Home

Why does a Cichlid stop eating?

Sun, 08/15/2010 - 17:10 — Lisa Duggan

We inherited a Parrot Cichlid last summer - my 7 y.o. named her Happy. (We don't know if she's male or female, we think female because she moves rocks&creates walls.) She's alone in a 15 gallon tank.
She won't eat for the last three or four days; we changed the entire tank of water, balanced the PH, opened a new can of food - she's breathing, moving, but still won't eat. She's also got a white patch on one side now.
Any help would be appreciated.

Comments

Mon, 08/16/2010 - 00:22 — parrotpal

Re: Not eating

Regardless of if it is the cause of her lack of appetite, your BP needs at least 30 gallons of water. Has she laid eggs in the past year? If not, it is probably a male.

You should be doing a water change AT LEAST biweekly, but weekly is better. Just doing a 25% change will save you time and is much better for your fish. You should also be trying to keep a constat temperature in the tank, somewhere around 78 degrees.

BPs have the ability to become constipated, and several people on this forum have suggested peas as a natural laxative for the fish. Let frozen peas thaw, shell them and cut them into bite-size pieces for your fish. That may help with your problem. It's likely the white patch could be from an injury; even rubbing on the rocks too hard could do that. Unless it looks fuzzy or like a granule, I wouldn't think it was a disease.

Good luck!

Mon, 08/16/2010 - 00:04 — Lisa Duggan

Response

Thank you for the help.

We were starting to fell like the tank was too small for her. But the loss of appetite is sudden - not gradual - so I doubt the tank size is the issue.

We don't know how old the fish is. We've had her about 1 year. But we got her when her previous owner died and we just don't know. She is probably five inches nose to tail if that tells you anything about her age.

We didn't know that changing all the water at once was a bad thing - we've done it that way about once a month for a year and she tolerated it.

Earlier this week the fish was really acting bad. Not eating. Hovering near the bottom of the tank in a corner and not really responsive. I replaced 1/2 of the water and she seemed a little peppier but still wouldn't eat. So on Saturday I completely cleaned the tank and replaced all the water.

Since the tank was cleaned her behavior is better - she is not cowering at the bottom of the tank. She is near the top mostly and more responsive to people entering the room, etc. Just not eating.

Water temp is 78 - we just let the tank be at room temperature - so we had a hot week last week so the temp could probably have gone to low 80s.

Food is tetramin pro tropical crisps. I think we were giving her some other Tetramin flakes but she wasn't eating so we've been trying this.

The patches look like the pigment in the skin is missing. She is orange to varying degrees - sometimes she even looks "fllushed" in the cheeks. These new white patches just look like the opposite - like she is pale from lack of food or illness.

I'll upload a picture momentarily.

Sun, 08/15/2010 - 23:08 — FishLuver6088

RE

a BP needs at least 30gallon of water. If you want her to eat you could try to get blood worms frozen or freeze dried are fine and if she doesnt eat that then i would say the white stuff is a disease.

Sun, 08/15/2010 - 17:41 — v_2rahjo

Need the following details -

Need the following details -

1> how old is the BP?
2> Is it white patches or white grains?
3> What is the water temp?
4> What food are you feeding?

Possible caused

1> 15 Gs is too less for a BP
2> Never change the entire water of the tank.. al ways do a 25% water change every week
3> CLean the filters with the water from from the tank

Please post a photo so that we can see what the white patches look like

COuld be a fungus infection as well... need photos to be exact