# Red Jewel Sick. Nothing Helping. NEED HELP!



## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

I am hoping that someone can offer some adive and insite into trying to save one of my fish. I am relatively new the the world of Cichlids, I've had my tank (55 gallon) set up for about 10 months now and everything was going fantastic! I have really falling in love with this species. I had been adding fish as suggested by the people of the local pet store (BIG MISTAKE!) and things were going great until about 3 weeks ago. My red Jewel had always loved to hide into my volcano and it wasn't uncommon for me to not see him (i think a him) for a couple of days. One day walking past the tank I noticed that he was outside of the volcano and looked like he had just been through WW2. Fins were shereaded and torn to bits, his bottom lip was puffy and white and he was just sitting at the bottom on the tank. I Immediately took him out of the tank and into the hospital tank and began to treat him for fin-rot/colmnaris(sp?) with the combo of maracyn/maracyn two. Within about a week he seemed to be doing MUCH better and his fins were growing back, white lips were gone was swimming again everything was great. So I put him back into the main tank. Two days later he looked even worse than he ever did before. His fins were REALLY shreaded his tail fin was almost down to the nub with just the spiney "bone" parts left. His lip was white again and looked like you could see bone, like something was eating his lips! I immediately put him back in the hospital tank and started dosing with the Maracyn/Marayn two combo again, 5 days in nothing had changed. I did some research and switched to the combo of Kanaplex/furan 2. Today is day 3 and he is not getting better! If anything he is getting much worse. His fins are continuing to deterioriate, he's not developed white sores on the top of his body and it looks like he has a cottony growth on the sore and some of the fins. Can anyone steer me in the right direction? Is there any chance of saving this guy?

pH- 7.8
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- <40ppm
Temp- 78F
Water- Hard
Alkalinity- Ideal (test strips aren't very imformative, i've purchased a water kit, just waiting on delivery)
1 dual filter system
rock bottom
lots of logs/fake plants/hiding spaces
multiple airation sources
feeding cichlid flakes and frozen spirinella(sp)/brine shrimp
25% water changes/stone vacuuming weekly

I had a total of 10 fish in the community tank. I'm not sure exactly what they are. I can try to describe them but will post pictures later in another forum to correctly identify them.

1- All yellow fish (most agressive in tank) about 3.5 inches
1- All organge fish (2nd most agressive) about 3.5 inches
1- Black fish with yellow vertical ring around head/stomach with some red under his face (listed as vegitarian in the store) about 3 inches
1-Blue/puple fish with black/blue top fin and yellowish tail fin 2 inches
1-Black fish with white dots everywhere
1-Redish/black fish (labeled as assorted peacocks in store)
1- yellow fish with multiple white/black horizontal stripes on the top
1- Blue fish with black vertical stripes
1- all white fish (starting to get yellow and blue on face)

Any help/treatment paths/criticism would be greatly appreciated! I'm willing to do whatever it takes to have a happy tank disease free


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Sounds like an aggression issue, likely due to improper stocking. Fish stores that don't employ knowledgeable aquarists are famous for poor stocking advice.
Because this fish isn't healing with meds in an aquarium, I would add baths or dips to your treatment regimen in hopes that a more concentrated medication application will help. More information can be found here: http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/20 ... baths.html
I recommend a bath with methylene blue, kanaplex and furan2 as described in the article. You may also want to take an extra step and directly apply methylene blue to the more severely damaged areas on the fish using a cotton swab before returning the fish to the hospital tank. MB will stain, so you'll want to wear gloves and use an appropriate container for the bath.
I'll keep an eye out in the Unidentified Cichlids forum for pictures of your other fish. It sounds like you have mbuna and possible tropheus which shouldn't be housed with a jewel.


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## MizOre (Sep 20, 2013)

Jewel cichlids are west African riverine. The rest of your fish are probably West African Lake fish (Malawi or Tanganyika). My suggestion is either do an African Lake tank (one or the other lake) with lots and lots of rocks, or do a jewel cichlid tank with one pair of jewel cichlids. For the jewel tank, maybe add some top water barbs or giant danios and plant in anubis and some Java moss and fern on rocks or driftwood. Jewel Cichlids are aggressive; the lake cichlids are even more aggressive. If the fish recovers, do not put it back in the main community tank.

This site has some good "cookie cutter" suggestion for collections in various sizes of tanks. You might want to take a look at those


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

Thank you all for the recomendations. As soon as I get home I'll start with the dips/baths in hopes that it help the poor guy out. If he survives he'll definatly get his own space. I wish the people at the pet stores were more educated in this matter, (or that I wouldn't have trusted them so easily) I'm definately super frusterated.


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

Few more questions; When I treat the bath water w/ the medication, am I dosing at the recomended dose or 2x tank [ ] like the methylene blue? Also, am I still doing the hospital tank with the meds?


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

http://imgur.com/MoUadJk


This is what the fish currently looks like


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)




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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

MeganK said:


> Few more questions; When I treat the bath water w/ the medication, am I dosing at the recomended dose or 2x tank [ ] like the methylene blue? Also, am I still doing the hospital tank with the meds?


Meds for the bath are at 2x the normal tank dosage. Continue the meds in the hospital tank at the regular dosage, and no MB in the hospital tank. Keep an eye on ammonia/nitrite in the hospital tank, ideally you should have a mature filter running.
If you can swing it, try for (2) 30 min baths per day for a few days, if not, (1) 30 minute bath per day for 4-5 days. Discontinue the meds in the hospital tank as per their respective directions. The fish will likely have to stay in the hospital tank for 2-3 weeks before it's healed sufficiently to be added to a new tank or traded/donated.


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## MizOre (Sep 20, 2013)

If the fish is eating, keep working on saving him. I now have convicts who were added to a Tanganyikan tank and one had an eye bitten out and others had torn fins. One of the hopeful signs here is that he's got his dorsal fin up.


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

Unfortunately my red jewel only made it through 1 bath. I appreciate everyone's help and recommendations.


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## MizOre (Sep 20, 2013)

You have my sympathy -- and the people in the African Lakes group might have suggestions on how to work with the fish you have now.

I've kept a small Julidochromis species in the past as a breeding colony in a 33 long (same footprint as a 55) and those are nice attractive fish who raise groups of fry. The older fry don't molest the younger fry and this makes for an easy to manage (as Tanganyikans go) and attractive peaceful tank. I was going to suggest something like that with Jewels, but the man I know who keeps Jewels in my town said his female killed the male last night. Kribensis/Pulchers have worked well as breeding colonies for me and others.

Either try working with what you have, or consider getting something under five inches mature size that will have small batches of fry from time to time (Julie or Kribs or Tanganyikan shell dwellers) and the pleasures of watching parental care and having some fish to trade or sell in the future. I like having fish breeding and raising fry in my tanks, but that's not necessarily for everyone. There's good information on all these choices on this site.


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## MeganK (Apr 11, 2014)

yeah this whole experience has been a learning one for sure. The biggest lesson was to never take advice from pet store employees anymore. At this point i'll just keep a close eye on the tank and remove trouble makers as necessary until I have a "zen" tank.


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