Red Point Hondurans

[Volsavious]

21 years old, have a pair of Red Point Hondurans. Have had mainly cichlids thoughtout my life, but as of right now the RPH are the only species I have.
Today, I woke up to my female having almost lost all color throughout her body, turning grey and not having stripes on it.
Her breathing seems shallow, and she isn't being active at all.
I've ran some water tests and all levels in the water are to the specifications of these fish.
There is some food built up at the bottom, and looks to have some fuzzy white coating on it. The interwebs tell me it could be water mold, but I wanted to check here first.
I've cleaned out all the food and cleaned all the decor out the tank.
Was the water mold making/is the water mold making my fish sick?
Sorry for the flashmark, but as you all may know she should have deep black stripes down the side of her, but they're non existent now.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to the forum.
What are your readings for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte?
Leftover food with "white fuzzy coating" is not good.

 

[Volsavious]

Thank you for the welcome.
My Nitrites are below just .75, my nitrates are 20-40, but I do not have a tester for ammonia as of right now.

 

[Slaphppy7]

What kind of test kit do you use? Water conditioner?
You need to do an immediate water change to get those NitrItes down...if you have ITES, you have ammonia

 

[Volsavious]

I'm currently using Tetra Easy Strips as I've ran out and had to reorder an Api Freshwater Master Kit. I've been prepping a smaller tank to do a water change so I'll get to that.
And I use Nutrafin Auqa+ and waste control.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Good deal on the API test kit, strips can be inaccurate, and get some Seachem Prime.
Get that WC done ASAP, she's probably suffering from ammonia poisoning...

 

[Volsavious]

Ok I'll go out and pick some up today and just about to start!
Thanks for all the help!

 

[Slaphppy7]

No problem...get that uneaten food vacuumed out of there too, you may be overfeeding...that stuff is an ammonia factory

 

[Colin_T]

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It will also reduce any ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the water. You want ammonia & nitrite on 0ppm at all times, and nitrate as close to 0ppm at all times. Nitrates should be under 20ppm at all times.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

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What does the fish's poop look like?

Does the fish normally have a red belly?

 

[Volsavious]

Their poop has been a normal brownish color until yesterday when it changed to a deep green color.
Yes, she usually has a bright red stomach when she's full of color.

 

[Colin_T]

As long as the fish is eating well and the poop isn't white, that's fine. If it has white poop, it's a major issue.

Just try the daily water changes and gravel cleans for a week, and cleaning the filter and see how it goes.

 

[Volsavious]

Awesome will do thanks for the help!

 

[Slaphppy7]

Did you get your test kit and Prime?

 

[Volsavious]

I got the prime and am still using the strips until I get the test kit in the mail.
As soon as I swapped over tanks to clean the main one she was full of color and active within 20 minutes. Going to run the tank for a couple days as the tank she's in now is well suited to hold her till then.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Great news.
What size tanks are these, the original one she was in, and the transfer tank?
How long have they been set up?
You just have the M/F pair?
How is the male doing?