sick manguensie cichlid

Question
I have had this fish over a year and he has never been sick. the same day that i put a plecotomus in the tank he started laying on his side i thought he was just not used to the new fish. then he started showing white spots i added pima fix to his tank and took out the filter. over the weekend he got alot worse i was told that he had eye cloud and bought furan 2 and treated his 55 gal tank. this morning he looked like he was improving but now he is laying upside down barely able to breathe. i love this fish what can i do?

Answer
Good evening Rose, thank you for your question.

The biological filter has been damaged in your tank due to the medication. What you need to do is perform some water changes ASAP to bring ammonia and nitrites down. Acquire a test kit so that you can keep track of ammonia and nitrite levels. Right off the bat, you should do a 50% water change.

The plecostomus could have been carrying ich, but it also could be a coincidence - the ich protozoans are always present in your system, it just takes stress to cause them to surface. My guess is that the plecostomus added to the waste load of your tank and caused an ammonia spike, especially if this is a fairly large specimen.

Your water is going to have to be kept very clean, and you will have to keep monitoring ammonia and nitrite levels. The upside down, laying on his side behavior is all a product of ammonia and/or nitrite poisoning, so water changes are going to be your best friend. Perform those daily water changes and monitoring of the water quality, and hopefully you will begin to see improvement. Add 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt per 10 gallons if you haven't already, that may help.

When you are done medicating, you may want to purchase some Bio-Spira. Add it to your tank to instantly restore the beneficial bacteria colonies and "re-cycle" your tank.

Good luck to you, and feel free to write again.
Nicole