# Trouble keeping wild-caught cichlids alive



## TriniLiz (Apr 19, 2012)

Hi everyone,
I need some advice/thoughts... I brought adult, live, wild-caught Mayan cichlids back from Belize a few weeks ago. I acclimatized them and put them in tanks. They seemed fine for about 2 weeks but then I did a 1/4 water change (because I saw that the ammonia levels were high) and a lot of them died soon after. The salinities are the same as I caught them in, about 15 ppt. The water I used was a mixture of filtered sea water and tap water that has been left out and bubbled for 2 weeks; I mix the two to get 15ppt water. Do you think that there is something in our water that stresses out the fish? Perhaps our water is too hard? Has anyone else had these issues? I know that transport can be very stressful on fish and maybe they just never recovered but I'm basically spit-balling ideas now. One of my Belizian friends even suggested that they are so used to urban, dirty, canal water that clean water kills them! 
Any thoughts?


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## kenko (Jan 19, 2012)

Congrats of the fish, though hopefully you can work out the issues to enjoy them.

Never had the species, but quite interesting. Just a quick search brought up the ideal parameters and one thing caught my eye - they like very hard water around 20 degrees. Maybe your water is too soft? And osmosis comes to mind, especially with the environment that these like to be in. 
What is the current hardness out of the tap and after adjusting salinity?


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## dsouthworth (Sep 7, 2011)

Was the tank cycled prior to adding the fish? An ammonia reading means it was not..


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## Chromedome52 (Jul 25, 2009)

Depending on how high the ammonia levels had gotten and how low the pH had gone, a water change of only 25% may have actually left it more toxic by raising the pH without removing sufficient ammonia. You probably should have done a larger water change.


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## ahud (Aug 22, 2009)

Agree with chromedome.


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## mattmean (Feb 9, 2012)

Have you tried driftwood/sand/rock more natural elements?


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