Possible Disease..

[darrel69]

Hi, i made a thread the other day about this, but there were a thew things id left out.. and im abit worried..

Ive got a male m.estherae (malawi cichlid).. for quite abit now hes had a sunken belly and gone really thin, his gills have turned red, and sometimes but not all the time he clamps his fins tightly... They're the only symptoms he has. He aint swimming funny, he dont have anything unusual on his body or fins, and is eating properly.

He's been like this for quite a while..

He never use to be like this, obviously somethings wrong but i dont know what ??.. none of my other fish are like this apart from two others that have slightly sunken belly's but nothing else.

The tank is far from overstocked and water quality has been ruled out.

Ive got an idea that it may be internal parasite or bacteria.. but i wanna be sure before i treat with anything (which i really dont wanna do if i dont have to)..

Questions..

Do you think it could be internal parasite or bacteria ? and worth treating ?

If so, would it be ok to take him out and treat seperately ?? as really dont want to put anything in the main tank!!

If internal parasite or bacteria is present, will it be in my fish only or could it be free in the water ? in my filters ? on the decor ? ect..

If i have to treat the main tank.. i have wild caught malawi's.. do you think they would tolerate the meds without any issues ??

I really dont know what to do.. do i treat ?? do i treat the m.estherae only ? or him along with the other two fish with sunken belly's ?? or the lot ?? and if i treat the lot, id be worried about the wild caught..

 

[darrel69]

ok.. been doing some research. Looks like im to treat the whole tank with a med for Internal parasites or Bacterial infection. But i dont know which ?? do i use a med for each ?? or is there a med thats treats for both ??

Also, when i finished treating.. would i need to put carbon in my filters to the the meds back out ??

I dont really like using carbon because dont it take minerals out of the water ?..

Stressing me out this lark...

 

[darrel69]

I got pics...

This is what he use to look like..

And this is what he looks like right now..

Advice please anyone..

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

i would say parasite buddy and r those lil black spots on him possibly creatures or just skin colour?

you best use something like aquacycline. i just got over a run with this and he was pretty bad like on his back and not swimmin.

i had him in a bucket and was doing 90% water changes every 2hrs and was using half a tablet of aquacycline each time. make sure u dissolve it in a cup of water. i found fresh from the kettle was best and faster dissolving. after a day of doing this, although alot of work, he got his colour back and lost his symptoms.

you may also be looking at a bad case of ammonia/nitrite poisening maybe?

 

[Colin_T]

The fish has intestinal worms. You need to treat the entire tank as all the fish will probably have them. Also worm eggs can sit in the gravel for a week or so before they hatch and re-infect new fish.

There doesn't appear to be any little red things hanging out the fish's bum so I would say it has tapeworm rather than threadworms.
You can treat tapeworm (and gill flukes) with Praziquantel.

Use 100mg or Praziquantel for every 20litres of tank water.
Do a 50% water change 2 days after treating.
Repeat the dose a week later, followed by another water change 2 days after that.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean. This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

The water changes after treatment will remove most of the medication. Praziquantel is fine and safe for all fishes, including wild caught rift lake cichlids. It is available from any petshop as a dog and cat wormer. And many fish shops sell it as a fluke and intestinal wormer for fish.

If the Praziquantel doesn’t work and the fish continue to get skinny over the next few months, then they might have threadworms. In which case you will need some Flubenol or something like that. I can never remember the name of it coz I don’t use it.

 

[WILDER]

Stick to the same thread or its gets confusing.
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical...wi-M-estherae-/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical...wi-M-estherae-/[/URL]

This med for internal parasites but not camallanous worms.
http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail62_45492.php

 

[darrel69]

Thanks for the advice guys.. a friend has taken him off me to treat in her hospital tank.

I have observed all my other fish and none of them are showing any symptoms what so ever... also the tank has recently had a huge waterchange (like 80%). But do you think it would be advisable to treat the whole tank with seachem paraguard ? which is all i can get hold of at the moment..

 

[WILDER]

If you suspect a fish had internal parasites yes it wise to treat the whole tank.
Good luck.

 

[darrel69]

Ok.. well ive got some food with added garlic to feed them and a bottle of Seachem's Paraguard. Enougth for it to treat my whole tank twice, do you think that'll be enougth ? or just the once ?.. and can anyone rate this product ? thanks.

 

[WILDER]

What does the seachem paraguard treat.

 

[darrel69]

It "efficiently eradicates many ectoparasites (e.g ich,etc) and external fungal/bacterial/viral lesions (e.g fin rot)."

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
What internal parasites does it treat.