Apistos Not Right!

[newtotropical]

I have a pair of Apistos M/F You have been fine for over a week in my tank. Water stats are fine, lots of aeration (bubble wall), plant cover & cave. They seem to be hanging near the surface & have gone very dark in colour.

All other fish are fine. Tanks is 126ltr mature. I havnt seen any bullying.

Any ideas please??

 

[Miss Wiggle]

when you say stats are fine, can you please break it down and give us the actual results.

what are the other inhabitants.

changing colour is a sure sign they're not happy cichlids express themselves through colour changes.



also apisto's should be in a 1m/2f minimum ratio. this could be upsetting them.

 

[newtotropical]

They are with a pair of rams, tiger barbs & corys.

nitrites 0
ammonia 0
nitrates around 40ppm
ph 7.2

 

[Miss Wiggle]

sure the tiger's aren't too boisterous for them? how big are they and the apisto's? how many tiger's do you have?

 

[newtotropical]

8 tigers
no i dont think thats the problem, the tigers havnt bothered with them

 

[Miss Wiggle]

fair enough, slightly risky combination IMO that's all. no reason it can't work given the right tank etc!

have they been feeding OK? have you changed the diet from what they were having at the lfs?

 

[newtotropical]

they have been feeding fine and still are.
They came from somebody on here and were in great health, i guess we feed the same kind if foods

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i'd try and get another girl to make sure that's not causing the stress.

how big are they? any chance they're getting spooked by the cories? it's not normal for them to be at the water surface so maybe something's driving them away from there? cories can be very active and especially when young apisto's can be quite shy, we had some juvi's in with danio's for a while and although the danio's never went near them the constant activity was way too much for the apisto's and they weren't happy. I'd be surprised if this is it but I'm just trying to cover all possibilities.

 

[oatfish]

hi there, they came from my tank and were living with some cories and diamond tetras and neons and were totally fine with that combination. They were fed on flake and the odd catfish pellet and live food and frozen live food so have been used to a total variety. I am also at a loss why they are displaying these symptoms as newtotropicals's water stats are very similar to the tank they came from. All my other fish are 100% and have been for a long time, and I added no new fish for about 6 months before giving newtotropical these fish so I am puzzled too.

 

[fuzz16]

i doubt its caused from any sort of stress. i dont like tiger barbs, but i also highly doubt they have anything to do with whats happening. and for getting another...i think these 2 need to get better first. ive never heard of a fish getting stressed because thier M/F ratio isnt correct.

as asked about, how big are they?
do they have clamped fins or just dark color?
are they eating?

only thing info i can give you right now is maybe do a couple small water changes. sorry i couldnt help more

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i doubt its caused from any sort of stress. i dont like tiger barbs, but i also highly doubt they have anything to do with whats happening. and for getting another...i think these 2 need to get better first. ive never heard of a fish getting stressed because thier M/F ratio isnt correct.

they can do, although it would more often be just the female stressed by the male, and then obviously only at an appropriate age/size for breeding.

Not saying by any means that this is the cause of distress, but there's very little to go on here so sometimes you have to explore even the most unlikely avenues

 

[newtotropical]

I doubt its the ratio, the male is approx 2", the female smaller. I wouldnt say the fins are clamped but they arent as erect has normal!

 

[newtotropical]

They have died