to malawis and could answer this for us.

i do know that salt could be beneficial to freshwater tropical fish when used for a temporary period, especially to facilitate healing of nipped fins and in some cases when they are recovering from diseases, as @Go-Big mentioned and so on, altho on this forum its been mentioned that it might be better to treat your fish to a salt bath sometimes rather than to add salt to your entire aquarium, in certain cases.

tropical fish and marine fish and brackish fish all handle salt differently and you may shorten the life span of these fish if the water salt levels are not the correct ones for that particular species, if you keep it in the wrong type of water permanently. you may probably make your fish more prone to diseases and parasites by doing this as you fish may be more stressed being in incorrect water conditions as its immune system would be lower.


guppies, mollies, platties etc, have been successfully conditioned to migrate to full marine (saltwater) tanks, but even this is something that has to be achieved over a period of time, so that their bodies might adjust to that type of aquarium.

having said that, these are known to be brackish fish (the guppies are not brackish fish tho) which have a certain tolerance for higher levels of salt.

when i was very new to fishkeeping and totally ignorant, i had an outbreak of ich in a tank that had bala sharks, mollies and platties, with the fish flashing continuously, i read on the net about using salt and tried it.

bearing in mind that the platties and mollies were brackish fish anyway, the salt did not help and my fish died.

these days, if i have an outbreak of itch all i do is adjust the temperature higher for a period of time and ensure that the water is of the best quality, with more frequent small water changes.

i found this bit on another forum a while ago and it gives us some indication as to how freshwater fish differ from marine fish physiologically.

"The Manual of Fish Health" by Drs. Chris Andrews and Neville Carrington and Mr. Adrian Exell. Page 26.

"Osmoregulation in marine fishes".

"Since sea water has a higer concentration of salts than the body fluids of marine fishes, there is a constant tendency for water to be lost from the tissues and salt to flow in. Marine fish solve the dehydration problem by drinking vast amounts of water and excreting litle urine. The influx of salt is counteracted by not absorbing salts from the sea water they drink and using energy to actively eliminate salt through special cells in the gills."

"Osmoregulation is freshwater fishes".

"The situation in freshwater fishes is the opposite of that encountered by marine fishes, since the body fluid of freshwater fishes has a higher concentration of salt than the surrounding environment. The tendency, therefore, is for water to flow in and salt to be lost from the tissues. To counteract the first process, freshwater fish have very efficient kidneys which excrete water very rapidly. Salt loss is minimized by efficient reabsorption of salt from urine before it is excreted and active uptake of salt through special cells in the gills."

now this bit above is more about marine fish, but it does describe to us how freshwater fish and marine fish differ in how their bodies use salt..

so yes, tropical aquarium water probably does contain small traces of salt, but bear in mind too much salt over a prolonged period of time is gonna mess up your fish's kidneys.

 

Nothing to do with Brackish! The concentrate is way to low to be classified as such. And for treating fish, yes not permanently. And what you say in the rest of your post is 100% correct.