brad is dying, please help

[finfan]

my pink convict male is dying i've had him since he was born and he is one of the most beautiful convicts i've ever seen, he's about 5" with a huge hump and is the dominant fish in the tank

all other fish in the tank including his wife angelina and their 47 babies (juvii 2" pink convicts) are doing fine, but he started hanging out on the water surface

i separated him in a hospital tank, he looks absolutely fine from outside, nothing on the body, but it looks like his stomach area is bigger than usual and the back part of his body is considerably thin, he is very weak and moves very slowly

i am not sure what is wrong with him and what i can do to cure him, at this point he looks pretty helpless, this happened all of a sudden, he was fine yesterday

[Somefishguy]

Really sorry to hear. Hope he bounces back

[fshfrk]

I had this happen with a chinese algea eater once. He puffed up double size. In a couple of weeks he was back to normal. Wish I could help.

[TaTeR ToT]

add epsom salt to the hospital tank, he might be constipated, i lost a male black convict to a Central american cichlids version of bloat.
same exact symptoms as your guy, cons have a vicous ppetite, and he might have eaten to big aof a hunk of food, and it didnt quite digesty all the way, epsom salt will help him expell whatever if anything is ailing him.
try this, if this doesnt work, i dont know, but def try it.

[finfan]

i don't know where to get epsom salt, i have aquarium salt, should i put that? how much epsom salt should i put in

[TaTeR ToT]

1 tablespoon per 5g of aqaurium volume. you can get it at any drugstore, walgreens or cvs.

[finfan]

thanks Earth, i did not get epsom salt (didn't see this note until later), but i did put some aquarium salt and his movements are a little better this morning when i left for work, he seems to have tad bit more energy, so hopefully thats a good sign

[jisatsuguy]

good call eartheater!! +1 on salt, + raise the tanks temp a couple degrees and use an airstone to provide extra aeration

[finfan]

satsu, the temp and airstone good idea, will do when i get home this evening, thanks

[CichlidFan]

I'm hoping Brad makes a full recovery....

CF

[eklikewhoa]

Make sure you do not over add the salt since water evaporates but salt does not.

[finfan]

thanks cf and ek, i will be mindful of the salt content, do you think it will be ok to do a water change and then add epsom salt or is the aquarium salt essentially similar enough to epsom?

[eklikewhoa]

Two different things.

do a water change... I would not exceed the total tank volume's est. dosage of salt combined.

[finfan]

understood, thanks

[CichlidFan]

So, how is Brad ?

CF