Improvements.

Things are back to normal in the big tank. Everyone's eating. Everyone's swimming around. They like their new aquarium decoration, it's tall enough that a couple of them can be behind it or near it on one side or the other. There's enough holes that they are comfortable swimming through it. It's actually pretty cool to watch them go through it.

As for the females in the hospital tanks... Coco is now consistently eating. She seems to be gaining just a little weight. Maybe. At least she doesn't look quite as shockingly gaunt to me anymore. She was spending most of her time moving the rocks in her tank looking for food. The problem was, the substrate in that tank was given to me by the fish store. The rocks are pretty heavy and somewhat sharp. In fact, I'd been wondering whether those rocks would cause a problem when she did finally start eating again. Sure enough, her poor lips were wearing away. Thankfully, I knew what the problem was and I didn't freak out thinking it was some new fungus or disease. So a few days ago, when I did a tank change, I cleared a spot under the feeder ring by moving the rocks to one side of her tank. Problem solved. She now only has to move a few rocks here and there to find extra snacks. When the food falls, it goes to the bottom of the tank landing on glass. Bonus -- her lips are now all better. Poor little fish. Sheez. But I feel comfortable and somewhat confident that when I get up in the morning or come home from work that she's still going to be alive and will be looking for me to give her food. In fact, as I write this she's in the middle of the tank calmly swimming in one place, staring at me. That makes me smile.

Moe just started eating again tonight. She was showing interest yesterday, but was spitting her food. I didn't even try to feed her this morning and tonight I fed her three or four pellets at a time. She ate 30-35 pellets. That's the most she's eaten in two months. When I finally stopped giving her food tonight, it was because I ran out of time, she was still looking for more food (as opposed to disinterest or spitting the food).

Last night I spent about 10 minutes watching Mr. White's antics, as he swam up and down in a large diagonal circle in his tank. He was slamming his ping pong ball against the top of the tank, then going down to the opposite corner and swimming around the magnet cleaner. Two of his favorite things to do. He would stop periodically and look at me, waiting for me to run my finger up the front of the tank so he could follow it. Then he attempted to mate with his magnet and I found myself laughing aloud.

It's been since June that things went south... I've done a lot of work to make things better. If worry alone could make a difference, I've certainly done more than my share of that.

I'm hoping that things have finally turned around. I would certainly say that it's about time.

The white fish whose fins were ringed with red tonight looks completely normal. Admittedly, her behavior never varied from "normal". She was consistently active and busy and ate healthily, but it's nice to see her looking normal. I fully believe that it was an injury she somehow gave herself while trying to get away from the gray female who was laying her eggs. Once that event occurred, things settled down in the tank and everyone seemed much more at ease.

In an attempt to give them more places to hide, I bought a taller aquarium decoration for one of the corners. It looks like a rock wall with holes that they can see and swim through ... good for getaways and seeing what's coming at them. There are no sharp corners, so they should be alright. with it. I also swapped out the fake tree root and replaced it with one that has a smaller footprint. Should make it a little easier for cleaning purposes. Their poop and debris seems to collect in that corner. We'll see how it goes.

When I did their water change tonight, I noted a bunch of what appeared to be eggs around the upper 1" rim of their tank. The weirdest thing. Then I realized, that's exactly what it was. Eggs. The gray female had laid her eggs, tumbled them for a day or two, then released them. Instead of being sucked into the filter or eaten by the other fish, they went up and ringed the tank. How gross.

I also added a second filter in their tank. With all the egg laying and rock moving that's been going on in there, the water has just had non-stop debris floating around. The water levels have been in the acceptable range, but I can't imagine they'd want to breathe all that crap. Literally, crap. Heh. Now I hope the water's not too clean.

Coco, the one in the tank who's heater went wonky, has been eating consistently the New Life Spectrum food. I added a feeder ring to her tank to control where the food falls through. She now waits at the bottom of the tank under the purple feeder ring. With every bite she eats, the lighter the load on my heart.

Moe, on the other hand, continues to concern me. She seems to be acting okay, but she's not eating. Today I noticed some white poop coming out of her, but it's not really stringy. I raised the temperature in her tank by a degree or two yesterday, hopefully that will help her with eradicating the parasite and hopefully that's what the white poop was about.

Up and Down.

These fish exhaust me emotionally.

I gave Coco some of the New Life Spectrum food for cichlids that Fish Whisperer gave me. She was ravenous, ate as much as I gave her. Even touching my fingers with her lips as I dipped them in the water with the food and eating the food as fast as it entered the water.

Fish Whisperer instructed me to feed her no more than 1/4 teaspoon per day. She ate last night and she ate this morning. But tonight she's spitting the food and has no interest in it. Moe ate less than Coco, and ditto, spitting the food. There's a lot of food on the bottom of Moe's tank. At least I can say Coco ate all of hers except what I tried to feed her tonight. Which means I need to gravel vacuum their tanks.

The albino female in the big tank that I'm worried about is still active. I'm pretty sure that she somehow bruised herself on one of the ornaments in there. It's just weird that she would bruise the base of her pectoral fins and pelvic fins. But that's what it looks like. Fish Whisperer instructed me to check the parameters of their water, he was concerned that it might be a nitrate burn. I did check them, and the parameters are well within normal ranges. My gut is telling me it's a bruise. (sigh)

When Coco ate off my fingers, it was reminiscent to me of the baby fish eating from my fingers when they were itty bitty things and it made me feel so happy to have hundreds of little mouths nipping my fingers. It made me remember why I love these fish so much. Then tonight with the spike of concern, it made me remember why they're so exhausting.

Fears at Rest. For Now.

My Fish Whisperer came by tonight and looked at my fish.

The last time he had seen them, Coco had been bloated. Her little stomach looked like she'd had a couple turkey dinners and then some. When I left him a voice mail on Sunday, I told him that she was Skinny Fish. She was sunken in starting from behind her eyes, from her dorsal fin to her lateral line. It is the strangest thing I've ever seen, and it happened in a day. If Ethiopia had fish, I would've described her as an Ethiopian Fish.

Tonight when I arrived home from work I noted that just behind her eyes was what appeared to be a hole. It looked like a hole in her head. What the hell? That inspired him to come over and check her out. He looked at her, adjusted his glasses, looked again and said, "Oh my."

He said it's not HITH, though, he said she's malnourished. That what appears to be a hole in her head is actually the shadow from her bone poking out. Her scales are stretched that tightly/thinnly right now. Poor thing, he said now that she's eradicated the hexamita, she needs a diet that's high in protein. I've been feeding her, well, all of my fish spirulina flakes. He dropped some flakes in and observed. She was interested, but spit them out. He recommended something called Spectrum New Life, and I remembered from back when I was breeding the fish that I had some baby fish food that was from that company. I pulled it out of my drawer and he dropped some of the food in her tank. She went nuts. She spent about an hour picking up rocks and scrounging to find any remnants of the food in the rocks.

He said not to worry about Moe. He said she looks fine, even though she's not eating. He said she might actually be interested in the Spectrum food as well.

As for the grey female in the big tank, he said to leave her in there. That she's fine for now, even though she's not eaten since Friday. He said she might be "bloating" because she's trying to lay eggs. Her overall behavior is that of a healthy fish.

He said to not medicate. Continue to allow their immune systems and tank temperature to help them feel better.

Both hospital tanks are at 86F, the big tank is at 84F. He said to leave the temperatures as is. He validated that the hospital tanks do not get their lights turned on unless I'm checking them and that the other fish tanks get about 2-3 hours of light every day. The limitation on light, by the way, also helps reduce algae growth. He also said to feed the fish at least 2 hours before going to bed (i.e., turning out the house lights), that way they have time to digest the food before sleeping.

All of my husband's guppies died, the last one died Monday morning. They had internal parasites when we brought them home from the pet store. We tried to save them for over a month, but sadly were unable to do so. He said that the type of internal parasites they had are dependent on having a host. Fish Whisperer said that he has guppies and also some cardinal something or others that he would give to us. To prepare the tank, to turn the temperature up to 95F or so, to clear out any bad things the other guppies may have had.

So, it would seem as if my concern were legitimate, just needed to be redirected as far as caring for Coco and Moe, by changing their food.

Everlasting.

You would think that by this time, the fish would have either died or I would have let them go. Maybe by writing this I'm somehow jinxing it, I don't know. But at this point in time, I am so sick of them being sick. I fluctuate on my own stress level, and the emotional toll on me. It's hard for me to let the concern go and enjoy things. You wouldn't think that little bitty fish would have that big of an impact on someone's life, but they do mine and I can't seem to figure out how to put it in perspective. It might be a blessing if they just let go, rather than this everlasting death sort of thing. (sigh)

Coco, the one whose heater went wonky, went from being extremely bloated to a normal size fish last Thursday. Then, on Saturday, she somehow shrunk to a super skinny fish, so skinny that the portion of her body from her dorsal fin to her lateral line is caved in and she looks like what an Ethopian fish might look like, if there were such a thing. She was eating vigorously on Sunday, but today, Tuesday, her appetite seems to have tapered off. She still acts like she's looking for food, but when she finds it, she spits it out.

Moe isn't as bloated anymore, but she's still spitting her food out.

The last grey female that I have, the one who is in the big tank, stopped eating last Friday. She's still agressive with the other fish, but rejects food and appears to be bloated. Classic signs of preliminary parasite infection. I raised the temperature in the big tank to 84°F in the hopes that it will help her immune system eradicate the parasite.

I've been in touch with my Fish Whisperer. He continues to reassure me that if they're active, they'll continue to live. That I'm doing the right things for them because they're still alive. But ... like I wrote. I'm so tired. So tired of this underlying thread of worry and concern. It's been going on since June... four months now.

I wish they'd just either get well or ... (sigh) get well. I just wish they'd get well.

Always on my Mind.

I lost another female on July 21st.

There are two other females I pulled out of the big tank and isolated in a hospital tank. For over a month they were in the same tank, separated by a divider made out of egg crate (or the diffuser used for fluorescent lights).

As advised by a fellow I've dubbed "Fish Whisperer", I raised the temperature in their tank to 86°, treated them with metranidazole and used a measurement of Epsom Salt (magnesium sulfate) to assist with expelling the parasite, hexamita. After two days, one of the female's kidneys started to shut down (as noted by her scales sticking out), causing me to have constant concern (COCO), so we performed a 50% water change and switched to a course of tetracycline. After that course, I did water changes every two days and kept the temperature at 86°.

I went out of town for a week in August, Fish Whisperer generously came by and kept up with the water changes and called me with the status of their health.

When I came back, I noted that one of the females (Mischevous One or "MOE") was slipping past the barrier into the other side of the tank and harassing COCO. I reinforced the barrier, and then came home to discover what appeared to be a sore on MOE's lips. Frustrated, and scared of a secondary infection, I moved COCO into her own 10 gallon tank, which I'd had cycling for over a month.

All seemed to be going well, they both started eating again, exhibiting normal behavior and I was preparing to move COCO back into the big tank. Fish Whisperer believed they were well enough and that the constant activity in the main tank, as well as seeing their sisters eating, would improve their appetite.

Then, on September 28th, I came home to discover that the heater I'd borrowed from my fish store friend and had been on COCO's tank, had been bumped and set to nearly 100°. I had noticed COCO acting lethargic, but just thought she was being her normal, weird self. I was horrified. I used another tank's water that was heated to 85° and gradually lowered the temperature of her tank by changing it out.

Since then, she bloated up, her breathing was rapid and labored, and started pooping white strings again. Oddly, MOE started bloating up, too, and pooping white strings. Again with the parasites, then. So I just finished last night a 5 day course of the metranidazole. COCO is still lethargic, but her breathing is less labored. MOE is perkier and active, although still a bit bloated.

(sigh)

In the midst of the sickness plaguing the two in the hospital tank, in the big tank one of the albino females bruised herself. To the point that I thought that she'd somehow found another weird parasite or fungus. In the five years that I've kept fish, I've never seen the like. But, I guess fish actually can bruise. It looked terrible for about five days, a great big purplish/red spot above her lateral line. It finally faded, and I tried not to worry too much, as she kept up with her vigorous eating an activities.

So, it appears I have four healthy females, one healthy albino male and two females that may or may not make it.

If COCO and MOE don't make it, I will be back to four females and one male. Which, ironically, given that I've had over 300 cichlids in this house, five is the number of fish this whole journey started with -- four females and one male.

The two sick females are two of the original five. So, I'm hoping and praying that I don't lose them.