# acting strange...



## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

I am new to fish keeping and after reviewing several forums realize I was misinformed a good deal by the staff at Petco where I bought my fish. I bought several African Cichlids (honestly I am not sure the exact variety, I will be more careful about this in the future) but anyway one of them started behaving really strange a couple days ago. She is basically having a seizure 24/7 it looks like. She is wiggling and jerking constantly but still just swimming around like nothing is the matter, seems to be eating normally as well, not really sure what is going on, it's been like 2 days at this point.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Sounds like a shimmying fish indicating aggression or letting another fish know who is boss. Just go to youtube and type in shimmying cichlid and see what you can find. That is what it sounds like anyways. Also...since you bought at petco and likely not knowing what they are you probably just guessing bought some aggressive mbuna from the assorted tank.


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

I went to you tube and searched shimmying cichlid and found a video of a fish that looked exactly like my fish (it is apparently a yellow lab) doing exactly what my fish is doing. Do you know if there is any way to make it stop doing this? It has been doing it 24/7 for 3 or 4 days now. It really likes to stay at one particular spot on a corner of the tank and do it, but about 50% of the time it's swimming around all over doing it. Also, like I said I went into this knowing nothing and assuming the people at the pet store were giving me good information, but they sold me both central american and african cichlids. I have the yellow lab mentioned, 2 peacocks and 2 central american fish I'm not really specifically sure of. I did not realize this was an issue until I started researching the shimmy issue and discovered they should not be together. That being said, they have been sharing the same tank for nearly a month now and they are not aggressive toward each other all. I am feeding them New Life Spectrum and both fish seem to love eating it and seem to have normal energy and appetite, so can I just let them keep living together or do I need to chose between them?


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

Also, I forgot to thank you for your help in the first place.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

trcox1 said:


> Also, I forgot to thank you for your help in the first place.


You are welcome.

It is normal for the dominant fish in the tank to do this. He is letting the other fish know who is boss. He may do it less and less as time passes and the tank mates stay the same....they sometimes come to an understand as weird as that sounds. However it is normal though and if you are not seeing any major signs of aggression you should be ok.

Also...what size tank are they in? Do you know the names of all the fish? If not then post pics of them all so we can determine what will and won't work.


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

1 convict, 2 peacocks, 1 yellow lab, 1 unidentified central american cichlid, i can take a picture a little later.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

trcox1 said:


> 1 convict, 2 peacocks, 1 yellow lab, 1 unidentified central american cichlid, i can take a picture a little later.


Yeah...I am not sure the convict will work but I do know that two especially a male and female won't for sure. Yes...please take a pic of the other SA.

Also...what size tank?


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

29 gallon tank. have a 60 gallon to upgrade to at some point. heres a pic:

http://s1175.photobucket.com/albums/r62 ... ichlid.jpg


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## TheGreenMonster123 (Apr 3, 2012)

Looks like an orange-blotch (OB) peacock to me, i used to have one that looked really similar to it. I know many hobbyist don't believe in having them because they are a crossed-bred species, but I, like yourself was new to africans when I first got them.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

TheGreenMonster123 said:


> Looks like an orange-blotch (OB) peacock to me, i used to have one that looked really similar to it. I know many hobbyist don't believe in having them because they are a crossed-bred species, but I, like yourself was new to africans when I first got them.


Yep....OB peacock and that is an african cichlid....

You will need to upgrade soon as that is not enough space for those fish....I would imagine soon you are going to have some aggression issues unless you are very lucky...


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

i am dissappointed to learn that everything the pet store told me was wrong and that fish were even labeled incorrectly. glad i found this place. i will post a picture of the fish they sold me as a convict soon. i googled convicts and he doesn't really look like one to me. it would be nice if he turned out to be african as well. when i upgrade to the 60 gallon tank can i just put 30 gallons of water in that tank with some nutrifin and then siphon the 29 gallons out of my current tank into the new one? It would basically be like doing a 50% water change right? Plus I have all the rocks and the filter for the 60 gallon from when it actually had fish in it (koi).


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

trcox1 said:


> i am dissappointed to learn that everything the pet store told me was wrong and that fish were even labeled incorrectly. glad i found this place. i will post a picture of the fish they sold me as a convict soon. i googled convicts and he doesn't really look like one to me. it would be nice if he turned out to be african as well. when i upgrade to the 60 gallon tank can i just put 30 gallons of water in that tank with some nutrifin and then siphon the 29 gallons out of my current tank into the new one? It would basically be like doing a 50% water change right? Plus I have all the rocks and the filter for the 60 gallon from when it actually had fish in it (koi).


Yes but you need to move the filters over or at least the media to the new filters to seed the new tank.


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

I don't fully understand what you mean by the last comment...?
Also, the orange blotch peacock and the yellow lab I had originally posted about both were found dead when I got home Saturday. They looked fine, no injuries, normal eyes and gills, etc. just dead. So now I have 2 blue peacocks and this black, spotted fish which was advertised as a convict. All three are pictured here. I noticed the black fish is not eating much today and I'm a little concerned. I took a sample of my water to the pet store and they said it was ok. The two fish that died never had any appetite changes.


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

forgot the picture:http://s1175.photobucket.com/albums/r627/trcox1/?action=view&current=cichlid2.jpg


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

trcox1 said:


> I don't fully understand what you mean by the last comment...?
> Also, the orange blotch peacock and the yellow lab I had originally posted about both were found dead when I got home Saturday. They looked fine, no injuries, normal eyes and gills, etc. just dead. So now I have 2 blue peacocks and this black, spotted fish which was advertised as a convict. All three are pictured here. I noticed the black fish is not eating much today and I'm a little concerned. I took a sample of my water to the pet store and they said it was ok. The two fish that died never had any appetite changes.


It is hard to tell from the pic but it is not a convict...some other SA/CA cichlid. You may want to post in the ID section and see if they can help you ID.

As for the moving the filter over....when you set up your new 60g tank you need to move the filter of the filter media over or do a fishless cycle. Moving the water from one tank to the other does nothing to help in the nitrogen cycle(converting the fish waste from ammonia to nitrate).


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## trcox1 (Apr 3, 2012)

the filter i have on the 29 gallon is for a 60 gallon so can i just move that filter over? i guess i thought putting all the water from this tank into the new one and filling the rest with treated water that it would be the same as doing a 50% water change basically and if I used the rocks from an established tank and the filter from my current tank that i could just switch it all over? On another note, the black fish mentioned before has also died now. I don't know what the deal is. I have had the tank going for a month and all the fish have always seemed happy and fine until a couple days ago. I did get 3 fish from one store and 2 from another and the 3 that have died have all been from the same store so I don't know if that may have something to do with it. I am very frustrated right now though.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

trcox1 said:


> the filter i have on the 29 gallon is for a 60 gallon so can i just move that filter over? i guess i thought putting all the water from this tank into the new one and filling the rest with treated water that it would be the same as doing a 50% water change basically and if I used the rocks from an established tank and the filter from my current tank that i could just switch it all over? On another note, the black fish mentioned before has also died now. I don't know what the deal is. I have had the tank going for a month and all the fish have always seemed happy and fine until a couple days ago. I did get 3 fish from one store and 2 from another and the 3 that have died have all been from the same store so I don't know if that may have something to do with it. I am very frustrated right now though.


Yes....just move the filter over. You will need to add another filter probably as well.


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