Red Jewels

I'm going to tell you my wonderful story and then explain my problem, so here goes....

Thursday I decided that I was going to do an extra good tank cleaning on my 29 gallon that houses a breeding pair of Red Jewels. They are the only residents. I had been having trouble with them being very shy after about two weeks of taking care of the babies, so I let the young grow out for a while and then moved the fry into one of my 55 gallon tanks. They still would not show their faces to me, and they are not in a high traffic area, so it made no sense. I figured a good tank cleaning and removal of the ten or so evasive fry, and they would be back to normal. I pulled all of the decor out of the tank and went out into the kitchen to start a bleach soak for my plastic plants. When I came back, I started scooping little fry one by one. Once they were all scooped, I realized that I couldn't find my male. I looked all over the tank, nothing. I started to panic. I looked inside one of the plastic logs, nothing. Then I just happen to look inside of my piece of driftwood and there he was. He had been out of water for at least 2-5 minutes. I immediately returned him to the tank, and to my surprise, he was still alive and is still doing okay today. I finished my cleaning and as I was returning the decor to the tank, I felt something slimy on one of my caves. I turned it around to find a bunch of eggs glued to the rear top side of the cave! They had been out of the water for ten minutes or more and they did not make it. Once everything was back in and I completed my clean, my Jewels were still shy and wouldn't show their faces. I left them go for the day because I figured that they had endured enough trauma for one day. This morning I was monitoring them and they still were not coming out, so I decided to put one of my misfit juvy Jack Dempseys in with them as a common enemy, hoping to draw them out. It worked for about 15 minutes as they beat him up and pushed him to the top of the tank, and then they went right back to being shy. I can't put any small dither fish in there to break up the tank because I believe that they will kill them. And the Jack is still in there, but is scared crapless and won't go near them. I really would like to see them once in a while, so if you guys can think up any solution, that would be awesome! I really need lots of suggestions and discussion on this one! HELP!

CSnyder00 wrote:

I'm going to tell you my wonderful story and then explain my problem, so here goes....

Thursday I decided that I was going to do an extra good tank cleaning on my 29 gallon that houses a breeding pair of Red Jewels. They are the only residents. I had been having trouble with them being very shy after about two weeks of taking care of the babies, so I let the young grow out for a while and then moved the fry into one of my 55 gallon tanks. They still would not show their faces to me, and they are not in a high traffic area, so it made no sense. I figured a good tank cleaning and removal of the ten or so evasive fry, and they would be back to normal. I pulled all of the decor out of the tank and went out into the kitchen to start a bleach soak for my plastic plants. When I came back, I started scooping little fry one by one. Once they were all scooped, I realized that I couldn't find my male. I looked all over the tank, nothing. I started to panic. I looked inside one of the plastic logs, nothing. Then I just happen to look inside of my piece of driftwood and there he was. He had been out of water for at least 2-5 minutes. I immediately returned him to the tank, and to my surprise, he was still alive and is still doing okay today. I finished my cleaning and as I was returning the decor to the tank, I felt something slimy on one of my caves. I turned it around to find a bunch of eggs glued to the rear top side of the cave! They had been out of the water for ten minutes or more and they did not make it. Once everything was back in and I completed my clean, my Jewels were still shy and wouldn't show their faces. I left them go for the day because I figured that they had endured enough trauma for one day. This morning I was monitoring them and they still were not coming out, so I decided to put one of my misfit juvy Jack Dempseys in with them as a common enemy, hoping to draw them out. It worked for about 15 minutes as they beat him up and pushed him to the top of the tank, and then they went right back to being shy. I can't put any small dither fish in there to break up the tank because I believe that they will kill them. And the Jack is still in there, but is scared crapless and won't go near them. I really would like to see them once in a while, so if you guys can think up any solution, that would be awesome! I really need lots of suggestions and discussion on this one! HELP!

**My Pink kissing gourami has been out of the water for at LEAST 36 hours. Still alive, beat that!

But back on topic, feed them some worms or anything alive. They will diff come out. Otherwise, you can just move the decor out and put a boring piece of slate rock on there

When pull the decor out they hid up underneath the filter. I've never tried live food. They won't even come out for bloodworms anymore and they used to go nutts for it. They won't eat with me around either. It's a bad case.

I would take out ALL of the other fish. Sign of EXTREME aggresiveness or EXTREME bullying.

What are the water parameters? pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and temp...... Before you started the tank cleaning did you know what the parameters were so you can compare.........Your fish seem to be exhibiting symptoms of something stressful.

Big water changes along with disturbing the general environment can shock fish.....Are you seeing rapid respiration (gill fluttering and gasping)?....Clamped fins or odd swimming?

No. I do weekly water changes. I didn't run water tests before or after. This week is the week I test. These are normal parameters for my tanks:

pH - 7.4-7.6
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 5-10
Temp - 76-79 degrees

They show no signs of labored breathing. There was no one in the tank but them and their 1/8th inch fry for over a month. It's not something simple.

Well, I guess it all turns out good in the end. I bough some Cichlid Stones as added cover and an easier guarded breeding ground and they were in breeding colors today with their ovipositors out. Looks like I will have fry over Christmas break!