Something very strange is happening to this group and I cant put my finger on it. Basically I have lost 5 fish in the past few weeks and this is what happens. Basically the largest fish in the group will go to the left of my tank, wont eat will just begin to seem off. This will go on for a few days then the fish will die. It started with the largest fish in the tank and has been the next largest after and so on. Stomachs are not engorged, fish looks 100% healthy except it stops eating and separates itself from the group. The last 2 I watched threw the whole process. A day or so after the last one died the next largest in the group starts hanging around the left side of the tank stops eating never joins the group and then dies. I can see no visual issues with these fish at all. Ive tested my water multiple times just the basics everything is normal PH 7.6 ish I use small amounts of aquarium salt and a small amount of cichlid buffer exact same as my other 8 tropheus tanks. 50% water changes primed weekly tank is way over filtered and the fish are 2"-2 1/2" 15 left in the tank 60g.
The odd thing was I had a similar situation with my Ulwilie tiger group. Where I lost the 3 largest fish in the group but this was three consecutive days and when checking my water my nitrates were around 40 ppm higher then I'd like them of course. Other strange thing about both these situations was in both circumstances the rest of the fish all seemed incredibly normal in fact in both tanks there was breeding behavior being displayed the same day as the larger fish were dieing.
My first thought was bloat of course so diet is key here. I feed 50% NLS 50% spirilina flake. I do occasionally feed a random flake or pellet from my stash to change it up. The most recent I feed was a mixture of plecocain and Kens green pellet. Both tanks had small portions of this mix a single time a couple days before I lost my first Ulwilie tiger its been a few weeks since the Pollis had this. After I lost the first Polli I have fed only Kens tropheus lovers flake and I have also fed them a small amount of Thera A.
Realistically I'm probably thinking about this to much and chances are it has to do with diet whether it the NLS which I know some people aren't fans of or maybe the plecocain mixture. But what is super strange to me is that every time it seems to be the largest fish in the tank. Almost seems like there getting kicked out of the group, but being the largest fish in the tank it's usually the opposite where groups will kick the smallest weakest ones out. Maybe the larger fish are dieing because they are consuming more that could be the reason as well.
Anyways thought I'd share since I just scooped another one out of the tank and I basically watched the whole process and knew the fish was going to be dead when I came home and sure enough he was even though in appearance the fish seemed 100% healthy.
