I think Stripey is dying

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 10:48 am

My convict (Stripey) has been moping around the past two days, sitting on the bottom, and occasionally laying down on his side. He does not get up and run around the tank and even skips out on dinner, only getting up when Pinky comes over and bumps him (almost as if he is saying get up and eat!)

The convict is over 7 years old and until recently very poorly taken care of (tank only cleaned once in 7-8 years)
I am wondering if it is just old age or if there may be something else that can be done to get him spunked up again

evo832psi · Post by **evo832psi** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 3:36 pm

Sorry to hear. Good news though, I did trade in a very pretty one to Gerwin couple weeks ago when i changed to saltwater. He looks very light colored in Gerwins tank but was very dark, with red belly, in mine. Always came up to me anytime i walked up to the tank. Was my girlfriends favorite. Go pick him up and give him a nice home.

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 3:43 pm

I may do that - will have to think it over though as I am not sure how it will react with my other fish. I have a handful of tiger barbs and a pink convict male that is 7-8 years old...wouldn't want to see a turf war or new fish eating old fish

How old is the one you gave Gerwin? Is it male or female?

evo832psi · Post by **evo832psi** » Tue Jun 22, 2010 11:17 pm

The one that i traded isnt but maybe 6 months old. Never fought with any of my Cichlids. Id think its a male.

Post by **Gerwin** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:39 pm

evo832psi wrote:Sorry to hear. Good news though, I did trade in a very pretty one to Gerwin couple weeks ago when i changed to saltwater. He looks very light colored in Gerwins tank but was very dark, with red belly, in mine. Always came up to me anytime i walked up to the tank. Was my girlfriends favorite. Go pick him up and give him a nice home.

the red belly is a sign of it being a female and gravid , aka a girl that is ready to find a boy friend

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:22 pm

Not sure I want a female with my pink male.....

Another question here - if Stripey is dying - how long do they lay around? He has been laying on the bottom of his aquarium, looking like an old man on life support, for days now... He looks like he is in pain and I am starting to really feel sorry for the little bloke. Do you think maybe he is just sick, or sad or something? He lays down on his side all day and moves around only a bit to move from one spot to the next, then at dinner time, he only eats one, maybe two flakes and goes and lays down again.

Post by **Doug** » Thu Jun 24, 2010 9:46 pm

Although the laying around part is a bad sign, the fact that he's actually eating at all is a good sign, relatively speaking. Not to give you false hope, however-- in nature, sick animals feign vitality in an attempt to fool predators, or even to ward off attacks from their own kind. Are you sure there is not another fish that has him totally intimidated? I'm wondering if a move to another tank might be in order, as stressful as that might potentially be.

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 12:38 am

I am not sure...Stripey was the aggressor when we set up the tank. Keeping mind I have only had these fish and tank for a few weeks, they have gone through some stress with the move, getting a clean tank (I assume if they were used to living in a dirty tank that they got used to it and a clean tank may be stressful), changing out the gravel, adding things to hide behind and fake plants, and more recently, I added a dozen tiger barbs but they seem to keep to themselves.

Here recently (since Stripey has been laying on the bottom), Pinkey (my other convict) has seemed a little more territorial and aggressive. He does not seem to be aggressive towards Stripey, but gets very defensive when the plecos invade his space or get too close to Stripey (almost as if he is protecting him). The other day, one of the pleocs dropped his algae tab and went to get it to close to Pinkey's space and he let him know that he was too close...

Stripey and Pinkey's space are kind of one in the same, only about two inches apart, and Stripey is now in the front of the tank (instead of hiding behind things in the back of the tank). I am not sure how much 2 inches means to a 5-6 inch long fish, but I mention it in case it is relevant. My first thought was that all the changes were just too stressful so I have tried to maintain distance from the aquarium and making sure my 3 year old does not go anywhere near it (albeit she is very good and does not tap the tank) as we do not want the fish to get upset.

Post by **Gerwin** » Fri Jun 25, 2010 5:04 pm

why don't you put stripey in a bag and bring him down for us to get a look see, and bring a water sample in a separate bag as well.

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Sat Jun 26, 2010 2:55 am

I know there is no way I can bring him down there tomorrow so I will see what my wife says about Tuesday.
I may bring him down with the plecos and I been meaning to bring a water sample anyways.
I have to make sure my wife is okay with bringing Stripey though. She gets kind of funny about stuff like that - won't want to cause him any more undue stress

- my wife is a true animal lover - she swerves to keep from running over frogs on the road...

Post by **Gerwin** » Mon Jun 28, 2010 6:43 am

maybe she is related to my wife

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Mon Jun 28, 2010 8:14 am

LOL....my wife once swerved into the grass on the right shoulder of the road to avoid hitting a squirrel. She did not appreciate it when I told her they only make a small popping noise when you run them over.

ReneM · Post by **ReneM** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 3:22 pm

Sorry to hear about Stripey... is he any better?

And hey... I'm one of those wives!!! LOL

Damion · Post by **Damion** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 5:01 pm

Not really, but he does not appear to be any worse either. He spends a good portion of his day either sitting or laying on the bottom of the aquarium (sitting = upright like a fish is supposed to be, but on the bottom --- laying = laying on his side like a flounder)

My wife won't let me bring him in to have a look because she is afraid the stress will kill him off quicker, so I guess at this point it seems I just may have a mental fish?
He really did not start this until I put the Tiger Barbs in. I am wondering if the excitement of the tank has him stressed or something. Stripey used to be the aggressor of the tank, now it seems that Pinky is....and those damn minnows I bought to test to see if the convicts would eat them...now I have several aggressive minnows. Waiting for my wife to give in on a BIG tank so I can get something a bit more aggressive (maybe cichlids) that will eat them, mwahaha (evil laugh).

guitarest · Post by **guitarest** » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:47 am

Tigers can be aggressive towatds other fish and that might be it. You originally posted this a while ago and he is still kicking. Maybe its the barbs scaring him? I know my tiger bards tried to do the same in my tank until they got moved into the 100gal and the Bull minnow scared them and now they are quire peaceful.

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