Jewel Cichlid turned very sick overnight

Question
QUESTION: Hi Lynda,
Where to begin . . . I have a 55 gal tank; occupants are 3 tiger barbs, 3 albino tiger barbs, 1 rainbow shark, 1 raphael catfish, 2 glass barbs, 1 peacock cichlid, and a breeding pair of jewel cichlids who are raising a batch of about 35-40 fry who are now 6 weeks old. When the jewels had babies, I installed a tank divider and they (both parents and babies) now occupy one half the tank, and all the other fish occupy the other side.  My water parameters are 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, 25-30ppm nitrates, neural ph.

I was just admiring how beautiful my male jewel cichlid was last night before going to bed. He has always maintained gorgeous red coloration and been very healthy. This morning when I got up to check the tank, he was at the surface, barely breathing, his mouth was totally red, looked like blood or something, and all of his fins were shredded, not like he'd been bitten, but just shredded like paper.  He looked like he was at death's door. As I write this, it's now late in the evening and I cannot believe he's even survived the day.  I have been online all day trying to diagnosis his condition and can't find anything that really fits him. His fins are not clamped, although they look shredded and his ventral fins are almost yellowish in color.  His scales are not protruding out and he is not showing any patches of fungus or ich spots.  He does not appear bloated and he is not gasping for air. He is just very lethargic and doesn't want to move unless he has to.  He just sits in one place.  His eyes however, are cloudy and definitely bulging.  The most disturbing thing about his appearance is that the area around his mouth is very red, almost bloody looking and I did notice a small red patch on one side of his belly.

Aquarium maintenance includes 20-30% water changes twice a week since the babies have come along, whereas prior to their arrival, I did the changes once a week.  I thoroughly vacuum gravel on both sides of the tank. I always replace filters one at a time, several weeks apart, and sometimes just rinse them out and reuse them, to preserve the good bacteria.  I have brownish algae beginning to grow on the sides of the tank and I scrape that off on the side of the tank where the community fish are located. I have allowed it to build-up on the jewel's side simply because they get very angry when I try to scrape it off.  I know that in the last several weeks I've been over-feeding because I feed the babies 2 to 3 times a day with a turkey baster (ground up flakes or dried brine shrimp) so that's why I increased water changes from once a week to twice a week.  

When I found daddy jewel this morning, I immediately did a 50% water change.  Then I decided to move him out of the tank because the female jewel would occasionally harass him. I also have a 5gal with 5 harlequin rasboras and an apple snail. I would not normally put a cichlid in with these guys but my jewel is not much of a threat to them right now (except maybe for any fungus or infection he might have!). He's now in the 5 gal, where I also performed a 75% water change and I added about 1 tsp of Melafix a few hours ago.  When I went to feed the rasboras, I put a very small amount of flakes in and while he didn't go to the surface to actively seek them out, when some flew past him, he did eat them. His color does seem to be very slightly returning, although I'm not sure if it's just wishful thinking on my part.  

I am now observing my main tank wondering if I have some kind of disease in there and also wondering if I should go ahead and treat the main tank with some Melafix also. I have never used any medications on my fish and also, because I have the babies in there, I am not sure if it is safe to treat this tank. I should also tell you that 3 days prior to this, I had a male glass barb die in the main tank for seemingly no reason. I found him tangled up in some plastic plants and when I observed his body, he was not disfigured or diseased-looking in any way. I surmised that he must have become tangled in the plants and his death was just a tragic accident.  But now I am beginning to wonder if it might be possible that I have a disease in my tank and I can't see it yet. I have also noticed that some of my barbs fins look a little "ragged", not red like with fin rot, but just ragged. I don't know how else to describe it.  Also, one of them seems to be "listing" to one side just very slightly. Besides that, none of the fish have red fins, they are not gasping for air, hanging out at the surface, showing ich spots, or any other classic symptoms of disease that I can tell. In fact, they all "look" very healthy and their coloration is great.  I spent some time observing the mama jewel fish and the babies, looking for unusual behavior or signs of illness, and didn't come up with much. Mama jewel is not as colorful as daddy is but she does appear a little on the "brown" side. Also, I did observe some of the baby jewels "brushing" on some gravel at the bottom of the tank, but it was hard to tell if they were really brushing or just looking for food in the gravel.  

I am completely stumped as to what could have put this one fish into such a terrible state seemingly overnight.  Should I treat my whole tank with the Melafix in the hopes of warding off some unseen illness in my tank or could this cause more harm? Also, I am wondering if any of this might have to do with aeration in the tank. I have two filters on the tank, one is a Penguin Biowheel 150, the other a TopFin 60g.  The Penguin does produce bubbles splashing into the water but I have been keeping the TopFin 60 turned down since I have lost some babies into it. Although, today I turned it back on full strength and the babies are now strong enough to resist the intake.  Another possibility: I have an old live plant in this tank that does grow, but it's not very healthy since this tank doesn't have optimal lighting for plants. Some of the leaves are rotting and I'm now questioning whether this might have a role. I'm sorry this is so long but I want to give you as much detail as I possibly can so you have a complete picture. I've had this tank up and running for about 2 1/2 months now. I transferred everything over from a 26g tank and this one never went through a cycle because I tranfsered over all of the old tank. Then I had babies a few weeks later and assumed that I must be keeping a good tank.  So this has me completely stumped.  When I do my water changes every 3 days or so, I always do a thorough gravel vac.  Is it possible to vacuum the gravel too much?  Just wondering.  I desperately want to save my daddy jewel and also now I'm afraid that the other fish may be coming down with something. I check my water parameters at least once a week and so far, I haven't noticed anything unsafe other than the nitrates are a little higher than I would normally prefer them to be.  Any advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for your patience with my long post.  
Shana



ANSWER: Hi Shana,
I understand how worried you must be.  First, I would get rid of your rotting plant in the aquarium.  
Your fish as fin, and tail rot.  Red patches on a fish usually indicate flukes.  Over crowded tanks are one of the causes.  Stress, poor diet are also a cause for fish getting sick.  When breeding a pair of jewels, they should have their own aquarium.  25 gallons of water is not enough for them.  They should have at least a 40 gallon tank all to themselves.  When they have their fry, they need more oxygen, even if the fry are small.  I have breed this beautiful cichlid in a 50 gallon tank with a 500 Aquaclear filter.  I wrap the arm with a cut up piece of white nylons, and never had a problem.  The fry are very strong, and the parents take good care of them.  I do water changes everyday of 10%, and feed the fry baby brine shrimp 4 times a day in the beginning, then crush up good quality food like powder, and vary their food.   The parents do dig holes in the gravel, and transport their young from place to place.  The gravel should be very clean.  
What you are describing is very rare. In a well established tank, and good diet this rarely happens.  Fish should be fed many different quality foods to make sure are getting all the right vitamins, and calcium.  
I would put him back in the aquarium with his fry, and treat the aquarium with coppersafe, and maracyn-two.  Putting him in a 5 gallon tank is only making matters worse for him.  Since his fins are ragged, and you have lost a fish, and other fish seem ragged too, the disease is now in your tank.  You will have to treat all of your tank.
I'm sorry this has happened, and know how you must feel.  Remove your carbon, and treat them as soon as possible.
I hope they all pull through.
Lynda


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Wow, I couldn't be more shocked and saddened.  I actually had the jewels with their babies in a separate tank several weeks back. I put them back in the 55g when it appeared that they weren't doing well in the new tank. I was afraid of a cycle killing them all off and thought they would be happier in an already established tank. I feel like someone just punched me in the stomach.  Should I set up the other tank again and transfer them back over to it? It's only a 26gal tank.  I am also really upset because the LFS told me that everything I was doing was perfect. In fact, they told me I was changing the water too frequently but I disregarded that and have continued with more water changes.

I am also feeling very frustrated because I have been feeding my fish a varied diet consisting of frozen brine shrimp, blood worms, spirulina, discs, cichlid pellets, and also occasionally peas and thought that was a good thing. As far as feeding the babies, I was told that all they could eat was crushed flakes and crushed up freeze-dried brine shrimp.

When you say to remove my carbon, what does that mean?  Am I supposed to take my filters out of my tank? I thought I was doing so well and now it seems that I'm in the middle of a serious disaster and could lose every fish I have, in both tanks.  I feel sick right now and panicked.  Should I move the jewels to a new tank right away?  I am going to get the Coppersafe and Maracyn-two that you recommended but should I use the Melafix as well or discontinue that? Finally, since I have moved the male jewel to the 5gal, should I treat that tank now, too and if so, will the medicine hurt my apple snail?

ANSWER: Hi Kristin,
You cannot move them now unless you have a tank that has cycled.  A tank must cycle.  This means that you must let the water run for almost three weeks with nothing it it before adding fish, and when you do add fish, this must be done slowly.  If you do decide to put your couple into another tank, that tank must have the right chemistry, which means, no ammonia, no nitrites, and nitrates should be very low.  Adding a used sponge to your filter, will help bring the right bacteria to your tank.  (Never wash a sponge under hot water when cleaning your filter, always rinse it in the water you have removed from your tank.)  Rinsing the sponge in hot water will kill all of your good bacteria.  You did well to put them in an established tank.  What they need is an established tank of their own.  This does not happen overnight.  A tank must be well established, with good chemistry for fish to be happy, and well.  You are feeding them good food, there is no worry for your fry.  I always start them off with baby brine shrimp for the first week, and slowly put them on dry foods like you are doing now, crushed like powder.  They grow very fast, and soon they can eat flakes the parents eat.  Water in tanks should be changed once a week of 25%, but when we have fry, then we must remove 10% of the water everyday as uneaten food fall to the bottom, and will rot along with fish waste.  This brings the ammonia level up, and this is the number one killer of fish.  You can buy these test kits at your pet store, and they should be number one in your fish cabinet.  Always make sure that your ammonia level is zero, your nitrite level, zero, and that your nitrates are safe.
Do not panic, I would put the jewel back into your tank with his fry.  I would make sure there is no ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates in that water, then I would treat that tank.  The medication could kill your apple snail.  I wouldn't do that.  I would put the jewel back into the 55 gallon tank, and treat the tank, but before you treat, make sure that your water chemistry is perfect.
When I say remove the carbon, I mean in most filters there is a bag of carbon. This has to be removed or it will remove the medication from your tank.  I have aquaclear filters, epheim, and fluval...all others I know nothing about...so I can't help you with them if they are different than the ones I mentioned.
You are doing well with the food you are feeding them, but be careful not to overfeed the parents.
Keep me posted, on how they are doing.
Lynda

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Lynda,
Update on my situation: I followed your advice regarding the meds. I'm on day 4 of MII as well as 1 treatment of Coppersafe. After 4 days of this treatment, along with daily water changes of about 30 to 40%, my male jewel has made a miraculous recovery and although he lost almost all of his fins, they are all growing back already. The pop eye and septicemia are all gone and he has his healthy red glow and appetite back. He's back to guarding his babies again.

One thing that did not work however, was initially putting him back in with his babies. The female jewel vehemently rejected him and chased him mercilessly around the tank. I watched for about 10 minutes hoping things would calm down but that was my limit and I made the tough decision to remover her from that side of the tank. The daddy jewel was in no condition to handle any more stress and that was really the last safe place to put him, so I took the female out and put her on the other side of the divider with the community fish.  She was pretty upset for a day or two and I felt terrible about it, but it was certain that she would have killed the male if I had done nothing. I feel like I made the right choice because my male is now recovering happily.

However, the disease is running its course now through the rest of the tank inhabitants and they don't seem to be responding to the treatment the way he did. So far, the female jewel is not showing any symptoms, but my male peacock cichlid and 6 tiger barbs all are.  My medication regimen has consisted of 1 dose of Coppersafe (good for one month) and I started a round of MII 4 days ago so I'm on day 5 now. My pkg says to do the initial larger dose on day 1 and then treat in smaller does for 5 days after that, so that would make it a 6 day cycle. However, my tiger barbs (6 regular and 6 albino) are all displaying very frayed fins and red streaks at the tips of their tail fins. I lost one albino this morning. They are swimming about frantically and just look miserable. I am wondering why they don't seem to be responding to the meds the way the male jewel did. Is it possible that they could have something else? It looks like fin and tail rot to me and supposedly the MII and Coppersafe both treat that condition. Do I just need to be patient and let it run its course, or should I treat with regular Maracyn simultaneously? I'm afraid of over-medicating, esp. since my jewel is recovering and I also have about 35-40 fry (6 weeks old) in the tank, too. I've also been doing daily doses of Melafix. I've been keeping a close eye on my water parameters and they are all reading perfectly (no ammonia, no nitrites, extremely low to no nitrates) with the exception that my ph could be just slightly on the low side. (I test my water weekly, and always have, that's why I felt blind-sided when this came on so quickly).  Also, since this incident, I've bumped up my maintenance to doing daily water changes of about 30%. I'm also wondering if that's good since I believe that this all started from lack of water changes since my tank is so over-crowded at the moment due to the fry. Am I reducing the effectiveness of the meds by doing the water changes and since my tank doesn't seem to be cycling should I hold off on water changes until I'm done treating? Just wondering if you have any suggestions as to what to do from here and if you've ever used all of these products in conjunction with each other. I really don't want to lose any more of my barbs as I've had them for a long time. Help if you can and again, thanks so much for taking the time to do this and offer support. I really appreciate it. My LFS store (manager in the fish dept) told me to let them all die if you can believe that!
Also, I have the 30g up and running for about 4 days now. I'm going to use some small fish from the store to start cycling it and hope that once it's finished I can move the fry over to that in about a month.  In the meantime, I'm just trying to work with what I have.
Shana (not Kristin!)

Answer
Hi Kristen,
Your Jewel is recovering, and water changes are good, but not 30% every day.  This removes the medication.  You are in a rut as you must do water changes for the fry, but now that they are over one month old, do water changes every second day of 10%.  The main thing is that your ammonia, nitrites are zero, and nitrates are low.  30% water changes is too much for your other fish.  Keep up the medication.  It surprises me that your female jewel acted this way towards the male, and it's a shame that you had to remove her...I'm just wondering why you didn't put the male with the others instead of the female, on the other side of the tank, seeing as they are all in medication.  I wouldn't have removed her, but you could try her again with the fry, and the male.  It seems so sad that she was removed.  
I hope that they all pull through, your fry are okay, and the parents are well, your only worry now is your tiger barbs.  They should be getting better, keep up the medication, there is nothing else you can do for the moment as changing medication could only make matters worse.  You have to be patient, and hope that they will all be better soon.
In your new tank, let it run with no fish in it.  Buy a used sponge to help bring good bacteria into the water.  Putting fish in the new tank now, is not recommended.  No fish should have to go through this.  Keeping fish, is patience, and it is better to let your tank cycle with no fish in it.
I hope they all get well soon.
Lynda