Sick Parrot

Question
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Followup To
Question -
Hi Cris,

Thank you so much for your wonderful answer. I have changed 10% water on Thursday (I forgot that you said 25%) and 25% water on Friday. I only put the salt and Mefafix medecine in yesterday Friday because I let the tank ran without the white carbon for 24 hours according to the Petsmart employee.

According to you I have to put salt and Melafix in for 7 days, right? what about changing 25% water? And the salt made a film on the glass, is there a way to get rid of it? The water is greenish and cloudish.

The fishes are doing much better, the one who is sick is back to being alive. The bulging flesh is still there but look healing. I bought a heater and a thermometer.

Do I have to put the white carbon back in? Do you know where to buy fish supplies more economically. Can I add more fishes to the tank?

Thank you for your help. Please make this public as I don't know how to.

Wei Martell

Answer
Hi Wei;

You are doing a great job in getting them taken care of and back on the road to health! They should recover just fine and you will be able to enjoy each other for years to come.

You only need to add salt to the entire tank one time. If you have added more than the original amount of salt by mistake, just wait for 2 or 3 water changes before adding any more again. The salt stays in there until you make a water change and it comes out with the water. When you make a water change, only add salt for the quantity of water replaced. For instance, if you replace 10 gallons of water treat only the 10 gallons of water with 10 teaspoons of salt. The salt residue will go away once you aren't adding it anymore and it goes away from regular maintenance water changes. Regular maintenance is 25% every week and vacuuming the gravel every 2 to 4 weeks.

The zeolite or "white carbon" is not something your fish really need all the time. It is used to remove ammonia and once the tank is settled down again it will be fine to remove it. Once everything gets back to normal the water will clear up again too. It may take a couple of weeks.

I think the two fish you have now are a big enough population for your 30 gallon. Cichlids are very messy guys. They also become territorial. They may not accept any other fish with them at their age and size. It might be possible to put in an algae eater like a smaller type of plecostamus. They don't usually bother fish like those guys. Definately do not get a regular plecostamus. They get over a foot long. Also avoid chinese algae eaters. They suck the sides of fish and can hurt them. Here is a web page on what the smaller varieties are like;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/charts/good_bad.html#dwarf-plecos

These are the kinds you DON'T want;
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pleco.htm
http://www.petresources.net/fish/cyprinid/gyr_aym.html

A comparison of several;
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/algae.htm#table
http://www.plecofanatics.com/

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins