cichlid lathargic

Question
Hello, I have a 20 gal tank with a regular striped convict (female) and a Jelly bean parrot, which is a convict hybrid (male), and I'm sure you know that already. My question is the male convict for the past 3 weeks has become quite lethargic. He doesn't swim happily like he used to. He has been sitting in a cave we have in there for him and occasionally swims (low to the gravel) to the other cave, if bothered in the previous one. He also slowly tips over and sometimes is completely on his side. He has nothing on him, no abrasions, no symptoms of any illness i can see and we have done several water changes since he started this behavior. We have also fed him peas as I thought this was "swim bladder." Nothing has worked. He doesn't seem unhappy, he eats when the pellets sink down to his cave but will not swim for them. I am so confused as to what is wrong with my fish. I will explain that when his strange behavior started we did have babies in the tank (from the 2 convicts) for about 6 months (about 15 of them). That is when the male convict stopped coming out and swimming freely. We have since brought the babies to a pet store and we were hoping he would just bounce back but he is still acting weird. Please help! I don't know what to do to get him to swim freely again and also why is he tipping over? He has not gone upside down or swam erratically... he just slowly falls to his side and sometimes stabilizes himself with his fin. What should i do>? This has been going on for about 3 weeks now.

Answer
Hi Kristen,
  Actually jelly bean parrots are not convicts, nor convict hybrids. They are a manmade fish that derives more from red devils (another Central American cichlid).  Anyway, the tipping over behavior is very peculiar and definitely not a good thing.  "Swim bladder" is not a disease, rather a swim bladder is an organ in a fish in the same way that kidneys or liver are an organ, i.e., most fish have a swim bladder. That said, a fish can have problems with its swim bladder in the same way that it can have problems with its kidneys or heart.  When a fish has swim bladder problems, one of the first signs is the kind of tipping over behavior you are describing.  Sadly there really isn't anything that you can do about it as far as I know.   

-- Ron C.
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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