My first dead fish - wth? :(

[akfa]

Hey guys, I came home to some crappy news today. I got a tank with all cichlids + 1 pleco in it, and 2 of them are electric blues. I've had them for several months now and the 2 get along great, swim around all the time, two of my most active. But when I walked in the door today, on the side of the tank by my clay pot one of them was like swimming all weird and on his side and stuff, and I quickly grabbed a bowl and put some of my water in it and I netted him out (and he didnt even struggle at ALL vs the net, it was no problem AT ALL to get him out) and put him in the bowl to look at him. his fin on one side looked like it was deteriorating and so did come of the skin on the underside of his body, looked like it was diseased or something all weird colored. any info on this? all my other fish appear to be okay but who knows in the long run...any ideas or knowledge or anything anybody might know about? one fin was flapping but right now hes just in that bowl by himself upside down with one fin flapping, not even moving any other part of himself.

[eklikewhoa]

Sounds like he got a beat down.

[Brownsnoutuk]

Sounds like he got a beat down.

+1

[gotticgs]

+2

[akfa]

really..thats the last thing i thought just because i dont really see any of my fish mess with the electric blues, but it didnt have any signs of ich that i usually read about and none of the other fish have any problems.

[geoff_tropheus]

it would help if you could post a pic

[akfa]

it would help if you could post a pic

i would have but he died overnight and i dont have him anymore. i woke up in the middle of the night to check on him and he was dead.

[Darbex]

+3 to an old fashion fish beating

[CHK-Cichlids]

Sorry about your loss, but when aggression happens among mainganos it is sudden and very violent. I had a similar situation just a few weeks back. During a WC, the one of my sbdominant maingano was so beat up in a matter of minutes that when I found him, he was upside down, missing the tail fin, one pectoral fin and half of the dorsal. The right flank was raw with the scales ripped out and was all bleeding. However, this is how I managed to get the chap back to full health.

I found that these mbunas have superb survival ability. However, when found in this position, it is cirtical that it does not remain upside down, or it will definitely die overnight. I took a breeding container and jammed in java moss and wedged the fish upright so it would not turn over. For 2 whole days it it did not move at all but just stayed in the same position, breathing away. But the bleeding stopped and some whitish film covered over the raw area. On the third day, I took out some moss to see if the swim bladder has healed and it can stay upright. It could - but at an angle, but thats fine. I then moved it to the Q tank and added salt/malafix. After the week, it righted itself and began accepting food. The fins and scales grew back over a month.

This happened to 2 times and each time I was able to recover the fishes. The most important is to not let the fish remain upside down. It will try to keep struggling to get upright and doing so will aggravate any internal injuries past the point of recovery.

Sorry this could not help your fish... butthe next time round you can try and see if it works...