Sick Kribs

[Juannie]

I need help, on Monday I went home from work and found 1 dead krib, I then noticed that 3 others were all very very dark and breathing rapidly. They have been staying in one place, I checked the water and it's been fine, I also did a water change and added in some Melafix/Pimfix (only a small amount). The next day 2 were fine but one is still gasping, even swimming to the top for air and he's fairly dark still. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the problem could be? I did notice that there's a couple of scales missing but they don't seem to be attacked by anyone - it's just sudden.

[Spyder]

Have the fish in the tank been together for a while or are there new additions. Sounds to me like they are being picked on, maybe by the Firemouth or Algae Eaters. Are the Algae Eaters Chinese Algae Eaters? CAE's once mature are the nastyiest fish alive and will kill anything that comes into it's territory. I have an 8 year old in my african tank. The africans are small so he tollerates them. He is a cave dweller and so are Kribs. If your kribs entered his cave he would kill them.

[Juannie]

Have the fish in the tank been together for a while or are there new additions. Sounds to me like they are being picked on, maybe by the Firemouth or Algae Eaters. Are the Algae Eaters Chinese Algae Eaters? CAE's once mature are the nastyiest fish alive and will kill anything that comes into it's territory. I have an 8 year old in my african tank. The africans are small so he tollerates them. He is a cave dweller and so are Kribs. If your kribs entered his cave he would kill them.

No the kribs have been in there for months, prior to the algae eaters & the firemouth. They're pretty fiery little fish themselves. I do know that I had a couple of major temperature drops a few weeks ago, that happened twice. I've had another krib die this morning and 2 more are in a corner very dark and gasping for air, some of their scales seem to be missing. I'm thinking maybe the temp drop actually affected them and perhaps they've gotten sick. No others look ill and I'm keeping a close eye on them. I have lots of hiding places for all the fish so they don't seem to be harrassing each other much at all.

[Dave66]

What are your tank parameters - pH, GH, KH, temp? Kribs live much, much better in the moderatly soft and acid. When I kept them it was 6.8, GH, KH around four or six, and between 75 and 77 degrees. Breed like mad when the water/foods are to their liking.

Dave

[Juannie]

Well herein lies the problem, my water parameters were fine, then suddenly when our tap water pH levels spiked to over 7 it increased. It's slowly settled back down to 6.8-7 now but I'm loosing more kribs. I've now got another one whom has dropsy and looks like a blister growing out of his side - I noticed this last night.

I don't know what to do because they look really pale and blotchy and I'm loosing them way too quick for my liking. I've checked all my other chemicals and everything seems fine. The one thing I do have trouble with is the carbonate hardness, but then someone else mentioned on here it shouldn't be causing too much trouble. The temp is around 26C degrees, sometimes goes up to 28 but not often.

[crackatinny]

My LFS told me Kribs will just drop off if the PH is not right, I guess what has happened here verifies that.

[Juannie]

My LFS told me Kribs will just drop off if the PH is not right, I guess what has happened here verifies that.

Interesting, I've had the pH lower the 6.8 before and they had no problems, obviously this time around it's really affecting them DAMMIT!