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Sick Keyhole

karl1987

Member
Joined
14 May 2008
Messages
39
My female Keyhole cichlid hasnt been right now for the past couple of weeks and was wondering is any of you could help identify what might be wrong with her. She's eating fine, not rubbing on any objects but her colours have just faded away. Can't work out at all what it is. All other fish in tank are in good health including male keyhole.. I've been doing water changes everyday in the past week and there has been no improvement.

Sorry about picture quality, took them on mobile phone.

Sick Female
th_95976_1_122_454lo.jpg

Healthy Male
View attachment 134791
 
Tom said:
Is it just that it's colours are faded? If so, with Keyholes I wouldn't worry too much to be honest. Are there any behavioral differences?

And going by the fins of the fish in both pictures, It would have been my guess that you have two males.


No problems what so ever other than she's lost all her colour and just dosent look right, shes been like this a couple of weeks and hasnt improved.

I always assumed they were male and female, the "males" fins are nearly double the length of the one I assumed to be a female and they constantly follow each other round. Wasnt that long ago I thought they were going to spawn when they started to display and dig a hole in the sand in the tank before I reascaped it last week.
 
Both sexes have pointed fins but males tend to get longer with small extensions as they mature. They're not easy to sex so you may not have a male and female. As with most cichlids the best way to get a stable pair is to buy half a dozen and let them sort it out themselves - you see the most natural behaviours and tend to get much more successful pairs.

Keep an eye on her and watch how they behave with each other. If in doubt about the health of a fish I tend to do a water change just to play safe in case it's a water quality issue that one fish is more sensitive to.
 
Well I started dosing esha 2000 tonight to be on the safe side to see if it makes any difference, as doing water changes for the past week hasnt made any difference at all.
 
Could be the male wants something she's not willing to do yet, if you get my meaning and he might be harassing her causing her stress
 
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