Mysterious Cichlid Deaths

[fishyfreak]

The water parameters are all good, fish are active, young, eating very well, but they keep dying on me for example, I have a shell dweller, king of his domain, next day he was hovering at the bottom and wouldn't eat. Next day (yesterday) he was pale and very weak, I'm guessing he'll be dead when I get home tonight, that is if he didn't die overnight. These mysterious deaths have been going on now for a few weeks and I've lost about 5 fish, hopefully whatever it is passes and maybe it's just a fluke. I set up a 180g tank and stocked it with about 40 various African Cichlids, introducing Ich (they didn't charge extra for that). Ich was treated with Cupramine, took about 4 weeks over the last 2 water changes (25% weekly) I stopped adding the medication, they seem to be doing fine.

Any idea's?

 

[WILDER]

Any excess mucas on the fish body or gills.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Do the gills look pale with excess slime, or red and inflamed.
What does it look like when the fish go to the toilet.
Have any fish gone thin or bloated up.

When fish stop eating it can be bacterial to internal parasites.

 

[fishyfreak]

Any excess mucas on the fish body or gills.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Do the gills look pale with excess slime, or red and inflamed.
What does it look like when the fish go to the toilet.
Have any fish gone thin or bloated up.

When fish stop eating it can be bacterial to internal parasites.

Hi Wilder, thanks for your response:

1) no
2) rubbing, I'm not sure the Ich has been totally cured but I wanted to give them a break from the medication to see if it came back. No spots yet but some of them are rubbing.
3) no
4) stool looks normal to me; solid. My pleco's however, is full of air and floats, I suspect this has something to do with the algae wafers, come to think of it his belly looks a bit bloated, otherwise he seems to be acting normal.
5) none except for the ones that stopped eating and died. The pleco's the only one with signs of bloating, but this could also be due to his piggish ways!

 

[WILDER]

Feed the fish some veg like peas.
Cook peas for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell, mush between fingers into small peices and add to the tank.
Signs of bacterial infections with no obvious symtoms are being pale or darker in colour, being lisltess and lethagic, and sometimes not eating.

 

[dusky]

Wilder my loaches had velvet and they weren't flicking or rubbing so possibly that? Shine a torch on them ff to see if there is what looks like a gold dust covering them.

 

[WILDER]

The whitespot med he used should cover velvet.