Firemouth Cichlids dying

[duanes]

In their natural habitat, (the Yucatan, & Cenotes of Mexico) these Thoricthys are never found at a pH of below 7.5 (prefer pH 8), in hard, alkaline water and nitrate no more than 5 ppm. But...
As others have said they've been in the hobby long enough, and bred for so many generations in different conditions, so shouldn't be sensitive depending on what conditions they were bred in (I kept them in the pH 7.6, alkalinity 100ppm, as far back as 1960)
Then again, as also mentioned they do best in groups of their own kind, are mostly bluster and bluff, so can be easily intemidated by other more rough and tumble cichlid species.
Below the habitat I see them
If I were to keep them again, I wouldn't use a tank, any smaller than 6 ft, sand substrate, with no other cichlihs as tank mates (geograhically correct mollies, would be my choice) and do enough water changes to keep nitrates below 10 ppm

 

[OutbackJack]

7.6 pH would be fine for this species. Not a pH issue. Probably come from a fish farm in FL and raised in pH 8.0+
No need to get anal retentive with pH values and domestic strains of captive fish.



Do these fish go through a proper QT process, or straight from the LFS and into the tank?

I'm not even gonna lie, I only quarantine fish that I have my LFS order. When they come in, I'll put em in my spare ten gallon. (I have been extremely lucky, I reckon) Lol

Most of the fish I get from him are already in his tanks for days at a time so I figured if anything's wrong with them, it'll be showing by the time I get them lol I know

I'm thinking this isn't a PH level issue either.

 

[RD.]

Well, there you have it. And yeah, you’ve been lucky.

 

[OutbackJack]

In their natural habitat, (the Yucatan, & Cenotes of Mexico) these Thoricthys are never found at a pH of below 7.5 (prefer pH 8), in hard, alkaline water and nitrate no more than 5 ppm. But...
As others have said they've been in the hobby long enough, and bred for so many generations in different conditions, so shouldn't be sensitive depending on what conditions they were bred in (I kept them in the pH 7.6, alkalinity 100ppm, as far back as 1960)
Then again, as also mentioned they do best in groups of their own kind, are mostly bluster and bluff, so can be easily intemidated by other more rough and tumble cichlid species.
Below the habitat I see them
If I were to keep them again, I wouldn't use a tank, any smaller than 6 ft, sand substrate, with no other cichlihs as tank mates (geograhically correct mollies, would be my choice) and do enough water changes to keep nitrates below 10 ppm
View attachment 1552287View attachment 1552288

Thank you for your input, I really love how knowledgeable y'all are about this dang ole fish.

I try to stay on top of my maintenance because I really like my fish to be in a good environment. I hate seeing little critters treated badly.

I try to keep my fish with other equal temperament species and I really haven't had an issue with that. My Red Spotted Severum is my ten month old daughter's favorite fish so I can't let him get bullied lol

 

[RD.]

Sometimes the stress from simply netting, removing, bagging, and relocating a fish to a new and unfamiliar surrounding, can trigger enough stress to cause illness to surface. Not always with obvious symptoms.

 

[Milingu]

I don't think this is a pH issue or has something to do with bad quality or so. Thorichthys in general are difficult to add to an already existing hierarchy. They get very stressed and susceptible to all kind of germs that would normally not bother them.

 

[OutbackJack]

I don't think this is a pH issue or has something to do with bad quality or so. Thorichthys in general are difficult to add to an already existing hierarchy. They get very stressed and susceptible to all kind of germs that would normally not bother them.

I believe you're right, I've never had an issue with stress like this before. I've noticed they'll hide a good bit and it didn't alarm me because every other fish did that until they became comfortable.

Time for me to get another tank, I reckon

 

[OutbackJack]

Sometimes the stress from simply netting, removing, bagging, and relocating a fish to a new and unfamiliar surrounding, can trigger enough stress to cause illness to surface. Not always with obvious symptoms.

I didn't think about that. My apologies, guess that's what you call an oversight.

 

[duanes]

QTing isn't simp[ly about diseases new fish bring in from outside.
It can be about something your already established fish have built up an immunity to, but that new fish (already under stress) are suseptable to.
What type fish , and how many are in your established tank? How big is the tank?

 

[OutbackJack]

QTing isn't simp[ly about diseases new fish bring in from outside.
It can be about something your already established fish have built up an immunity to, but that new fish (already under stress) are suseptable to.
What type fish , and how many are in your established tank? How big is the tank?

It's a 150G, 1 Red Spotted Severum, 2 EBAs, 2 Keyhole Cichlids, 2 SAEs, 2 Otos, and two Burmese Upside Down Catfish. All bought from the same LFS. I feel a little ashamed I hadn't read more into QTing.