red devil

Question
my 3 year old red devil recently started losing colour, gulping and she lost her appetite.we were feedin her pellets and bloodworm daily but my partner catches feeder fish and small cray fish for her evey couple of weeks, which she normally smashes straight away but she wasnt even interested in them! we checked the water ph and everything seemed to be fine- we have had a problem with the ph previously but that was all fixed a while ago. she ended up dying this morning but im just wondering if you can give me some idea of what may have went wrong so it doesnt happen again. thanks

Answer
Hi Nicola,
 Unfortunately it is pretty much impossible for me to say what happened.  I can tell you that unless the pH changed wildly, e.g., went from 8 to 4 or something like that, it is unlikely to be related to the death.  Red devils can tolerate a wide range of pH (and other water conditions).  
 Sadly the most likely culprit would be the feeder fish. They often carry diseases.

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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