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my favourite fish store, I Kite!” Kite is the name for the large Green cal filtration materials from the filters.
brought the breeding col-
ony to an end by bringing Severum; he’s really placid and just drifts Within three days, I saw that almost all of
those females and juveniles
to the shop. Yes, we’re around the tank like a big kite, hence the the fish were erupting with the parasites
talking dozens of fish. In
the process, I noticed that name. I asked what “wrong” meant. She and the tell-tale signs on Kite were becom-
they had some new arriv-
als, in particular several said that his whole body looks like some- ing even worse. He looked like he was
Green Terrors (Aequidens
rivulatus). Contrary to one poured salt all over him. coated in a layer of plaster that was crack-
popular folklore, the
name is a bit of a mis- Uh Oh!!! I know what that means. We ing away, and his fins were decaying at an
nomer. They are cichlids,
so yes, when they are in have an “ich” infestation. alarming rate.
“breeding mode”, they can
be as aggressive as any Now, I’ve seen these before, and I’ve With that, I knew it was only a matter of
other cichlid species, but treated them in the past, so I figured, well, time. Some of the smaller convicts were
no more so. As I was looking at them this shouldn’t be too big a deal. Since I’d the first to go on Wednesday, then some
I thought “wow, what a great time to needed to get medication anyway, I figured of the larger Convicts followed suit. Kite,
balance out the tank with a new species”. I’d pick it up the next day and start treat- my oldest and longest-lived veteran of my
With Acara (Green Terrors being part of ment when I got home. For good measure, tank, at 12 years, succumbed to the dis-
this family of cichlids) and Convicts, as I’d do another large water change so that ease on Friday morning. Over the next
well as my main tank denizen, a Green I could limit the spread of the problem. three days, roughly every 12 hours, another
Severum (Heros efasciatus), coming from Unfortunately, my hospital tank was not set fish would die until finally I was left with
similar waterways in Central and South up. Even if it was, I’d need a larger tank to only three fish.
America, I figured they’d be a great addi-
tion to my tank. put the Green Severum in; a 22 litre quar- Looking at the two surviving Green Terrors
antine tank isn’t going to cut it for a 25 cm (two had likewise died during the week),
I bought four of them, introduced them fish! Therefore, it meant I’d have to treat the and my longest-lived male Convict, I took
into my tank, and then spent the next cou- whole tank. a look at the two Green Terrors and realised
ple of days getting ready to go to Sweden.
Since I was going to be gone for a while, Tur ns out that
I figured giving the tank a good thorough
cleaning and a larger-than-average water would have to be
change would be good for all involved,
as well as a perfect time to introduce the the main step any-
new fish. Now we fast-forward to Monday
evening, November 11th. As I came home way, since when I
from work that day, my younger daughter
said “Dad, there’s something wrong with got home, I noticed
that the signs of the
disease had spread
to several of my
Convicts as well.
With that, I started
measuring out the
medicine and dos-
ing the entire tank.
I also followed
the directions and
removed all of the
carbon and chemi- Heros efasciatus before the crash.
cichlidpower.org.au 21
