# Cichlids lethargic and not eating



## Chiro1 (Feb 20, 2012)

First of all, I'm new to this forum and pretty new with the fish also. We have a 90 gallon fish tank in my office that I do a little with. I'm really not familiar with all of the fish terminology or anything like that so please bare with me.

Here is what's happening:

90 gallon tank

2 oscars
3 parrot cichlids
2 jewels
1 pleco

The fish all seem to be pretty lethargic and not eating. I see the pleco come out every now and then to eat. It's hard to tell with him cuz he is always hiding.

Also the Oscars developed what looks like craters in their head. This happened before Christmas and we dosed them with General Cure exactly per the box. Did water changes and vacuumed gravel. They seemed to be doing better after that, but still have the craters and are back to not eating and being very lethargic.

Since the Oscars got sick we started doing 20% water changes every month and vacuuming the gravel. As well as thoroughly cleaning the filters.

I've been testing the water with strips and a ph water tester. 
PH 7.5
Nitrates 200ppm
Nitrites .5ppm
Water Hardness 300ppm
Chlorine 0ppm
Alkalinity reads in the ideal area
Ammonia 0

We do use tap water to refill the tank, but use a water conditioner with it. We have had the conditioner for quite awhile. I don't know if those go bad after so long.

I'm at a loss on what to do with them. Is this all because whatever parasites they had before Christmas aren't gone yet?

Oh we just re-set up this tank with new fish and everything in September i thing. We have been feeding them pellets that I got from the aquarium guy that set up the tank. And i was feeding them frozen blood worms once a week until we ran out a couple weeks ago. And I feed the pleco spirulina tablets. We were feeding 2x a day except Sat and Sun when no one is in the office until last week when the pet store told us to only feed them 1x a day.

Please Help!


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## newbiecichlid99 (Jan 17, 2012)

some pictures would probly help for sure


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Appropriate nitrate levels should be under 40ppm for optimal fish health.
The oscars sound like they're suffering from 'Head and Lateral Line Erosion' also known as 'Hole In The Head' disease, (HLLE, HITH). This is likely due to high nitrates resulting from infrequent water changes.
A typical water change schedule for this size tank with it's occupants would be in the neighborhood of 25-40% per week, not per month.
When cleaning the filters, be sure to use tank water, or dechlorinated water, as the chlorine in tap water can kill off beneficial bacteria living within.
I recommend increasing water changes as stated above, as well as another treatment of General Cure, according to product directions.
For now, multiple small water changes are needed to bring down the nitrate levels. 2-3, 10-20% daily water changes will bring nitrate levels down over the next few days. Wait a few hours between water changes if possible.


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