Twitching Firemouth

[mrs biffster]

Hi, i hear you have a problem with a firemouth. Well your ph is way too high for cichlids. They should be acid about 6.6. The way to get your ph down is getting black water extract. Waterlife do a product called HUMAQUAT it lowers the ph and all your other fish will benefit as well. Bogwood is another thing as well to lower ph coz it comes from peat bogs.

 

[drufly]

Yea think its too l8 for this 1. I will try my lfs in the morning for either bogwood or something to lower the ph level. Just hope it can hold on for this to help.

I have noticed there is a coulpe of white spots that have come up on the tail fin, little fluffy bits. Could be cos of stress(not sure)

Every other fish is fine apart from this strange happening!

 

[mrs biffster]

It sounds like stress to me. Firemouths are timid cichlids and your jewel cichlid could of been having a go at your firemouth.

 

[drufly]

Yea the jewel had a go at all the fm's but that was on sunday. I took the jewel back to lfs on monday. I was reading about the fm's in the species index on here. It says the ph is around the right level for fm's. Which makes me think that its is stress. Hopefully he pulls through by tomorrow. Thanks for the help and will post the outcome tomorrow.

 

[mrs biffster]

Ok, the biffster will be on here tomorrow. He will let me know.

 

[drufly]

New bogwood in place. Though i think it will only be beneficial to the remaining fishes.

Fingers crossed

 

[the biffster]

New bogwood in place. Though i think it will only be beneficial to the remaining fishes.

Fingers crossed

check your stats today then
again on Sunday see what you ph
is today and then on Sunday

 

[myrtle]

Just out of interest, how long has he been in the bag? If he's been in there for a good few hour I would have thought the oxygen levels will be quite low by now! How are you oxygenating the water that the fm is in?

 

[drufly]

will all attempts have failed for the lil fella, rip.

More probs. checked my stats today when i got home from wrk 920mins ago)
Ammonia 0
nitrite 0
ph still off the scale.

As i came through the door tonight the missus says, your lobster is still eating that fish that died. But i removed him i replied.#
Checked around the tank and i now only have 2 out of the 4 fm's i orignally purchased.

Is it normal for fm's to hang around the bottom?

Seriously considering removing the lobster at least until the remainder of the fm's grow bigger.

 

[mrs biffster]

Out of interest what do you use as a substrate?

 

[drufly]

Its ordinary plain play sand from toys r us. Its been in the tank for over a year now. It did look nice until the lobster decided to move a hell of a lot of it.

 

[mrs biffster]

What is your ph out of your tap?

 

[drufly]

Ok i just checked the water tests again after leaving them for 30 min the nitrite is reading 1.0 so a water change is being done atm. the rest are fine.

The last 2 fm's have started flicking off the plants and rocks, this only started today.

The tap water is around 7.2

 

[RustedKnight]

Oh dear.. sorry to hear about the fish, and it also sounds like your lobster is being predatory.

And no I don't think its normal for them to hang around the bottom, but I could be wrong.

 

[drufly]

This tank is really starting to annoy me now. I have had problems for months, with dying fish, fighting and other things. Seriously thinking of empting the whole thing and starting again, maybe a spiecies tank or koi's