sick Demasoni african cichlid

[rockhoe14er]

Mbuna are tough but they don't make good cycling fish. They are sensitive to ammonia. You need to do larger water changes, 2-3 gallons is not enough for a tank that size. When I cycled my 55 gallon I was changing 40% daily during the ammonia and nitrite spikes. It was a lot of work making sure the fish survived.

Bingo......

Yeah you should be doing close to 50% water changes daily to get through this spike.

remember when you do a 50% water change and your ammonia is 1.5 it'll only bring it down to .75 ppm then you should really do one again to bring the levels down to .375 which is still a bit high.

but if you do a 75% water change you will bring your ammonia down to .375

It's alright that you made a mistake everyone makes them. My suggestions is to do a 75% water change and try to keep the ammonia as close to 0 as you can. Good luck.

 

[malawi master]

Just did a 40% water change, got my fingers crossed. Will do ammonia and nitrite tests in a couple hours.

 

[malawi master]

If i start to do big water changes like that wont i start to kill or slow the bacteria colony that is growing in the filter media?

 

[rockhoe14er]

no i wouldn't worry about that as long as their is some ammonia (even trace ammounts) the biological process will continue.

Also prime is great because it will temporarily detoxify (aka modify NH3) to make it non-toxic for the fish and let the bacteria still do it's thing.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

meanwhile, depending on the size of the sick fish, you could put it in a breeder net floating in the tank. this will make it easier on her/him to swim and won't have to struggle against the current of your filters so much.

since your ammonia is so high i would be testing twice a day and doing water changes accordingly - minimum 50%, and most likely you'll have to do that change once a day for the next while here, until your tank cycles. also test for nitrites when you are testing for ammonia, since they should be showing up pretty soon in the cycle. nitrite poisoning isn't something you want your fish to be subjected to either.

and just to confirm, you are using a liquid test kit and not strips, right?

 

[malawi master]

Yes i'm using liquid test kits.

 

[blue2fyre]

It might slow down the cycle a little but really you have no choice if you want your fish to survive the cycle.

 

[malawi master]

Okay so i got the ammonia and nitrites down now and she looks a little better but still rough. She has not eaten in 2-3 days and looks pretty week anybody have any suggestions? All the other fish are doing fine.

 

[rockhoe14er]

what are you feeding them?

 

[malawi master]

mostly xtreme spirulina krill flakes - community crave and sometimes freeze dried brine shrimp.