# my fish wont eat and i've had it for a while



## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

my peacock wont eat and stays at the bottom and my yellow cichlid is turning white


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

well it could be anything relly....for a good answer ure gonna have to post ure water parameters...tank size, filtration, complete stock list....


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

I have the 2peacocks an electric blue,zebra mix ,black fin shark and pleco in a 30 gallon .the vitals on the tank are 8.0 pH 0 ammonia 0 nitrate and my salintity at 1.9. Recently one of my peacocks is not eating swollen stomach and hides swims around the tank but only in the back and just sits there i've had the fish a while and this has been my first serious problem


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

well yellow turning white sounds like some form of stress. an the other could it be a form of bloat or something have you ever tried adding aquatic salt while doing a swap the salt helps relieve constipation to a fish
but im not exactly sure what the issue may be?


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

i just moved my peacock to a hospital tank its still at the bottom of the tank i put pima fix and melafix in the tank and put peas for it to eat because i heard that helps with bloat but i dont know what else to do i've also read that clout is good for treating bloat but im not sure if the medicine i put in will work


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

so how long has it been acting weird or being looking unhealthy?
are all the water levels nitrate,nitrite,ammonia levels all have to be well on the dot in order to make life easy for the fish to get better. the least amount of stress the better .
for me i used the aquatic salt an it also helps with nitrate issues i keep plants in the tank so they have a balanced diet the hting about a fish is they will eat an too much food will just keep building up an it takes a little while for the fish to completely digest.

Has it been eating at all or just keeping inactive laying on the bottom?


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

about a week im watching it closely its just staying in one spot in my hospital tank 10 gallon


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

temperature is good?
is the other tank a cycled tank did u add any of the original bacteria form the main tank for ex. sand/gravel?

i have a 10gal but i have original sand anfilter on it so bateria is always there to keep the fish in a healthy an safe environment


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## steffine126 (May 22, 2009)

it died it was definetly bloat but i dont know if i should buy any more fish because i have 30 gallon and my cichlids are about 4 to 5 inches each i have 3 now and my black fin shark and pleco


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

size recc. are to get a 55+gal tank. I know it cost money but to be honest I have a 36 bowfront somewhat decored an live plant stock with sand instead of gravel but i have 13 fish....

2) Red Devils( 3-4")
2) Midas 4" & (9"<1 yr old)
3) 1-3" Convicts
1) 3-4" Firemouth
5)3-5" various Malawi's
all seem fine an healthy now that i do i reg water changes add necessary chems an watch nitrites nitrates an ammonia levels. feed regularly on a set schedule an make sure each gets his or her portion.

so do your water swaps add aquatic slat if uyou feel others may have or get bloat it helps with constipation an helps eliminate excess nitrates.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

*steffine126*,*SiNFuLWaYs* as well actually, when you put fish into tanks that are too small for them, the most frequent result of all is illnesses resulting in death. This is from the stress of the constant lack of room to get away from the most dominant fish, nipping, chasing, and wastes produced to foul such a small volume of water.

As each fish dies, it makes a bit of room for whoever is left so stress drops off slightly... all seems ok for a bit.

A couple of weeks to months passes and the cycle begins again! Crowded, stress, illness, death.

Both of you will have to decide whether this cycle of sickness and death is ok, or not ok. If it's not ok, then you need a larger aquarium where this won't happen.

Sinfulways, you really need to cut the advice down a bit... you are still very much in the learning stage and the errors in your advice are many and could cause harm. I've seen recommendations for adding Arrowanas into tiny tanks to now suggesting that "salt" will solve all the problems in this setup. "Salt" does nothing to NitrAte... only nitrite and it is Epsom salt that some feel can help with bloat but Epsom salt is something you would need to add in addition to the "salt" that would help nitrIte.

Hope this helps both of you. We've all gone through the stage you are both in of too small of a tank with our cichlids! :thumb:


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## srook23 (Feb 21, 2009)

I agree, anyone who has 2 red devils and 2 midas in a 36g tank should not be giving any advice on any fish keeping. No offense meant, but red devils earned their names...not to mention the fact that red devil and midas get huge and your tank isn't big enough for let alone one of those fish.

What I think is interresting is in a previous post you told someone they needed a 30+ gallon tank for 3 yellow labs, which are not aggressive at all in consideration of mbuna or most cichlids for that matter...yet you have some of the most aggressive cichlids out there, more of them, they get well over double the size, etc...and have them in a tank not much bigger than you suggest for them. Not that I'm disagreeing with the advice, but you should follow it as well.

I have also seen you give people hope on mixing species SA/CA/AF, but you also posted recently about africans dying in your tank, which I would put hard money on stress related issues. Not saying that we don't all have issues because I recently had a Rusty pass away which appears to be related to stress, but I'm not pushing it by stacking a small tank full of potential killer fish.


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## ws812 (Apr 17, 2009)

We had a case of bloat in our tank and were told that salt can make it worse, not better.

There's a great article (on cichlid-forum.com, actually) about Malawi Bloat here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/malawi_bloat.php

Stress is also a big reason for bloat. We're still learning too, but we eliminated disease from our tank by getting rid of four of our fish and paying closer attention to nutrition and water quality. 

Good luck!


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## hollyfish2000 (Aug 23, 2007)

Thanks Number6 for the kind way you pointed out the problematic advice. I was having a heart attack while reading it . . .


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