Rescue Cichlids

Hello! I have recently decided to start taking in people's fish that they no longer want or cannot take care of and rehoming them. Today I got a batch of african cichlids in not so great condition. My question is that many have nips and tears in their fins and I want to know what people do to help speed along the process of healing. I use API stress coat in the water but is there anything else to do other than wait? On two of the fish there are large chunks missing. My other question is is there a point at which so much fin has been lost on the dorsal and tail fin that it cannot physically grow back? The fish I am most worried about is missing pretty much the entire tail fin except for a nub and it looks like it has been that way for some time.

I will post some pics later, I am trying to get the fish settled in right now.

Thanks in advance for people's help.

 

Do a lot of water changes, that's the best thing for healing fins. As for a point of no return, if the fleshy area where the fin becomes body is damaged the fin may never grow back properly. I'd be keeping an eye on everyone, make sure no one is getting bullied too badly and separate those that are getting picked on too much. African cichlids don't play nice when someone else is not feeling well.

 

Instead of API Stress Coat, I love using Seachem Stress Guard. Works much better. Daily water changes always help as well as the addition of a good diet soaked in Vitachem. What size tank did you put them in? They need a lot of hiding places as well. Try to make the tank look as close to their natural habitat as possible. Methylene Blue dips may help prevent infection, but I would use that as a last resort.

 

As said above for me the best thing is water change, keep that water clean. Good luck

 

I currently have them all in a 10 gallon while I am cleaning out the 30 gallon tank that came with them. Then all but 2 are going back into the 30. There are a total of 13 fish with the smallest being 3 inches and the largest being 5-6 inches. Supprisingly its the largest fish that are the most damaged. Once I get them all set up I will add another post helping to identify some of them. Most of them are yellow labs and red zebrea but I don't recognize the blue one. Sounds good about the water changes. Do you think 20% daily would work? And I shall get Seachem stress guard once my ApI is gone. I only have about 2 more doses of it left in the bottle. When I post pics later ill show the 2 fish I was talking about later as well as another I am now concerned about. It seems part of the tail has some fuzz growing but I'm not 100% sure.

 

I would really suggest at least 55-gallons for all of these cichlids. Daily 20% is fine. I'm aware that they came from a bad home and you felt the need to save them, but it's always good to prepare before taking them in.

 

I only plan on keeping these fish for as long as it takes to get them healthy and find them new, permanent homes with larger tanks such as 55s or above. I realize these guys need a bigger tank than I can provide but honestly I figured it would be better to get them out of the water they were in and the care they were in than to leave them there. The water was so dirty you couldnt see through the tank to the other side and the guy didnt even know what water changes were. He thought you just topped it off when water evaporated. I plan on doing water changes everyday and I have 2 filters going on the tank. If you know anyone in or around blacksburg, va who would like some larger cichlids please let me know! I'm willing to drive up to 3 hours away from blacksburg for transport.

 

I had gotten an Oscar that had fin rot and all I treated him with for 5 days straight was non-iodide salt and 70% water change everyday and he healed up nicely and fast and is now a healthy 6 inch beast.


Fin rot is curable with pristine water aka water changes daily and some salt and your little guys will be healed

 

Thank you snowballPLECO for the good advice about fin rot. The only thing is that I don't think the fish have fin rot. I think its more aggression between the fish and them biting off chunks of fin. I will definitely up the water change percent to somewhere between 50 and 70% daily as that seems to be the most crucial healing method.

 

All right. Good luck getting them healed up and finding them new homes!