Alright, time for an update:
First, some good news - my smallest fish, the runt I’ve been worrying about off and on, has bounced back again. He’s definitely the low man on the totem pole of the tank, but he’s swimming around jostling for food now with the rest of them. No more discoloration and heavy breathing under a rock.
Since the tragic loss of Homer, I’ve implemented some changes. I’ve realized my KH and GH were crashing due to a springtime change in my well water due to melt. While the African cichlid substrate and stones were buffering it upwards throughout the week, I’m guessing those weekly fluctuations were what was causing the stress symptoms.
I’ve very slowly dosed the tank with Cichlid Lake Salt and Malawi Buffer to get back to where my numbers were in the summer: 8.2 PH, 13 GH, 10 KH. This is the result of (over time) approximately 7 tablespoons of Malawi Buffer and 4 tablespoons of Lake Salt. On my next 25% water change, I will slowly replace 25% of that amount of salts throughout the change - measuring my levels before and afterwards.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but my 4 remaining fish seem much happier at these parameters. They are F1s, so perhaps they are use to the harder water. I wish I made the change when I noticed the first fish starting to flash a few months ago.
As for these four, there are two approximately the same size - around 3.5 inches; and the smaller ones are 2.5 and 2 inches respectively. Extremely slow growers! My mother visited today and asked if they’ve grown at all since I got them back in August. Is this normal? I know they have grown - but so slow.
They seem to be getting along for now, so I might avoid adding some more juveniles at the moment. Ideally, I’d like to wind up with 1-2 males and 4 females. So depending on how things shake out, I might just procure 2-3 sexed females sometime down the road. I could be convinced out of this, though, as I’ve been mulling over ordering another 4 juveniles for the Spring. The only problem is that if I wound up with too many males I’d need somewhere to unload them, and I live rurally.
And some images for your viewing pleasure:
First, some good news - my smallest fish, the runt I’ve been worrying about off and on, has bounced back again. He’s definitely the low man on the totem pole of the tank, but he’s swimming around jostling for food now with the rest of them. No more discoloration and heavy breathing under a rock.
Since the tragic loss of Homer, I’ve implemented some changes. I’ve realized my KH and GH were crashing due to a springtime change in my well water due to melt. While the African cichlid substrate and stones were buffering it upwards throughout the week, I’m guessing those weekly fluctuations were what was causing the stress symptoms.
I’ve very slowly dosed the tank with Cichlid Lake Salt and Malawi Buffer to get back to where my numbers were in the summer: 8.2 PH, 13 GH, 10 KH. This is the result of (over time) approximately 7 tablespoons of Malawi Buffer and 4 tablespoons of Lake Salt. On my next 25% water change, I will slowly replace 25% of that amount of salts throughout the change - measuring my levels before and afterwards.
Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but my 4 remaining fish seem much happier at these parameters. They are F1s, so perhaps they are use to the harder water. I wish I made the change when I noticed the first fish starting to flash a few months ago.
As for these four, there are two approximately the same size - around 3.5 inches; and the smaller ones are 2.5 and 2 inches respectively. Extremely slow growers! My mother visited today and asked if they’ve grown at all since I got them back in August. Is this normal? I know they have grown - but so slow.
They seem to be getting along for now, so I might avoid adding some more juveniles at the moment. Ideally, I’d like to wind up with 1-2 males and 4 females. So depending on how things shake out, I might just procure 2-3 sexed females sometime down the road. I could be convinced out of this, though, as I’ve been mulling over ordering another 4 juveniles for the Spring. The only problem is that if I wound up with too many males I’d need somewhere to unload them, and I live rurally.
And some images for your viewing pleasure:
