Borelli female breathing fast ?

[samwood26]

I got a pair of borelli apistos 3 days ago but the female is laying on the bottom of the tank breathing heavily and fast , the male seems to be ok but hides . Ph 6.7 ammonia 0<0.1 .Tank mates are other apistos . Is there anything i can do ?
Thanks

 

[gerald]

If it's due to parasites on the gills or internal, Metronidazole + praziquantel might work, but when Apistos get to the "laying on the bottom" stage the damage is pretty severe and recovery is not common. It could also be from some other infection or organ injury that may not be treatable. Good luck. ( I assume this is NOT due to being chased by other fish, correct?)

 

[Duffmanj]

Could you provide some more detail on the other aspects of your tank i.e. tankmates, size, a picture of the tank might help too? Do you have an airstone you could try running in there for a while? What kind of filtration do you have at the moment? What temperature is the tank at?

 

[Mike Wise]

I have a question. Why didn't you quarantine the new fish? If she brought in something nasty, your other fish might catch it, too. A quarantine tank is the best protection a community tank can have. That being said, you may have caused the problem by adding new cichlids to a tank with cichlids that have already established territories and a pecking order. Stress on the new fish can lower their resistance to diseases/parasites that they otherwise might have fought off. Then, again, it might not be anything you did. The fish may have arrived at the wholesaler/shop 'packed heavy' (too many fish for the volume of shipping water). This can cause ammonia burns to the gills, which is hard to cure. In the 'old days' we saw this quite often with entire shipments dying shortly after arriving. The only cure for this was clean, well oxygenated water, a quiet low-stress aquarium, and time.

 

[samwood26]

I got 4 new fish (2 hongsoi and 2 borelli) and then put them in my empty tank that has just amano shrimps and as soon as i put them in they were breathing very fast and his under some driftwood for a day where as the hongsoi pair were swimming around happy . Tank mates are angelfish , cacatoides x4 , macmasteri x2 , aggazizi , kribs x2 and some tetra where they all mind there own business . Gravel substrate with leaves and alder cones , 180l jewel rio lights on 7 hours a day .planted with driftwood and caves . I got the pair of ebay from a wholesaler ? is it worth complaining about the fish ?.....ALL other apistos in my tank are happy even males of same type (eg 3 male cacatoides ) and all come up to glass .

 

[davidjp1982]

Sorry if this is hijacking the thread but it may also be useful to the OP - I too am guilty of not using a quarantine tank as I only get new fish maybe 2 or 3 times a year - I know this is something that should be used but it obviously needs to be an established tank that is fully cycled, not something that is set up the day before you purchase new fish. Do you just keep the tank ticking over on ammonia during the time you are not using it? Or would you keep some extra filter media in your main tank to use as required?

 

[davidjp1982]

That sounds like a lot of cichlids for 180 litres?

 

[samwood26]

my tank is an established 54 ltr with just a couple of tetra and amano shrimp to simply keep it clean and ticking over

 

[Duffmanj]

I run 2 extra filters in my other tanks. If I need the hospital tank I can take a mesh bag of substrate from one of the tanks plus some water and a spare filter (kept conditioned) and have it running in 10 minutes. I also keep a spare heater for the same purpose and have a couple of half plant pots to add in if needed. I was thinking that was quite a few cichlids for one tank too.... Do they all get on?!

 

[samwood26]

Yeah i got all the cacatoides at the same time so they have grown up together and know heir limits , ocasionaly there are little stand offs between them when the femeles are around but overall they get on well .

 

[Duffmanj]

So there are 2 hongsloi, borelli, macmasteri, agassizii, kribs and 4 cacs, plus some angels, in your 180l?

 

[samwood26]

yes apart from the hongsloi

 

[samwood26]

Would the pebas pair be in a heated box so they will be ok if i stayed at the auction for an hour ?

 

[Duffmanj]

Yeah they'd be fine, they'd be in a bag in a poly box with a heat pad so you could and should stay for as much of it as you can. Plenty to learn and loads of people to meet. Which tank would they be going in?

 

[samwood26]

in with the hongsloi for a few weeks till there settled

 

[bludfire]

With that many apistos in there i really wouldn't recommend adding any more to that tank. They are very territorial and if any of them spawn you'll just end up with a whole bunch of stressed or dead apistos.
Have you got any other tanks you could move some in to?
You'll see much more amazing personalities in each of them individually if they have a bit of space to themselves.

 

[samwood26]

Im thinking of getting a small tank and one by one rotating the pairs in to breed or just use it as a qt tank , but in the 180 ltr its quite long so each pair or group has its own area amongst the caves and plants .

 

[Mike Wise]

All a quarantine tank needs to be is a small tank with a heater, air driven sponge filter and some easily sterilized hiding places. It doesn't need to be up and running except when you get new fish. Dry sponge filters can be inoculated and operating in less than an hour. Just gravel clean a healthy tank and remove some of the debris. Then put the filter in a bucket and let it run for 10-15 minutes in the dirty water. Squeeze out the filter (gently) and you have a fully operational filter for the quarantine tank.

 

[davidjp1982]

All a quarantine tank needs to be is a small tank with a heater, air driven sponge filter and some easily sterilized hiding places. It doesn't need to be up and running except when you get new fish. Dry sponge filters can be inoculated and operating in less than an hour. Just gravel clean a healthy tank and remove some of the debris. Then put the filter in a bucket and let it run for 10-15 minutes in the dirty water. Squeeze out the filter (gently) and you have a fully operational filter for the quarantine tank.

thanks for that - good to know

 

[Duffmanj]

I have to say dude, I think you really need to do some research on apisto space requirements and territories, theres a big difference between having them in a tank and them being happy. In my opinion those pebas won't last long in amongst that many other dwarf cichlids, especially being so juvenile, and if your fish are stressed that's likely to be the reason.