Sick Geophagus?

[adzilla88]

Not sure were to post this really, but as it's regarding a Geo, I thought some of the guys in this section could maybe help.

One of my new juvenile Geophagus Red Heads has developed a black outline on its pelvic and anal fins, only on the tips. Also, the underside of its mouth looks puffed up as though it's flaring its gills. Its eating fine, sifting sand okay and seems mobile. However its started to itch just it's underside of its mouth and pelvic fins against the sand every now and again (not the type of flicking you would see with white spot)

These were wild fish and added 2 weeks ago. The fish has also not lost any of its colour as you can see below. The first picture shows what I mean about the underside of the mouth looking odd.

Should I be concerned

Anyone know what it could be or have any advice. I can't find anything on the internet that matches. In the meantime, I've raised the temp to 30 degrees to see if that has an affect. The tank 500L and filtration is via an FX5 and a Fluval 406. I also run 2 airstones too so its well oxygenated.

 

[Wills]

Hi not 100% on anything but a few questions - black fins can mean ammonia in the water? Have you tested for that? Or it can be a sign of fins healing - have they been fighting at all? And lastly it can be a sign of internal bleeding.

The gills look like they have something stuck you have fine sand which is great but is there a chance there were any pebbles in it? Did you have gravel previously for example? Or do you have any wood that could have flaked of a small piece or has any bits of plastic or foil from food casing got into the tank? Just wondering if thats a possibility - are all parts of the air stone there? If you can get him in a net and see if you can see anything in the gills then maybe try and hold the gills open under the filter outlet?

It might dislodge it over time though? Really not sure on any of the above though so just giving my thoughts to see if any of it makes sense to you?

Wills

 

[adzilla88]

Thanks Wills. I've not tested the water parametres for the past couple of weeks. My water changes havent been as large as I would have liked recently, maybe 15% every 5 days. I just did a large 50% one today so if ammonia is the cause, hopefully that will help clear it up.

In terms of possibly swallowing something, the way the mouth looks when it 'flares' its gills does suggest something may be stuck, but as far as I can see from observing the fish, there's nothing visible. However there are small chippings of wood when sifting through the sand, but I would presume this would stop it eating and sandsifting all together. Earlier there was like a dark grey patch inbetween its pelvic fins if you looked up at the underside of the fish from below. (if you understand) but it's not as obvious now.

At the moment it looks a little better and isnt flaring it's gills as much or flicking from what I can see. Something I forgot to mention in my earlier post is that it appeared to be quite aggresive with a few of the other Geo's (something I havent witnessed since they were introduced), as it's the alpha male. The Sev or Ellioti's have shown no aggression towards the Geo's so I'm pretty certain they are not responsible for inflicting an injury.

Thanks for your help Wills!!! Hopefully the fishes condition will not deteriorate and it'll be back to normal in good time.

 

[adzilla88]

Wills Ive just witnessed something interesting as I observed them for around 20mins stood back from the tank in the dark so they didnt know I was there. The alpha male (sick one) could be displaying some signs of breeding behaviour. It seems to constantly chase the others. It's chosen a spot inbetween a large rock and some bogwood towards the back of the tank where its enclosed and keeps returning to this area picking at the rock and wood before swimming away. It then proceeeded to swim up to other Geo's and tilt intself upwards, flare out its gills and swim around the other in a circular motion on numerous occasions. Then trying to shepperd it back to the area it seems to favour. I also noticed that if another Geo went back to the rock and wood, the male would start tail slappping, flare its gills and actually tilt upwards or downwards and performing some kind of shimmying display. It seemed to only do the gill thing when it was around the other Geo's from what I saw.

I also witnessed a pretty nasty scuffle between the male Ellioti (I think) and this Geo, and the Geo wasnt backing down either. It actually chased the Ellioti back away before the Ellioti started flaring at it, something that I hadnt noticed before. So maybe this might help better explain the cause...


Adam

 

[Wills]

Sounds like breeding to be fair Interesting that the fins go dark at this time - I know there are a few members on here that have bred these - if memory serves correctly Bonzo had a good breeding group might be worth picking his/her (sorry Bonzo!!) brain over it

Wills

 

[bonzo]

No problem Wills. The darkened fins have me stumped as ive never seen if before, but from the pics it looks like its just its natural colour and not anything to be concerned about as it looks even and not blotchy (if you get what i mean) but as said ive never seen that colour on a Tapajo. As for the rest of its behaviour it sounds pretty normal. Breeding behaviour with ours is the male shooting upwards in front of the female gills flared and tail slapping.
Id say there aint to much wrong as if its feeding and showing off i doubt theres any health issues.

 

[adzilla88]

Thanks bonzo, its much appreciated. Today, a pretty colourful female has repeatedly gone back and forth to the area and the male chases anything else away (even the male Ellioti that's twice his size) before displaying, circling eachother, both gill flaring and tail slapping. The female has also got a slight black tinge on the tips of its fins too, so maybe it's breeding colours as none of my other Geos show any of this.

The male has also created a pit underneath the wood too, so it looks like it is breeding behaviour afterall.

 

[bonzo]

Sounds as if it wont be long before they'll spawn. If they're anything like my lot they will have a few sites cleaned and a few pits dug under wood, stones before they finally decide on their spawning site. Oh and dont be surprised if they seem to fall out just before the spawn, i think its the female testing the male one final time before the spawn. We've three female, one took twice before she got the rearing of fry right but the other two got it from the first spawn. Once they start they're rabbits with fins spawning every 10-14 days.

 

[adzilla88]

I'll keep you posted with any developments...

 

[Comacchio]

Sorry to post something entirely unrelated but this fish (were fishes but a filtration accident on Saturday left me with one ) was sold to me as a Geo. Red head tapajos and I was wondering if you could disprove that for me (as it looks nothing like it should!) please?


Geo by Allan.Jones, on Flickr

It's about an inch long now and starting to get a bit more red in the dorsal and caudal fins. Any ideas?

 

[Wills]

Ah shame to hear that! At an inch its had to say let it colour up a bit yet - there are two species of Tapajo the red head and Tapajo sp.11 It could be the latter but see what its grows into

Wills

 

[Comacchio]

He(or she!) is looking lost without it's companion now. Filter went from plenty flow to almost none overnight and left the water sitting stagnant - assuming the other Geo. died of lack of oxygen as when I woke up all my Keyholes and the remaining Geo. were at the top gasping.

Got the filter running again in minutes, there was something stopping the impellar turning! Shame

Hopefully it gains a bit more colour soon and I can truly find out which Geo. it is. Thanks Wills.

 

[bonzo]

As Wills said It would be hard to tell at that age. Heres one of our spawns at about that size.

 

[Comacchio]

Thoughts?


Geo by Allan.Jones, on Flickr


Geo-2 by Allan.Jones, on Flickr


Geo-3 by Allan.Jones, on Flickr