Electric yellow help!!!, behaving weirdly :S?

Question

Hey all,

I noticed my male electric yellow cichlid started acting weirdly and was wondering if its anything to serious,

hes constantly rubbing up on rocks and hes swimming weirdly but its hard to expain how hes swimming exactly

Just wondering wat this could mean and if its anything serious that needs fixing.

thankz, JaYY

Answer 1

Sounds like it could be external parasites--fish will often "scratch" themselves against rocks and other decor when they've got them.  You may need to treat him with anti-parasite meds if he doesn't stop.

[edit] Hmmm, yeah, should have asked for tank parameters...raise your pH a little, that might help.

Answer 2

Chaos has a point and this can be a sign of a parasite, but it may be nothing either.  It is not uncommon for cichlids, especially African ones like your Labidochromis Caereleus to do this.  What I'd like to know, and this can help narrow down if this is a parasite or not, is:

1.  Tank size please

2.  Total tank population, please if you can, species and males and females.

3.  Tank water chemistry readings.  Ammonia present?  Nitrite present?  Nitrate levels?  Ph value?  Hardness Gh and Kh levels?---PH, GH and KH are important to know for Africans.

I'll check back in with you later on.

Ok thanks.  Looks like things are ok, though you PH is a little low for Africans.  If you can find a way to look into your hardness, this might be something causing the issue.  It/s about 1 am here so I'll look up liters to gallons and get back with you in my morning later on.

120 L = about 31 US Gallons.

Given that, I'm suspecting that your PH is one issue, but not directly.  If PH difference were an issue, more then likely you'd have seen that as soon as you added the fish in, or shortly there after.  However, being the water chemistry is slightly outside of the typical varience, that difference over time may be causing some issues in it.

Gender is next.

My inital thoughts on what you were describing sounded more to me like an aggression issue that you normally see between two males.  Should you have two males in a footprint that size, it's very probable one attacked the other.  Without seeing your tank lay out and decor, and knowing the s*x, it's still speculation.  

That still doesn't necessarily rule out the parasite Chaos mentioned either.  Some pathogens progress at different rates in fish.  It could still be a parasite and the one showing signs of it now is just weaker then the others.  This isn't going to be known until time down the road really.  Your water maintenance here is what is your friend if that's the case.

Start working your PH up by increasing your hardness, since I haven't seen what your hardness values are, I'm assuming it must be lower then typical African rift lakes.  Try adding either Rift Lake Salts or Buffer Max and you'll see a slow gradual rise in your PH, GH and KH.  Try that out over the next week or two, see if that helps.

ANY pictures of this tank you can get will greatly help here.