Dying Cichlids - Help Please

54and56

Hi all,

I've a 500 litre Malawi Cichlid tank with about 45 fish in it. Have had it about 7 years and it's always been healthy including some breeding fish etc.

Naturally enough I get the odd floatie either through being bullied by another fish (rare enough actually) or through old age as far as I can tell anyway. Its usually about one fish every few months which I reckon is normal enough.

I've been restocking it over the last 3 months or so with about 16 new fish as the numbers had dropped to about 30. I got +/-6 from Seahorse Aquariums, +/- 6 from Petstop in Carrickmines and another 6 or so from Maxi Zoo in Sandyford.

In the last week 7 fish have died including 2 today so I'm thinking there must be a contagious illness of some sort in the tank.

As this is the first time anything like this has happened to me I'm looking for some help as to what I should do.

I'm thinking the best thing I can do is take a water sample to one of the fish shops and see if they can test it and then recommend something to dose the tank with which will kill anything bad going on in there.

Is this a good starting point? Any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Ben

HONKEY TONK

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

Hi all,

I've a 500 litre Malawi Cichlid tank with about 45 fish in it. Have had it about 7 years and it's always been healthy including some breeding fish etc.

Naturally enough I get the odd floatie either through being bullied by another fish (rare enough actually) or through old age as far as I can tell anyway. Its usually about one fish every few months which I reckon is normal enough.

I've been restocking it over the last 3 months or so with about 16 new fish as the numbers had dropped to about 30. I got +/-6 from Seahorse Aquariums, +/- 6 from Petstop in Carrickmines and another 6 or so from Maxi Zoo in Sandyford.

In the last week 7 fish have died including 2 today so I'm thinking there must be a contagious illness of some sort in the tank.

As this is the first time anything like this has happened to me I'm looking for some help as to what I should do.

I'm thinking the best thing I can do is take a water sample to one of the fish shops and see if they can test it and then recommend something to dose the tank with which will kill anything bad going on in there.

Is this a good starting point? Any other suggestions?

Cheers,

Ben

Get your water perimeters checked.

Your filter media could have adjusted itself to handle a certain amount of fish and adding more could be crashing your tank." Not so common on such a large tank)

Alkers

Is it the new fish dying or the older ones? Do you quarantine any of the store bought fish before adding? How long between adding fish?

54and56

HONKEY TONK wrote: »

Get your water perimeters checked.

Your filter media could have adjusted itself to handle a certain amount of fish and adding more could be crashing your tank." Not so common on such a large tank)

Thanks Honky Tonk, you're right about possibly adding the fish too quickly although it was done over a period of 3 months and never more than 4 fish at a time which I didn't think would put pressure on a 500L tank.

I run an Organic Aqua set up so haven't done a water test in over 7 years :eek:

I went out to Seahorse Aquariums (who sell and are familiar with how Organic Aqua setups work) and got a bit of advice. They suggested increasing the flow in the tank and on top of that I decided to dose for white spot even though I can't see the tell tale signs. That was Saturday and haven't lost a fish since.

Fingers crossed I've stopped the rot.

54and56

Simona1986 wrote: »

Is it the new fish dying or the older ones?

Combination of both but mostly older mature fish.

Simona1986 wrote: »

Do you quarantine any of the store bought fish before adding?

No, I only have one tank. I do employ a net technique for transferring which ensures virtually no water from the shop tank enters my tank but I know it's impossible to prevent a few drops and whats on the fish etc from getting in there so that could be a source for contamination.

Simona1986 wrote: »

How long between adding fish?

I usually add 3-4 at a time and leave at least 2 weeks before adding more.

Sleepy

For an unknown illness, I'd recommend eSHa 2000. It's a good broad-spectrum treatement and has worked for me a good few times.