Lana Bollers Posted January 10, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 I have had these guys since they were an 1.5 - 2" they are now a good 4", they have been growing steady and maintaining excellent. I did take in my cousin who is 14 she used to blast the music and sadly that was the only room she can stay in. When I notice my fish were more flighty and seemed bothered by me, I told her she had to ensure the music was not loud as she was scaring my fish half to death. I did not go in the room as often, I asked her if she was feeding them and she would say yes... lately I have been going in there every day because they are my favorite fish and I was beginning to miss them.... am I over my head with the Fronts ...NO, am I over my head with my cousin...Hell YES!!! She is 14 years old, and came from hell.... so I wanted to give her, her privacy... was it my mistake I have a sick fish, HELL yes.... am I trying to do everything in my power to make him/her better yes I am... My fish were all fine, with the exception of my electric blue who I think has pop eye...don't know what else it could be, he is on his second dosage of melafix and I don't think he is getting better, he seems to like his new home, which is only a 10 gal tank, but he is the only one in there, he eats really good, and swims around. I am also treating the tank he came from with jungle parasite clear, because I don't want any of the other fish to get what he has... Do I try my best with my fish and the knowledge I have yes I do! Do I ask a lot of questions, yes I do not only here but on the Frontosa board... Am I trying to learn all I can, obviously or I would not be here.... I did notice yesterday and today, that my front is not curving his tail anymore, I think his belly is starting to fill but I might be wishful thinking too... am I feeding more, yes.... am I worried it will cause bloat yup....Does he eat, yes he does, he doesn't seem to spit it out... when I fed them the spirulina/brine shrimp mix he was the first one to get up there and eat, he tried to even eat the clump, but found that to much and couldn't get it in his mouth...I will continue to watch him closely, and make some home made shrimp food for that tank... I am unsure what other kind of sea food they like... so any suggestions I am here to hear it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Lana, dealing with a sick fish is never easy. Although I like them and do my best for them, I try not to get attached to my fish too much, casue something like this can happen at any time. If you don't like what someone has to say, just ignore or PM them, over-reacting (as it seems) doesn't help anyone, and certainly not your fish. That being said, I highly doubt your fish got this skinny over night. Cousin or no cousin, your fish are your responsibility, so although you may not have been able to prevent the sickness, you might have noticed it earlier. But you didn't, so lets not dwell on that and move on. Having thought about it some more, I doubt that just not eating caused your fish to become like this. I'm no fish illness expert by any means, but logically, for a fish or any animal to look like that would probably indicate a serious internal problem. Maybe an internal parasite? Some degenerative disease? I don't know. But you need to make a decision here based on what info you have available. Seperate the fish and try to nurse it back to health, or dispose of it if you think it is suffering. Hopefully you can get some more / better info about the problem quickly from here or the Frontosa forum you said you posted on. I would also suggest posting it on the illness section of CichlidForum and see what quick responses you get there. They have a huge membership and some very knowledgeable people. Becasue it's so large I usually get a fast response there. In the mean time, just keep a cool head and deal with the problem rationaly. Best luck Lana, and absolutely let us know what you find out. I'm sure the info will be helpful to us all at some point. Boom :boom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Whoa he definitely is skinny! Personally I'd move him to a Q tank and watch him. Feed him a few times a day and see if he fattens up. You could also try feeding an anti parasite food or food soaked in parasite meds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 (edited) I used to be a mod on cichlid-forum in the health/illness/nutrition forum (cough-cough) and here's my advice ....... Place that fish in it's own tank (whatever it has may be contagious) and treat it with Jungle Parasite Clear. One tab per 10 gallons, wait 48 hrs, then do a 40% water change, and treat it again. Seeing as you are already feeding NLS, try feeding that fish the TherA formula, and watch to make sure that it is eating. Feed a generous amount, but don't over do it. If you don't see any improvement within 2-3 weeks, try treating with Clout. If you still don't see any improvement I would personally put the fish down. It looks like some form of wasting disease, which as Jorg mentioned isn't something one typically sees in cyphos. HTH Edited January 11, 2009 by RD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Here's what I would do Lana (ha ha just scrolled down and seen Rd beat me) I'm on the same page as Rd except I would hammer the fish with clout right away that's what I would do as the fish is so skinny he has probably had this condition for a while I'm thinking. I can relate to your problem of not being able to see and take care of your fish because of kids. Mine are in and out all the time and I have 2 125's in one of the extra bedrooms. As for your well water-- I hauled water for a year and finally got fed up and paid to have it tested and it turned out to be premium water for African cichlids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 I suspected that you might suggest going with Clout straight away, Jorg. lol I can't honestly say that I disagree with that option either, that fish is in a bad way. I only offered up the Parasite Clear for the first round of attack as it sounds like Lana has that med on hand, where Clout may require a trip into the city. So, we agree after all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polleni-puffer Posted January 11, 2009 Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 although i cant help much with the sickness ,well water can often be awsome for africans ,with them likeing hard water and such...my grandpa lives on a farm and keeps africans and they do fine ,breeding like crazy.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lana Bollers Posted January 11, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2009 Our well water it way to hard, I mean there are days where you can not see through it and it IS on a filtration system... I want to see my fish...LOL... I do appologize for over reacting, I am sensitive and take things to heart. Also no one here know's me well enough to make that kind of judgement on me... and I should of known better then to stoop to that level. I do have the parasite clear here, I will start it tomorrow as I have to head to bed right away, it is now 1:09am. He is eating very well, right now, he is usually the first to the food. So I will start with the parasite clear, I will do my entire tank, that way if any of the other fish obtained parasites, this will help them too. Once I have the clout, I will start that in six days... that would be when I am done the run with parasite clear... this fish is not lethargic, not depressed (off to himself) he is with the other fish, and his fins are all down... .as you could see in the one photo... I will also obtain some shrimp/mussles/cod and grind it up and feed that tank some of that for a couple days... freeze what I don't feed into single feedings then I can take it out of the freezer and feed it as a weekly treat or something... so that is my plan of attack so far... I will keep you all posted on how he is doing, but as of today he is not curving his tail anymore... As for my cousin, she is in a situation where her mom doesn't want her and neither does her dad.. mom and dad divorced several years back, she was born as a replacement child for her brother who was born with a health defect, sadly she was born a girl and not a boy....so when I say this girl came from hell I am not kidding... so as the fish are my responsibility, I did want to give some of the responsibility to my cousin so she would have something to care for and would have something to live for... she has made several attemps of suicide, fortunitly not since she has been here... I have now realized that was a mistake (giving her responsibility so soon) as she is still healing herself, so now she knows I am in her room a lot to care for the fish and she seems okay with that... we live in a moble home, so there really is no where else for her or the tank... I will get through this hopefully with the fish and all will be good and all a learning experience... but if I didn't learn anything then this problem given to me would of been worthless... so I will learn from it and prevent it from ever happening again... night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 I really hope the fish is okay. Good luck i'm sure things will work out in the end. L P.S. Dang made it too long I'l PM you with the P.S. content -ham- L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 My well water is a bit cloudy to sometimes but 6-8 hours in a filtered tank clears it up good and it is much easier than hauling water and the fish don't seem to mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lana Bollers Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Oh I am not talking cloudy, I am talking orange, I mean it is so think with iron you can not see the kids legs when they are in the tub, there is no way I could put my fish in that stuff! It is fine to be a little hard with a little rust, but that amount of rust... I don't think so I would have to have carbon gallore to clear that sucker up and change it every day! I am not kidding you... Big Iron came here and the guy looked at me and said he could put an 8000.00 filtration system on it but we still would not be able to drink it... so to me that is not good water quality by any stretch of imagination... I had it tested but they didn't send me the results, had it done at work, and there was some kind of bacteria in it, so we now have to shock the well regularily... If our water had no iron and no bacteria in it, then we would probably be okay... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lana Bollers Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 Shoot forgot to mention he is now being treated with parasite clear, all carbons are out and I hope that in itself works... Does anyone know if wal-mart sells clout? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted January 12, 2009 Report Share Posted January 12, 2009 I don't think walmart sells clout but if you pm me your mailing address I can throw 20 tabs in the mail for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krazy_Karma Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 I believe this fish is a product of some parasite, as all the other fish in the same tank are in good health, if this was from lack of food they would all be thin...but they are not. So for someone to say someone is over their head is a bit harsh when they didnt clearly read the entire problem, seems that sometimes fish get sick no matter what type they are.... And yes with the amount of Iron and so forth in Lana's water, its not safe for her fish, I also live on a farm and am very lucky as we dont have alot of rust and I can pull the water from my sink tap...and put it into my tanks...for my guppies and tetras I mix it with bought water, which is great as I have 5 tanks of fish...LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boom Posted February 26, 2009 Report Share Posted February 26, 2009 Any updates on your fish Lana. I have a peacock that has the same thing! Skinny as heck! Did you treat with Clout and did it work? Boom :boom: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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