whats wrong with this guy ebjd

so i know about the water difrence with u guys and these fish they have been together in this tank for 5 months now and i had them all as babys all of the sudden this guy has been doing this for 2 weeks what is it can anyone tell me i havent done anything difrent and everyone is fine exept him he keeps acting like this sorry its so blurry camera sucks what can i do besides get a bigger tank im gonna sale some of the fish as they get bigger and i will split them up later when i move

i know when i took eggs from a female she did that. i took her out and dunked her with her face up about 5 times and she spit out a big air bubble. and she has been swimming fine since then.

do u recomend i do that i dont know of the sex sound weird but smart i guess thanks

you could try it. im not promissing anything. but its worth a shot. do it slowly though

Looks like his swim bladder is shot to me... Not sure what you can do about that... See if there are any meds that help swim bladders... There might be something on the market for it.... Looks like you may need to put him down if it gets any worse though.......

fern are u serious i like him hes one of my first cichlids i tried melafix these last 3 days ill see what happens fern whats the stuf i should look out for if i have to put him down how did it happen

The fish looks like it has been seriously harassed by the other fish.....It probably has a secondary internal bacterial infection....It should be isolated where it has peace and quiet. A dosage of Maracyn per the instructions may help the fish.....Pimafix and Melafix are very weak medicines and have very little effect on advanced fish ailments.....Even though many people believe that EBJDs and other SA Cichlids will live in higher pH and hard water they actually prefer moderately soft water with a pH under 7.5............Have you checked the ammonia level in the tank as it seems a bit crowded.

Ebjd should not be kept with African cichlids ever. They should be put in their own tank or kept with other fish less agresssive them them. They are not aggressive fish and stress out easy.

Swim bladder problems can be due to poor food and constapation or rough handleing durig shipping.a skinless pea can help a blocked fish. Or Epsom salt baths can work. Don't put him down because of a swim bladder thing.

I agree looking at you tank you have a lot of fish and most all the wrong tank mates for the ebjd and chance is your fish got beat up or stress out to the point where he got an infection.

Pit him in a qt tank and let him have some R&R with nothing but clean water for a few days. If he turns around and looks better good chance it was stress that caused it.

Try the 2 above things.... I just mentioned that you may need to put him down if he gets worse, IE; cant right himself at all and stops eating or goes belly up and stays that way. Try everything you can to save him.... but sometimes fish that are that bad don't come back, that's the only reason I mentioned it.

i will try to put him in a 10 gallon hospital tank the crazy thing about what two people mentioned is the harass but he actually is a dominant fish in the tank i had him since he was 2 inches and now is 4 1/2 hes pretty big and he eats just fine hes the first to eat at all times the p.h is actually 7.6 at the moment and always has been all people say difrent things on the fish keeping but i have no fatalities or hard breathing in the tank i do a water change every two weeks 30% and once a month a 45% let me know if thats fine he acts like hes fine just flips out all of the sudden my amonia reads 2 ppm and my fish are kept at 80degrees ferenheight

The 3ppm ammonia is toxic to fish......Start doing every other day water changes of about 15%.....Use Prime water conditioner to detoxify the chloramines, ammonia and nitrites........Put a half dose of Prime in the tank between the every other day water changes to detoxify the ammonia still in the tank....This will buy time while the beneficial bacteria catch up with the fish waste.

its actually 2ppm but i will try this im moving next month i bought a house so now i just have to settle down and see what i can do with my tanks thanks for the help i will try this method your saying i didnt know that a 2ppm could be toxic i read it to be a level of 5pp or above to be toxic i guess u know better.

Any ammonia is bad for fish...... A fully functional fully cycled should have 0. Dano's plan of action is a good one.

Fern wrote:

Any ammonia is bad for fish...... A fully functional fully cycled should have 0. Dano's plan of action is a good one.

thanks fern i will do this plan and see what happens i really like this guy hes nice and fat he had very nice color too. so ill see if the ammonia is the ploblem 15% water change i will do i hope it helps him out i would hate to put him down

i cant find anything about the bladder shot

No no look for swim bladder ailments.... see what kinds of meds come up. QT him give him a few days and if you don't see any improvements then treat him.
You still need to deal with the ammonia in your main tank as well.

i found it doesnt seem to be the ploblem idk but it says this usually happens to golfish orandas the only thing would be the erratic swimming because he has no ploblem going up to the surface and is all over the place and no ammonia poison no jagged fins or torn red or purple gills will see thanks though

the good news is , it looks like the early stages of swim bladder disease.
dano is on the money with w/c and prime. q tank and meds should help. no lights for now.
thats what i would do to fix the water.

i hope all goes well fro your little buddy. he looks really cool.

thanks bud thas what i wanted to hear

Just keep up with those water changes. That ALWAYS helps!

For Koi, and any other fish that I have swim bladder issues with, I take a frozen pea, skin it, and add some epsom salt into it, and let them eat it. I do this every 3 days for 2 weeks. It has always helped me.

If your ammonia is this high, you are not doing adequate water changes, your tank is not cycled, and you need to slim down on your fish.

What size tank is this?

And the temp seems a little higher than they might like. 80? that's what I keep my africans at. I keep my Souths/Centrals at 75-76.

a little update its been 3 weeks i still have him i tried everything and he still seems the same but he is the first to eat so i dont want to put him down i just put him back in the regular tank beacuse in the 10 gallon hospital tank he wasnt eating i tried the pea and he spits it out now hes swimming and eating again my water temp is 80 amonioa is 0 now my ph is 7.4 i did 50 percent water change in my move to the new house and hes eating floating hikari pellets and flakes what should i do for him should i just keep him like this