poor little guy

Question
Thank you so much for taking the time out of what I know has to be a busy schedule to help me in all of this!  Im gonna continue with the water changes {i missed 2day though}:{ until this hopefully goes away.  I did freeze the little guy so that when I go back to the retailer I can find out exactly what he was and when I find out Ill let you know what species he was...just because I guess.  Once again thanks and talk to ya soon.
Jay
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Followup To

Question -
Hey Karen how are ya?  Well I guess everything I did wasnt enough, the little loner died yesterday.  He was pale almost all silver for the last few days and yesterday I noticed he was at the bottom in full color.  Any reason he colored back up once he died?  The ammonia seems to be lowering {0.25ppm, one color up from zero} with the water changes but some fish still rub their gills on the rocks.  Someone mentioned to get an anti fluke medicine because it sounded like fluke...would you recommend me treating for a little bit for fluke?  Thanks for all the help!!
Jay

Answer -
Dear Jay,
Poor thing! He could have had an illness you weren't aware of. It's so hard when a fish behaves as he did and it's impossible to know what is wrong. He could have been extra sensitive to the ammonia levels also. I'm not sure why he would have colored up before he perished. That is really odd. I sure wish we could have known exactly what had caused him to behave so depressed. But like I said it could have been the ammonia being present. Some (and actually most) do not tolerate ammonia levels even at trace amounts.

I wouldn't treat for gill flukes just yet. But a good hunch who ever said that.
Poor water quality can certainly make fish scratch themselves. So your best bet through all of this is continue doing large water changes and monitering the ammonia levels throughout. With time and patience, your aquarium should cycle very soon and all will be well.

Only my very best wishes,
*Long live the little loner fish*
Karen~

Answer
Hi Jay,
It's good that you froze the poor little cichlid. Maybe now the petstore can indentify him for you and you can learn more about what he was.

Keep up with your water changes and things should be straightened out soon.

Best wishes,
Karen~ you're welcome!