Yellow Lab Problem?

[Tommy Gunnz]

Hey everyone!

So I have been keeping Yellow Labs (six) for since about march or so of this year and just recently started to breed them, which is exciting. However, I have this one fish who has an obvious sunken belly. This fish has looked the same since I bought it, as far as the belly goes anyways, and it active and eats well...almost too well though. It has also just recently started to show some redness in its gills...here is a picture of it:

Here you can see the obvious lack of a round belly, and some small redness of the gills. I do not know if this may be an internal parasite or not since like I said, it has looked like this since day 1. However, this fish eats more than most in my tank do and so I am thinking that maybe it is not getting the nutrients it may need or maybe a parasite of some sort is eating the food before it can digest it.

The problem I have though is that I have just recently had some success in breeding these fish and so my hospital/q-tank is currently full of fry and I do not have a good place to get this fish alone so that I can treat it promptly, if I have to. So my questions are:

Should I treat this fish with some meds, and if so, with what?

Should I/Could I treat this fish in the main tank with holding females?

Should I/Could I treat this fish in my hospital/q-tank with small fry in it?

 

[adambrum]

Im not 100% on this but i have a lab with exactly the same apart from the red gills i think it may have had a stomach parasite before i had it.

As i said im not 100% but mine seems health enough.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry been ill myself all day so sorry for the late reply.
Sunken in belly can be a number of things from fish tb to internal parasites.
Check the anus of the fish to see if its red and inflamed or enlarged.
Also check to see what it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Red inflamed gills is down to poor water quality to flukes, any signs of the fish flicking and rubbing against objects, also flukes can cause a fish to lose weight, so will check for you on the sunken in belly.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Thanks guys. To be honest, I dont think I have ever seen any of my yellow labs 'go to the bathroom'. I wasnt paying a particular attention to it I suppose, but I will keep an eye out for it.

The water quality in this tank is very good at most times. My only problem with my water source is some high phosphates and my tanks are prone to algea growing relatively rapidly. The cichlids themselves usually keep it down for me otherwise I scrape it.

This fish doesnt have a red or swollen anus either. I am thinking about using a Melafix or Primafix combo to help with any parasites and healing, but I dont know what kind of affect this will have on my fish, especially the holding females and the fry if I try to quarenteen just this fish. I am not really big on the whole dissolving tablet type meds since I have already dyed the silicone in my tank a nice shade of blue.

Would a bit of salt and heat treatment do anything for this fish? I know that is generally an Ich type thing, but I have heard that some people use it as a more general precaution or treatment.

 

[WILDER]

Bless him he looks off it.
Any black patches on the fish.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

No black patches. I fed some frozen foods (brine shrimp and blood worms) last night and this fish couldnt get enough of the stuff. I am going to raise the amount of times I feed frozen foods and see if I can get some bulk on this fish. If it doesnt work at all, then I can be pretty sure there is some sort of internal parasite stopping it from gaining weight...is this correct logic?

I am also getting another 10 gallon tank tomorrow and I will quarenteen this fish hopefully by next weekend so that I can focus on it more.

Thanks for the input and info. I am still open to any ideas or opinions so keep them coming!

 

[WILDER]

Sounds good to me.
Watch for when he goes to the toilet.
Good luck bless him.

 

[KingKenny]

Doesn't bloodworm cause bloat in Mbuna and other African Cichlids?

 

[Ferris]

Yellow labs are Omnivores so will be OK with the brine shrimp but definately stop feeding the bloodworm - their digestive system cannot process that level and type of protein.

Get a good spirinula based flake/pellet as a staple diet to compliment the brine shrimp - you can also get spirinula enriched frozen brine shrimp which would be even better.

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Ok, I did not know about the blood worm issue and I have fed it to this tank more so because of my tiger barbs and rainbow shark. I can easily keep it away from them though and stick with the brine shrimp. I dont think this is my main problem here though since all the rest of my labs are just fine and have no symptoms of anything.

I do use spirolina flakes and feed them once daily with some cichlid pellets (soft, slow sinking) that creates a sort of feeding frenzy in the tank. I have some really good growth and coloration from the other fish in the tank and they have been breeding like crazy. So much so that I am forced to let the two females that are holding right now spit into the main tank and let nature dictate if any fry make it. I know that is not the best thing, but I am plumb out of tanks and space to do anything else right now.