# Is there anything else we can do or try to cure this??



## NicholeSmithAndJD (Jul 24, 2013)

Hello, me and my fiance has a 72 gallon freshwater tank. We have all African cichlids, we have cycled the tank.. its been cycled for over 6+ months. We have had NO problem with our fish, or tank this whole time. The fish were doing well, breeding, eating, and having a blast. We even had one recently have fry and we have healthy fry in our 20 gallon fry tank! But last week we bought a 2 little maingano cichlids from our nearby Pet Land, as soon as we got them in our tank, we noticed one of the newly bought fish was laying down not moving so much but, he looked fine. One day later we noticed that same fish had white blotches on the top part of his body and he still wasn't moving much. We didn't know what it was or if it was anything serious. So we waited another day to see if he would come around because he was eating and when we turned our lights on he was dead, sadly. We was very disappointed about this and also confused. The other newly bought maingano and the rest of the fish were doing just fine the rest of the day. We had our temp. normally around the low 70's and we took it slowly up to the high 70s later that day for breeding purposes. The fish adjusted well, they were doing just like always. Later the next day out Demasoni and elongatus got into a fight, chasing each other in a circle and then once they starting lip locking we stopped them with the net and had to watch them for about 3-ish hours so we could make sure they wasn't fighting. We noticed from the lip lock they had rough lips, nothing major or bad! The very next day we noticed something odd in our tank, the demasoni fish that was in the fight lips look much horrible and we noticed another fish fins were looking rugged and over just hour time 6 fish has cotton looking stuff on their mouth only. The demasoni's mouth and another one lips looks so bad, they dont eat, they stay at the top :/ 5 fish has some fin damage, like its deteriorating! We have never seen nothing like this, that spread so quickly! We turned the temperature down to 72 and added extra salt, turned the lights out, added pimafix and some fin and scale repair chlorine remover stuff. We think it is columnaris, but we were told that by someone and they also told us to do the things we listed. We just wanted second opinion, from people who had this experience or knows more about it than we do. We dont know if that fish that died brought something to out tank, then us raising the temperature made it spread faster..or what? We love our cichlids and will take all the advice we can get! Thank you very much. If you would like a picture than id take some real quick and post them, hopefully i gave you enough information!


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## sumthinfishy (Jan 26, 2013)

u have learned the hard way(as did i) that u always quarantine new fish.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

Raising the water temp normally makes the fish more aggressive and you should never raise more then a couple degrees in a day. Keep them about 76-78 all the time. Normally slightly cooler water during a water change can trigger breeding. If fish are at the top or hiding behind equipment for any length of time, either they or the aggressor needs to be removed. If one agressor does this to several fish, remove it. If its just one picked on fish then I would remove it. I had one of my female adult demasoni go from totally normal and healthy to a stub of a tail and most other fins badly destroyed in one day two weeks ago. This was in my 125 also, with only one male and eight other females plus about 30 growing out dems at about an 1.5" long. The white around the mouth could just be from liplocking or from them scraping algae. Pictures would help here. Just a word of advice, breaking them up with a net is not going to do anything due to the fact that you cant constantly watch them. If a fish is heavily stressed it then becomes much more susceptible to disease and thus can infect your whole tank if it gets that far.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

+1 on pictures and quarantine.

What is your stock list, size of fish and tank dimensions?

Sounds like normal aggression to me. Rough around the mouth and tattered fins. Hiding at the top. The not feeding part is a cause for concern. I would guess there is one fish doing the damage, but pictures of the injuries/disease will help. Your stock may be off.


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## NicholeSmithAndJD (Jul 24, 2013)

We are new on this website and i am clueless on to how to upload pictures. Any help on how to do that would be appreciated. Sadly our demasoni died last night, all the other effected fish are still alive but not looking well. In our 72 gallon bow front tank we have a elongatus, a few O.B. Peacocks, Two venustus, A yellow, lab, A red zebra, an albino, a hansbaenschi, maingano, and a few unidentified ones. All are around two - three inches except the two venustus and their about 4 to 5 inches. We will quarantine new fish from the start from now on thanks Sumthinfishy. And k7gixxerguy, thanks you was very helpful.. We wont raise the temp. that quickly again, and they was perfectly fine with each other until that night and thats all it took, if we noticed the aggression sooner we would have took the fish out right away. And thanks iggy, ill try to upload my images asap.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

There are instructions for pics and vids at the top of each section of the forum.

Your stock is all over the place. I believe that's the root of your problems.


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## brinkles (Jan 30, 2011)

They're coming of age and battling for the available females, and that will have to be fixed by restocking, sorry. Between the stress and the new sick fish, They're getting sick too. I've been there, it sucks.


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## NestoJR (Sep 13, 2012)

Seems like with the new additions, it created havoc with the pecking order. It happens, get used to it if you like adding new fish from time to time. I would keep the temperature up but thats me, I keep it around 78-82 all the time. It may increase their metabolism but the heat I'd think would also fight off things like ick but not sure about columnaris if you really think thats what it is. Dropping the temp (like with a water change) could initiate spawning as it imitates rainfall and breeding aggression is the worst of all. Fighting among cichlids is normal, I don't interfere, they'll work things out. If it gets seriously bad, you remove either the aggressor or the one getting beat up to a hospital tank. If you don't have one, you might want to invest in one, it will come in handy.

Are you checking your water quality or performing water changes during all this ? The dead fish will make the water go bad quite fast. Hope all is well.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

It does sound like Columnaris, most likely exacerbated when you raised the temp, as it spreads quickly in warmer water.

There is an excellent article in the health section of the library here on Columnaris. It is a very frustrating and difficult disease to treat, unfortunately.

And I would strongly advise working on your stock list once you get through this. Otherwise you will be dealing with numerous health issues as they fully mature.


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