Very bad sickness

Question
QUESTION: Hi! You've answered a question for me before! (sorry to keep bugging you) I have two questions the first being more important. I used to have two electric blue ahlis an oscar and a sucker fish (pleco. . .something I can't spell it) But two days ago, I come home to find my male ahli on his back on the bottom of his tank with white blotches all over. He was fine the day before. So I put him in a seperate hospital tank, he died during the night. So I descided to investigate b/c the oscar (O'malley) that lived with him is my pride and joy (my baby!) and I lift up a huge (fake) plant that the male ahli always hid behind. And it looked like some one spit a loogie in the tank, there was a patch on the gravel that just looked like mucus. I've never seen anything like it. I scooped it all out I think it was fungus. I cleaned the tank with the phyphon (I misspelled that) But this morning I realize that there is a part on O'malley where the color is faded behind the gills as though it's turning white. I removed all the plants that were in the tank. I really don't know what to do. I'm so scared. I aksed the local pet store and they said it might be fungus or a parisite so I got the medication for the tank. And I've been treating it since the ahli died. But I wanted an expert opinion.

Less important:
Also I wanted to ask about my fish acting funny since my ahli's death. Both my female ahli and my oscar have darkened their color since sparky (male ahli) died. It almost looks like they are morning him. (its so sad) Also Espoir and Sparky (ahlis) were a breeding pair. But when Sparky was alive she was a lighter color grey and had blue on her on some areas but now that sparky has died she lost that blue color and has gotton stripes of darker grey on her which looks like my oscar's pattern. Is this normal?


ANSWER: Hi April,
  Have you been using a gravel siphon when you do your weekly partial water changes?  If not, you should.  

  The darker patterning on the other fish is a "fright" pattern and indicates that all is not well (it isn't mourning).  First, you should change 25% of the water immediately and then you should do that again tommorrow, and possibly a third day.  I suspect they will perk up a bit.  

 When you say that Espoir and Sparky were a breeding pair, did they ever have any kids?  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


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

QUESTION: According to the pet store they had several. . .litters? Babies I guess. But I siphon every other week, if not every week. They did get a little lighter. And I'm going to piphon it out tommorow. I'm afraid that if I siphon to much it could stress them out. My oscar hates it. Everytime I go to even start siphoning he turns on his side and turns black. And right after my ahli died, I did a 30% water change.

Answer
HI April,
 It really isn't possible to siphon too often.  You can siphon too much at one time -- you should only take out a maximum of about 50% of the water at once, 25% is a better amount.  But you can do that every day and it won't hurt the fish, in fact, it is better for them.  Most people go with one 25% water change, once a week.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>