# Calvus illness



## Liz2525 (Oct 16, 2019)

Hi I owned 6 calvus (black pearl ) they are in a 260 litre tank with 4 brichardi 2 lelupi 2 altolamprologus compresiceps in the last 6 months they have been slowly dieing off 1 by 1 , Symptoms are ,rapid gill movement and sitting at bottom of the tank. tested the water results are all good No other fish has had any symptoms I do 30 percent water change every week I have medicated the water for internal parasites such as worms I have 2 left and it looks like one of them Won't make it through the night  . Are there any diseases that could affect Just the calvus I have tried everything and I am at the end of my tether my poor calvus . I have 2 filters on my tank a external canister and an internal ,for a bit of water moment , sorry for any spelling mistakes .Crushed coral for substrate and coral and rocks for decor , please help all other fish are healthy and are not affected at all by this illness 
Any advice would be gratefully received


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Sorry for your losses!

Can you provide more details on the tank dimensions please?

What test kit are you using? Does it provide number values or is it test strips?

Usually water quality or aggressive tank mates are the reason for losing Calvus, I'm not aware of any specific illness or disease affecting only that species.


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## sir_keith (Oct 30, 2018)

This is a tough one, but it sounds to me like your _calvus_ are suffering from stress-induced systemic infections. That would suggest that this is not a disease _per se_, but a response to chronic stress. You seem to be doing everything right maintenance-wise, and medicating for parasites was a good idea, but the problem persists nonetheless. Can you remove the remaining _calvus_ to another tank for the time being? Whether you can detect overt bullying or not, it seems to me that the other fishes in this tank are preventing the _calvus_ from getting the 'private space' that they need. Good luck.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I agree. Unless this is a 72" tank the brichardi prefer to form a pair and then eliminate all the other fish in the tank so that they can populate it with their fry.

In addition a comp male in the same tank as a calvus male are likely to view each other as competitors and fight for each other's females.

You can do a colony of calvus but you would want at least 3 males and lots of females.

With a small number of calvus, even among themselves they would prefer to form a pair and eliminate the other calvus.


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