Help/advice With Kribensis!

[CRGilbank]

Hello All! I am looking to make sure that I am on the right track. I am less experienced with fish, but we chose to start with the Kribensis cichlid. I LOVE them.

I found 3 of them at a pet store that doesn't typically sell them. They had been brought by an employee, and I had not found any other place that had them. They were 1 adult male, 1 adult female, and 1 immature kribensis (i think Male). The Adult Male the former owner let me know was stressed, you could see that he had no color.

The Female and Male seemed to be a pair. I do not know if they had ever bred, but they followed each other around all the time. The Male never did color up, and Thursday I noticed some strange behavior in that the female and male were both just hovering by a plant. Unusual even for them, and the female got defensive when I came too close. The next day (Friday) when I came home my Male was dead.

The Female seems traumatized! She has lost all of her color, and just hovers near the filter. The immature male tries to interact with her but she just runs away. I am afraid of her dying as well!

I was going to see if I could find another adult male krib to add to the tank to see if that will perk her up and get her acting normal again. I am afraid leaving it like this will mean that she will die. Is this the best move, trying to find another male? And is this normal behavior for a pair where one dies?

Please let me know. Any advice appreciated. I want the female to be ok, and I just wanted to see if anyone had any idea what I could do to try to save her. Her paleness and the way she is acting (compared to how she was before!) is a lot like the Male was before he died. Please help!

Thank you so much for your time.

 

[snazy]

Sorry to hear about your fish.
 
Is the tank cycled? How long have you had it running and can you provide the exact reading for ammonia and nitrIte?
 
Please do at least a 50% water change, even two in a row if you've got no tests to determine the water quality.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

What size is your tank?

 

[dgwebster]

same advice as above:
 
is your tank cycled (biologically, not "have you had it switched on for a week"), what filtration are you using, what water treatment are you using, what are the water stats of your tank, what are the dimensions of your tank.

 

[CRGilbank]

I would have to get home this evening before I could answer all of these questions (at work). My husband said the tank is cycled, We had the tank empty (no fish) for 3 weeks before we purchased the fish and we have had them in the tank now for 1 month. I will have my husband test the water again Asap. Tested Fri and was fine. We also did 30% water change Fri when we found the male dead. Female was perfectly healthy Thurs- the day before male passed. But seemed very stressed Fri when we returned and the Male had died. They followed each other around everywhere.

I would have to give the exact water come and filter when I get home. Tank is 20 gallons high (could not find a L) and had 3 kribs only, now 2. The remaining are an adult Female and immature male. The immature male is acting completely fine or I would have assumed sickness. But the male when we got him we were warned he was stressed .. he just never colored up or seemed to move around as much as the others. Now the female is acting the same way the day after he died. And I can PROMISE she was fine on Thurs. O noticed her being protective but she was moving around a lot as usual and colorful. I have a video I can put up later if needed.

I will give more info ASAP! I just want her to be OK.

 

[dgwebster]

I suspect your tank has ammonia & nitrites in it from the info so far.

Have they got little caves that they can call home?

 

[CRGilbank]

I hope not but we will definitely check that again immediately.
I have about 5 little "cichlid rocks". Bought them on amazon after they were suggested to me for the kribs

 

[CRGilbank]

Ok here are what we have. I used the test strips to get the nitrates, nitrites and ammonia measurements and added some of the ammonia and nitrate detoxifyer to the tank.

Nitrates were between 20-40- likely 40 on test strip.
Nitrites were 10
And Ammonia was at 1.

I did also find out I should get a gravel siphon to control this so I am going to get that ASAP. (tonight)

Type of Conditioner used: (regular) Aqua Safe + (did not add today, had it in there after water change on FRI)

Ammonia Conditioner: AmQuel +

Filter: Tetra Whisper 20I

All other levels in tank were fine, I am not sure if nitrates or nitrites or ammonia were bad, but just in case I added the small but of the AmQuel- less than the full dose (a quarter) for now. Just in case!

Thank you!!

 

[dgwebster]

You ideally want ammonia and nitrite to be zero and these are most likely the contributing factor to the health of your fish.

Make sure you add water conditioner every water change you do, 50% daily water changes are my recommendation.

 

[bullit]

As above. Also sand is easier to look after as none eaten food and **** doesnt fall between the pepples. Dont feed alot at the mo either. cheers

 

[CRGilbank]

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for helping. My Other Kribs are now just fine! Thanks for putting up with my likely rudimentary knowledge as well. I am new to fish, but I want to do a good job. Thanks for the help! SO happy my female and other male survived. (It turns out he is far from immature, by the way! He is I think around 3 inches! The other Male that died was bigger, around 3 1/2--4).