Red Hump Geophagus Concern

I have 5 red hump geophagus (Steindachneri) in my 135 gallon tank. 2 adults 3 juveniles. My 2 adults are male and female, but recently my female has stopped eating, and is hiding a lot more. I also have recently noticed that the male is showing off to her a lot more. Could she be holding eggs/fry, I’m wondering because I know that red humps are mouth brooders. She’s also breathing deeper. It’s not like heavy fast breathing, it’s slow and deep. I’ll post a picture of her just Incase.

 

Well, the not eating thing is common when carrying, and she looks like she is too. I’d say so.

 

Well, the not eating thing is common when carrying, and she looks like she is too. I’d say so.

So I might get babies, yay! What are the signs or her holding? The main place she likes to hide is in a cave I have. The male also goes in there. Maybe they spawned in there and I didn’t see.

 

They’re weird fish when it comes to spawning. The female will stop eating, carry the eggs around and spit a few out at a time so he can fertilize them. Then when they hatch, she spits them all out and usually just leaves lol.

 

If she were holding, her mouth would be tightly closed, and her chin would be protruding. She is not holding. It is possible she is stressed, as the male is wanting to breed and she does not feel ready. Had they spawned, he would have gone on his way looking for another female ready to go. His aggressive courting is probably keeping her from coming out to eat. You might try target feeding her (send food down a tube to her location).

"True" Geophagus actually have the face bulge out as they store the eggs/larvae in the upper part of their mouth. The Red Hump group more resemble the African Mbuna in their behavior, female lays a few eggs, male fertilizes, female picks them up. However, unlike Mbuna, female Red Humps will continue to care for their fry after they start swimming. It is an amazing sight to see a hundred or so fry rushing to get back into mama's mouth at the first sign of danger!

 

If she were holding, her mouth would be tightly closed, and her chin would be protruding. She is not holding. It is possible she is stressed, as the male is wanting to breed and she does not feel ready. Had they spawned, he would have gone on his way looking for another female ready to go. His aggressive courting is probably keeping her from coming out to eat. You might try target feeding her (send food down a tube to her location).

"True" Geophagus actually have the face bulge out as they store the eggs/larvae in the upper part of their mouth. The Red Hump group more resemble the African Mbuna in their behavior, female lays a few eggs, male fertilizes, female picks them up. However, unlike Mbuna, female Red Humps will continue to care for their fry after they start swimming. It is an amazing sight to see a hundred or so fry rushing to get back into mama's mouth at the first sign of danger!

I tried target feeding her yesterday but she still didn’t eat.

 

So my female red hump geo was really beat up 2 nights ago, so I move her into a net breeder to see if she'd recover. She didn't and now she has these white fuzzy patches on her dorsal and tail fins. Although they came off when I tried to net her. Right now she's acclimating a 10 gallon quarantine. What meds should I dose? Right now I have a malachite green based medicine, prazipro, and one of those natural medicines. Microbe lift herbtana to be precise. The fuzzy things came off along with segments of her tail fin, but I'm thinking it's fin rot, or opportunistic bacteria that took over since she was hurt from my male trying to breed.

I think I'm going to go ahead and use the malachite green medication, because it's supposed to help with fin rot.

 

I need water parameters
Pics of the fish,
List of how she got beat up etc

I think I'm going to go ahead and use the malachite green medication, because it's supposed to help with fin rot.

Pictures of her would really help me help you.
Is there other fish in the tank besides the male trying to breed?

Does she have bites or anything??

Need a bit more info

 

Pictures of her would really help me help you.
Is there other fish in the tank besides the male trying to breed?

Does she have bites or anything??

Need a bit more info

The parameters of the big tank and the quarantine are both 0,0,15. No, no others trying to breed. It looks like she has bites because a lot of her tail is gone. I’ve seen the male chase her and nip her. But it never got really serious until now. Her tail was white and fuzzy, but all that is gone now.

 

What medication should I dose? I don't understand how the bacteria or whatever it was got in the tank, as I have a UV sterilizer lamp inside one of my filters. Maybe it's because she was in a breeder box and the flow wasn't as high? Or should I just wait until I see more symptoms?

 

I decided to go ahead and use prazipro because she had long white stringy poop. it might have just been because she hadn't eaten in a while though.

 

Do you think she could have gotten something stuck in her mouth/throat? I put some food in today and she acted like she wanted to eat, but instead she just wiggled her head back and forth.

 

New symptom. I just noticed that she flashes every one in a while. Could it be ich that I can't see? Or gill flukes? I just did prazI so gill flukes should be gone.

Will anyone help me? She's not getting any better and I'm starting to worry a lot...

 

What’s the parameters of the water

Recent test I mean..... have you done water changes? Did you dose the water also?

 

Recent test I mean..... have you done water changes? Did you dose the water also?

Most recent test is o ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10 nitrate. And yes I dose water conditioner if that’s what you mean.

 

Still no improvement, and she’s still breathing really deep and heavy. She had a really long, thin, whitish clear piece of poo earlier. Idk if that’s from a parasite, or because she hasn’t eaten in over a week. And still not eating. I’m doing daily water changes to dose the medicine. Could she have swallowed a rock or something? Should I stop dosing medicine and just do occasional water changes?

 

Do you think a salt dip would help? Her belly is all red.

I did a salt dip about an hour ago. She's just sitting on the sand, but according to what I read, it's normal for them to do that a little bit.

 

Here’s a couple pictures of her belly.

I don't think she's gonna make it.... Every time she stops swimming she just tips over and stays there. Also part of the red on her belly has started swelling up, and around it her scales are pineconing... I feel so horrible...

 

She just passed... I feel so horrible...

 

She just passed... I feel so horrible...

Omg I’m so sorry!!!