# African Cichlid's dying



## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

Help. I have a 75g aquarium that I have had for about 2 months. I bought it established with 8 African cichlids and 8 electric blue cichlids and a pleco. I have removed the electric blues to a separate tank and added 2 blood parrots and an additional pleco to the mix. All the fish are 4" in length or smaller. It had a handing filter on the back with bio wheels. About a month ago, I bought a Fluval 406 canister filter. The water has been crystal clear until about 4 days ago. I did a partial water change and the water got a little cloudy. All my water readings are almost a perfect as you can get, but I noticed that a couple of the cichlid's looked "pale". I have black, yellow and an awesome blue/red one.Now the issue. Yesterday when I got home from work, the blue/red was floating in the tank, and I found another smaller black one in one of the decorative logs dead. This morning I found a third one dead. None of the fish seem to eat, nor have been for the last couple of days. All the fish looks "bleached out" and the water is still somewhat cloudy. I cleaned the gravel yesterday, and got very little out. The scrubber filters in my canister are really dirty.

In my canister filter, I have the large foam filters, two small filters, two bio bags, two ammonia scrubbers, two cleaning filters, two charcoal filters and two more fine polishing filters. I have a power head to help circulate the water. I have a hollow drift wood log, a faux stump for hiding spots and silk plants. The bottom consists of gravel that is pea sized.

I feed the fish floating pellets once daily, and about a week ago, they seemed to lose interest in them. I started supplementing the pellets with flake food which they were eating both in just a few minutes. Three days ago, they seemed to lose interest in anything. I do feed algae tabs to the plecos, and they are still eating those. I have also noticed that the plecos tend to swim to the surface and gulp air.

Please advise if you have suggestions.


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## Cyphound (Oct 20, 2014)

What are you using for testing the water.what are the readings pls.


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## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

Cyphound said:


> What are you using for testing the water.what are the readings pls.


I am traveling today, but I did an ammonia test before I left. API liquid drops. The reading was .25


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Publish the test results for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. How strong is the flow from your filters into the tank? Sounds like they can use a cleaning. You could have an oxygen problem (if the flow is minimal) or an illness. Any thready, clear/white feces?


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## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

The flow from the filters is really goof, no different from when it was new a month ago. When we got home a little bit ago, there were 3 more dead cichlids. I have one more left and it does not look great. My two blood parrots and pleco's look good though. I have the charcoal removed from the canister as I am doing a Melafix treatment. I also added an air stone in yesterday morning before we helped. Here are the current findings done with Terra easy strips:
Nitrate 40 (this is much higher than yesterday, I presume from the three fish that had died and been in the tank for I don't know how long)
Nitrite 0
Hardness 300
Chlorine 0
Alkalinity 300 (Also up from yesterday)
Ph 8.4
Ammonia .25 (done with API Ammonia test kit drops)


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Why do you have an ammonia reading? Are the fish that died eating the day before? What about the feces?

Dechlorinator?


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## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

I have no idea on the ammonia reading. Prior to this issue, I have not tested for it. The fish have been eating a more since I added the air stone in. The feces is long and stringy, black and white. My water was crystal clear earlier last week and the fish seemed vibrant. About mid week, is started clouding over and the fish quite eating. I did a gravel cleaning and 20% water change. I have been using a combination of water from my dehumidifier which is completely neutral by my test strips and the other half is from the tap that I leave in buckets for about 2-3 days for the chlorine to evaporate. Our tap is fairly high in minerals and Ph so blending the two waters have helped. The only variable I can think of is, I purchased two brand new buckets to keep water in. I am now wondering if they had residue in them or bled off something into the water.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Most entities in the US add chloramines to the water in addition to/instead of chlorine. It will not dissipate. Try the dechlorinator.

What are the test readings direct from the tap? Africans like the minerals and high pH.


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## klimarov (May 12, 2015)

i have a feeling that you are overfeeding the fish. Ammonia should always read 0 in cycled tank, same for nitrites. Also you have high Nitrates, anything above 10 ppm is not normal, 50 is equivalent to crazy high. Don't forget, that non cleaned filters/media add up to Nitrate level. Fish can die suddenly from high nitrates.

When plecos and fish in general swims up to the surface to gulp some air, this is a sign of bad oxygenation, which is directly affected by wastes (which is more common) and actual aeration of the tank. The later should not be a problem as you have an air stone, a pump (that i suppose is aimed at the surface), and those filters (also aimed at surface). If cloudiness is white, it's most likely a protein buildups,which will later decompose into ammonia and further.

If no suspicious chemicals got into the tank (like deodorant, air freshener and etc.) i would do the following:

1. 50% one time water change
2. add some freshwater salt (sold in stores, use by instructions but a spoon or 2 less, not regular salt btw)
3. clean every filter you have (without cleaning supplements, just wash off dirt and food trapped in media, same for mechanical filtration foams)
this will help, however you can't skip your regular water changes.

Here is some thing else to think about:

oxygenation of the tank - this process is ongoing and oxygen gets dissolved into the water with surface turbulence only. Those bubbles from air stones, they don't add any oxygen to the water until they pop at the surface. So water pump and filters aimed at surface cause natural oxygenation.

Chemical filtration - in particular coal, this has been proved countless time as ineffective. Coal looses it's potency within 2 weeks and then becomes more of a problem than help. Good bacteria does not live on coal, so it takes away valuable space. Coal has been used in old days to remove chlorine from water, today every one uses the special dechlorination solution. Also coal not only gets rid of chlorine, but also all medicine that you drop into the tank, neutralizing it's effect. It would be wiser to use that space with more ceramic media for bio filtration.

Food - fish needs a varied diet, when i feed my cichlids shrimp pellets few days in a row, about on day 4 they become more indifferent to it. Flakes make ideal food as they contain protein and fiber. Also protein only diets can cause problems with waste release, which will cause fish to die from blown stomach.

Ammonia scrubber - not sure how they help, but ideally your biological filtration should be enough to control ammonia and nitrites. Good habit to do weekly water changes also adds up, i'd suggest 30% though. Also control your feeding habit, it's extremely easy to overfeed. Also if your fish skips 1 day in meal, nothing bad will happen.


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## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

Thank you for the advise. I have a new power head that is churning the surface pretty good, and the discharge head on the canister filter is only an inch below the surface. 
On feeding, I have heard anything from three times daily to once every three days. I feed all 10 fish two small pinches of floating pellets which are always consumed within about 30 seconds. If anything is floating and not getting any attention after that, I net it out and then follow up with a couple good pinches of flake food. I feed two algae tabs for the plecos.

On the filters, I have been cleaning them out about every 2 weeks, or in the event of a water change, which I have done twice over the past week with this issue. I believe I may have identified the cause for the sudden change and death. I think the buckets I purchased may have had something in them. I got a film on the surface of the water around that time, and the water clouded up literally overnight after a water change, and that is when the fish stopped eating. I did another change a few days later thinking I missed something, and they started dying. Does contamination from this sound plausible?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Contamination is possible, but film is common from food and harmless. And clouding is common from a bacteria bloom and harmless as well.

I'd try the dechlorinator.


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## klimarov (May 12, 2015)

DJ is probably right here. Dechlorinator might be the thing.

I wonder how chlorine reading you got was 0? did you just assumed it to be so, because of coal? or actually run the chemical test? if test, was it aquaria specific or one of those people use to check safety of tap water? if later, it wouldn't recognize the low levels that can kill fish.

Also, did you ever changed coal after initial set up? or for past 2 months you used same bags? if not, i think after coal lost the potency and if you never used dechlorinator, chlorine just built up in the tank and eventually killed the fish.


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## mdkots (Sep 5, 2015)

The chlorine reading is off one off a Tera test strip. I fill one 5 gallon bucket with hot water that is softened and let it sit for at least one day to let the chlorine dissipate. I use one 5 gallon bucket of water from my dehumidifier, which is pure water, no hardness, no chlorine, no ph, nothing. Then I use one 5 gallon straight from the tap. That is 15 gallons into a 75 gallon aquarium. My filter is only 4 weeks old, and I just put new coal in last Wed. My water has cleared back up and the remaining fish seem to be doing well. One is a little lethargic yet but the two blood parrots seem to be thriving. Here is the latest water testing:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 20
Nitrite - 0
Hardness - 150
Chlorine - 0
Alkalinity - 120
Ph 7.8


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

A-chloramines do not dissipate
B-most municipalities add chloramines in the US


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