1 Yellow Lab Dead, pH Lower Than Usual

andrewr2488

I went to do my bi-daily water testing and noticed one of my labs was missing. Well I found him belly up and apparently had been dead atleast all day today. Not sure what happened.. He was just added yesterday. Looked to have a small wound, Is it possible he was killed by another of my fish?

Parameters:
pH dropped to 6.8
Ammonia tested at 1ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm

He seemed fine last night before I went to bed.. It's a 29g tank but all the fish are juvenile sizes ranging from 1.5"-2.5" most averaging in at 1.75" - 2.0" There are 4 Kennyi 4 Yellow Labs (One died so that makes 3 Labs now) and 2 Johanni. I have plenty of hiding spots, And Will be soon moving them to my 50g Tank

jpbotha

I am not an expert, only a Cichlid lover, but I bought two Rams the other day and both of them died within a day. There were no logical reason for their death except that I believe that you sometimes get a "bad" batch of fish, maybe stressed during import or other fish and transport to the LFS.
Besides that theory of "bad fish", your Nitrate levels are 0. Do you have a planted tank? If not, then maybe there is something wrong with your test unit cause nitrate levels is not likely to be 0 in a cichlid tank. Well I have never had a 0 reading in my tanks. And your ammonia level could also played a role.
What are you using to buffer your Ph? I've had a problem with driftwood messing up my Ph, and got some advice on this forum to use Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda) to increase the buffer, its cheap and works perfectly on my tanks.
For injuries or illnesses I increase the temperature and add normal Epsom salt (also meant for baking), instead of aquarium salt, has done wonders in my tank.

andrewr2488

I dont use anything to buffer my water atm. I'm still pretty new to the hobby so I'm just going by what I've learned so far. I'm gonna buy some cichlid salt friday. Should I be buffering my water? I'm trying to source a test kit to tell me my gh/kh, no lfs within a half hour radius, dont feel like making a special trip for that, I work alot so time is hard to come by.

MoneyMitch

when you said your ph dropped how far did it drop? what was the behavior of your other fish towards the newer one after you added it? i also have johannis and labs along with many others but the johanni is def the bully of my tank.

andrewr2488

Usually its around 7.2, dropped to about 6.8. Today I added CaribSea Florida Crushed Coral to my extra media cartridge in the emp 400. I added about 1 cup worth, So I'll monitor the water readings daily and see whether I'll need more, Or less. I'm trying to get my pH up to around 8.0-8.2, I'll be switching all my juvenile ac's to my new 50g tank soon. After looking over the tank and taking a role call I found out it wasnt the new lab that passed away. It was one I've had for around 2 weeks. My 2 Johanni are probably the smaller of all my cichlids, One being about 1.75" and the other about 1.50". I'll be monitoring behavior and once the switch is made to my 50g, I'll be stacking flatrocks for my rockworks. Any tips on what type of flatrock to use?

MoneyMitch

personally i just went and picked up some real nice pieces of slate and river shale from a local stream then let it dry out rinse the mud off and boom insta rock for free. try to keep away from the sharper pieces of rock and keep in mind when your fish grow espcially the johannis they WILL dig and they will dig GIANT craters. doesnt even take my fish a week to have pits all over my tank.

Byron

Continuing adding crushed coral but slowly. A pH fluctuation can severely stress some fish, leading to health issues. Doing it slowly is fine, and using calcareous material like coral (dolomite, marble chips also work the same) is the best way to raise hardness and pH, and you are correct that it should be higher for rift lake cichlids.

The KH of your water is probably low which is why the pH of the tank water is slowly dropping. The calcareous coral will help right this. And the rift lake cichlid mix you mentioned earlier will also help.

Byron.

andrewr2488

Yeah my kenyi love to dig also, I added a peice of honeycomb rock and they dug it all the way to the bottom glass lol. When I do my flatrock stacking I'm either placing it directly on the bottom glass or using egg cartons, People said they fair off quite well for stacking rocks..

I just finished testing my water and here are my results

pH has raised up to 7.6 Hopefully it will raise more, I'm giving it til monday before I add more CC
Ammonia is at 0 ppm
Nitrite is also at 0 ppm
Nitrate is also at 0 ppm

Tomorrow I'll be looking for a GH/KH Test kit. Buying my Fiances wedding ring / engagement ring set tomorrow

Angel079

It can have various reasons so you'll prop never figure it out. Could well be that the pH change to the soft water vs what they has before was too much for this particular fish to handle. Juvenal Yellow's can be touchy at times compared to their grown up version.
See if over time it'll work for you to get the water to 8-8.5 pH for them guys and some hardness 10-20 degrees for them, they do appreciate that a lot.
I had used slate in my tank set up for them and I had set it up directly on the bottom of the tank and then put the sand around it to add more stability then only placing it into the sand. Another neat addition could be the rounded river rocks that are fairly large in size and created mini caves with those.

rrcoolj

It sounds like the fish died from PH shock. Oh and watch those kenyi. They are one of the 3 most aggressive mbunas out there. They will become real bullies real quick. They also are one of the bigger stockier mbunas.