My poor Afra Cobwe

[cpfc]

Is that nitrate or nitrite that has spiked? As you probably know nitrite at 0.5 is cause to troubleshoot and nitrate at 5 would be an achievement for me. It is tyipically around 10. Prime does not do anything for nitrate.

pH is probably another issue and to troubleshoot look at KH.

PH: 7.8 (A little low)

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 0ppm

Nitrite: .5ppm (This has spiked)

KH: 75ppm

I have added some Prime to deal with the nitrate spike temporarily while I do a water change.

[intern1]

glad you got her outta there now.

great looking tank...buggered if i can see 45 fish in there ! can you take a pic of the tank with the fish visible. would be great to see.

Thanks Chris,

the tank photo of the tank was taken in the early days. Here is a more recent video of the tank:

Josh

Looking at the tank I still would be adding alot more hidding places, in your tank you have some of the most agressive mbunas so if there are females in the tank there will be massive fights.

Like Dobbin said cause the damage is so far up the tail this may effect the fishes swimming mechanics and lead to further bulllying, thats why more hidding spaces and re-arranging the tank slightly when new fish are being introduced is important so you brake down territories and fish will concetrate on building terroties not bullying fish

Are you adding salts and buffers into the tank???

In terms of water change make sure it is the same ph Kh and temp as the tank and i would be doing 10-15% max WC in winter to prevent white spot

John

[noxious_nasties]

In my opinion (and actual experience) that is caused by bullying. I have

actually recovered a fish from a somewhat worse state but the tail was too

badly injured to recover properly so it now has a deformed tail. When you leave

it in the tank like that (or don't realise the damage until it gets quite bad)

the fish will only get worse and worse and will eventually probably end up dead

or diseased. Whenever damage like that happens, ideally it would be best to

isolate the fish ASAP unless there is suitable locations where it can isolate itself

in the tank (which is hard to tell until a situation like yours happens). Now however

you know to keep an eye out if the situation happens again.

You should not give up hope, and all you need to do is find somewhere you

can put it where it is on its own (in another tank) or make a icecream container

style chamber for it to recover in. I don't believe however, that if you do

manage to help it heal that the tail will be-able to develop properly since the

damage is quite close to the body now. Goodluck.

John

[cpfc]

Is that a nitrate or nitrite spike? Nitrate at 5 is harmless. Nitrite at 0.5 needs troubleshooting and indicates an issue with bio filtration. You may know that already.

I have recently removed two fish that were being bullied and heading the way of your female Afra. I also recently had a death when I introduced a murdering Saulosi. The Saulosi was exiled back where he came from. Getting the balance right is hard and I have noticed the fish getting feistier and intolerant when a shag is on the cards.

From watching your video I can see you have a great setup. Unfortunately there do not appear to be caves where fish can escape aggro. There are lots of swim throughs which the fish like. I have heard some say one cave per fish. I am still experimenting with rearrangements. My latest attempts are two piles of rocks and a thick patch of vall. Having two piles means one fish has to spend a lot more effort trying to annex the lot. The vall acts as a good refuge and hopefully with rock placements the fish will not keep on digging it up.

PH: 7.8 (A little low)

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 0ppm

Nitrite: .5ppm (This has spiked)

KH: 75ppm

I have added some Prime to deal with the nitrate spike temporarily while I do a water change.

Josh