Quick ? Some Of My Cichlids Are Starting

[kj23502]

I'm assuming I may not be feeding them enough. I've been feeding them once a day (and what I feel are generous portions for cichlids)and they've also been eating my plants. I do have about 17 fish in the tank. What do you think?

 

[Colin_T]

If they are fed well once a day and still losing weight then I would say they could have intestinal worms.
You could try feeding them 2 or 3 times a day for a few weeks and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't then I would definitely say worms.

 

[kj23502]

Thanks, I'll try feeding them more for a lil bit. It's only a couple of them and they are the smaller ones. That's why I was wondering about feeding...to me it seems the bigger ones are total pigs! I've heard that it can also be from the Bloat (damaging the intestinal tract) but these are carnivores and I didn't think they were as suceptible to it? Maybe time will tell!

 

[corey01]

you say there are 17 fish in the tank...are you sure the little fish are getting food..that might be the problem

 

[Colin_T]

Most fish that suffer from bloat die pretty quickly. And the most common sign of bloat is the fish blows up like a balloon, so not likely to be that. And bloat isn't a real issue in predators. It is common in vegetarian fishes that get fed meat foods. The vege fish have a long digestive tract to process the plant matter and if they ingest meat it can rot while being digested and that causes them to bloat. Carnivores have a shorter digestive tract and the meat spends less time inside them so is less likely to cause a problem.

If they are small fish then just try increasing the feeding regime.

 

[kj23502]

Most fish that suffer from bloat die pretty quickly. And the most common sign of bloat is the fish blows up like a balloon, so not likely to be that. And bloat isn't a real issue in predators. It is common in vegetarian fishes that get fed meat foods. The vege fish have a long digestive tract to process the plant matter and if they ingest meat it can rot while being digested and that causes them to bloat. Carnivores have a shorter digestive tract and the meat spends less time inside them so is less likely to cause a problem.

If they are small fish then just try increasing the feeding regime.

That's what I thought about the bloat...ok. it looks like i'll increase feeding to 2x day and see how it goes! One time I overfed and the big fish were pretty rounded! That was only last week...I didn't feed the next day and they were back down to size pretty quick w/a bunch of poop all over the place ...
NOTE TO MYSELF: don't shake the open container over the fish tank.....I knew that tho!

Yea I have yellow labs too but they aren't even in that tank yet. They're in the quarantine tank still! I have C. afra and pundamilia nyererei in the big tank.

 

[WaterBender1995]

boosting the food can be dangerous since it sounds like you have more robust eaters (their crowding out the smaller/younger ones) you could bloat up your bigger fish.
I assume your feeding flake? try some sinking pellets, even broken up spirilina discs scattered around the tank will allow the smaller/younger guys a chance to eat.

I feed nothing but HBH super moist slow sinking food and have for years and I can tell you that EVERYONE gets fed, no matter their size.

 

[darrel69]

Its better to feed too less than too much !! ...

Another good tip for ensuring juvies get their share... when feeding flakes, crumble them.

 

[kj23502]

I rotate between veggie flakes, floating protein and floating veggie pellets(that i soak in tank water to break'em up since they are too big for their mouths so they end up sinking anyway when I put them in the tank), and red cyclopeeze stuff that sinks.

I squeeze in my fingers to crush part of the red cyclopeeze stuff too, so the peices are smaller. What I did last night when I did this, was put a little in and then it went shooting across the tank w/the bigger fish following and then put a lil more in for the lil ones(one spray bar is aiming across the length of the tank). Then it seems everyone got their share.

The fish range in size from about 3" to only 1". There's only 1 at 1" another at about 1.5". The others I would guess are somewhere between 2"-3".