Sad, stressed or sick little deacon

One of my Deacons is not looking very good, it doesn’t move much from one of the tank’s corners, its keeping away from the group and breathing very fast (not gasping at surface) All other fish (12 clown loaches , 2 parrots and another 3 deacons) are acting normal, happy and don’t show any signs of stress. All the Cichlid are young (under 10 cm) however I notices that the one that is struggling (who is the smallest, about 6 cm) has been chased a little by one of the others, but it never seem serious.
Any suggestions


550litter
Ammonia -0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate – 10
Temp – 27-28 c
2 large canisters + wet and dry

 

Hi natnat

Your water parameters are fine,but never forget the effect of cumilative stress on a harrased fish...Constant chasing by a more dominant fish leads to the bullied ones immune system taking a knock... Giving any little "bad nunu" around so much more of a chance getting a foothold on the bullied guy...

Dont have a hard and fast answer for you on this one.... Lets hope he makes it on his own and that you saw his state after a vigourous chase...

 

Like Azurekoi said, sounds like a bullied fish. Had this with one of my angels and it did not end to well.
Do you have another tank he can stay in for a while?

 

mmm i guess you are right, although the chasing doesn't seem too bad and does not last too long it is consistence. Yes i have another tank which is going through a "minicycle" i can move the little boy into it, i anyway plan to moove all the rest of the cichlid into this tank once its fully cycled. I will move him now, the only question is once the perpetrator sees his victim again, would it not just reoccur, ?

---------- Post added at 16:12 ---------- Previous post was at 16:12 ----------

Another question, how about i move the bullie rather than the bullied?

 

It's all about the territory that each fish views as its own - sometimes its as simple as a rearangement of the tanks hardscaping/decor to break up a "fight"...

Here's another idea @natnat - move the little guy out and let him get his strength back up...then move him into his new home like 3 days before his bigger tank mates arrive - let him feel like the king of the castle - you might even find with his regained vigour and sence of ownership of the new tank,that he has a go at the big boys when they arrive...lol. Welcome to the wonderfull world of the cichlid's psyche...he,he

Move the bully - nexyt in the pecking order generally steps up to the plate - little guy needs a rest to get back to tip top condition...hey,we are all going on holliday - give him the rest rather...mom told me never to reward "bad" behaviour...lol

 

Ok ...now try to catch a little deacon among 12 loaches, this is another story...ush:

 

here is an update, I [FONT=&quot] moved him to a QT tank and started treating with seachem Metronizadole. After 3 days he showed some improvement ate came out of hiding, began interacting again, however, two days ago he took a turn to the worse. Refusing all type of food, hiding, breathing heavily. He is looking really bad.[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]is there anything else i can do for him?
[/FONT]

 

What are the water perameters like, it could be a spike that is stressing him out. I might be wrong here but I would do a 50% water change in the tank and se what happens next. I hope you get theis sorted.

 

Hi Gareth, did it already )-: because the QT is only 60L i try to keep it clean. I don't know whats wrong with this little guy..

 

Just an update, he died...

 

so sorry to hear that natnat...

you did what you could and sought all the help available....

sorry for your loss...and well done and doing everything you can to save your fish....

one thing i did notice..you stay in city bowl and i stay in gardens and in the last two weeks when the wind lies down it gets really really hot in the city bowl...i had a temp spike and my wild caught chilumba went taatie and killed several fish...i am fairly inexperienced and had to learn to watch the temp and not feed high protein when its getting hot...and i keep two litre coke bottles in the freezer that i ust one at a time to float in my tank and they bring the temp down about 1 degree in an hour...i monitor this as i don't wnat drastic changes but i reckon in cools about as fast as the heater heats(our hottest month are coming still)

this has been working for me as i learnt that one incident can seriously change the balance of ones tank and cause casualties.

i also found that like ppl once we've been moved off of our throne we're depressed and it becomes very hard to get better or well unless your confidence is boosted again and you feel whole...so next time get some smaller calmer fish he is likely to be more dominant over and wait for him to become more active...this only worked for me once with one fish...

im not thinking i've cracked this thread, am just sharing what i've learnt and sympathising with you as sometimes things are out of our control....continue to enjoy fishkeeping...

fire

 

Sorry to hear that, it is always sad when a fish dies that you have tried to save.

 

Oh no that's sad

I just want to add that I have 2 large deacons & 2 large parrot fish, as well as other cichlids. They're 3 years old. The parrots are very aggressive & continually chasing the deacons & cichlids. The one cichlid got hole in the head & died - I believe it was due to stress. I moved the parrots to their own tank & happiness is all around...

 

hey guys thank you for the kind words. Dragon , you have a point regarding the weather here in the cape, my clown loaches seem to be happy but temperature did spike up to 30 degrees one morning...and as you said, it is only going to get worse.. as for fish psychology, that would probably been the right root to take (mixing the deacon with more friendly and less intimidating room mates), but i was afraid to contaminate other fish, poor little fish...

Aqua- the parrots are the largest and mainly are chasing each other, making desperate and unsuccessful attempt to breed. I do forsee possible problems in the near future and if they arise i would like to find a good home for them, they are very sweet

 

@natnat ... Sorry to hear mate,been a stuggle with this guy for a while now... just know that you did ALL you could do for him...

How's the Torp's and Boesmanni's doing? You did promise me a pic or two of them in their new home... Know you love your parrots,but been warning you on their bad behaviour since day one... let them do the pseudo breeding thing - you might even be lucky and have a pair that can generate viable young...!

Just an word on temp and oxygen sollubility in our tank watwer.... above 30 deg. there is VERY little free oxygen availeble to your fish...spare airpumps is a MUST - as water heats up,it loses it's ability to cary oxygen - the higher,the less amount of oxygen... anything above 30 deg and your fish will be stressing... Just count your lucky stars that you guys(natnat,dragon8) dont live on the Highveld - our water has even less available O2....

 

natnat

i priced a chiller a few weeks ago and its about R4500 i didn't shop anywhere else because i didn't want to spend that kind of money at all...

though i try to run my tank at 25 degrees and its a challenge when its really hot...the frozen two litre coke bottles really works and at worst my temps gone just over 26 with this technique...

im not at this long and haven't experimented with any other ways of cooling the tank but this has worked so far...lol though the true test is still coming...

truth be told if this doesn't continue to work im rather buying a aircon so i can also benefit lol lol lol

have a super day
fire

 

Dragon, an air-con is cheaper and in this way both me and the fish can enjoy, fortunately most of my fish are ok with high temperature and been acclimatised since young but as azure cautioned i did add another air pump and making sure there is plenty of water movement . Azure, pictures on the way tomorrow i will takes some and post them. Those parrots... yes you did cautioned me but it was already too late . They are very entertaining but they are getting big and strong... i will observe closely and if it becomes unmagageble i will ask for help...

 

I must say my temps are at a constant 28-30 degrees and it seems my Deacons are doing just fine. Perhaps they are also climatised. With it being Pretoria and all, it does tend to get a little hot sometimes... My heater is hardly ever on! It's true that the water's molecular bonds break down as the temperature rises, thus releasing more free oxygen molecules. I just added a spraybar and ensured that my overflow runs like a mini-waterfall. Problem solved!

 

Good day Natnat.

I am very sorry to hear about your loss. It's very sad and depressing when a fish dies after you
tried so hard to keep it alive.

Lappies

 

Lappies thank you for your post!