Victorian Lake Fish With Sunken Belly

Hi, I think he's related to Haplochromis obliquidens but dont know exactly. about 3 mouths ago iv noticed that he has a sunken belly. he was in a 250 L tank with 4 small mbuna's that i was rescued together. as they got bigger i started to determin the species and the first think i undersatnded is that he is probebly unhappy with them as they are very aggresive.So i seperted him to a temporary tank ,about 70L and monitored him closley. I also tried to fast him, change diet and treat with metronidazole, with no reaction. He has a good appetite and his poop look good but he is very skinny
water parameteres are good, 0,0,less then 20, in all times i tested.water chnges are 25% weeekly. Do you have any advice? thank you

 

What did you feed him before the diet change, and what do you feed him now?

Can you take a pic of him?

 

I fed him Sera Alagea based food for african ciclids and now i feed him a mix of dry meat based food for ciclids

 

Good. Haps are more carnivorous, and feeding him the algae based food was very bad for him. Another reason, besides aggression, why it's not a good idea to mix haps with mbuna - their diets are very different (keep feeding the mbuna the herbivorous diet).

I would think the skinniness is due to stress from aggression and a poor diet. Hopefully he'll recover now that he's alone and on the proper diet.

What's your pH?

I would be doing a few 50% changes a week on his tank until he starts looking better. You can feed him a few times a day too, to help fatten him back up (but don't overfeed).

 

Its been 3 mounths since i moved him. Stress and diet might be what caused him to start this but now it seems that its not relevant since he isnt improving. I think that he has some kind of internal paraiste or a disease.

 

Can you answer my question about pH?

Can you take a pic of the tank he's in? It's too small for him, by the way.

 

I dont know the PH and i know the tank is too small.. its temporary for treating him

 

Can you test the pH? For rift lake cichlids, hard water with a high pH is very important, and could cause issues if it's not appropriate.

How often do you feed?

 

i feed once/twice a day and ill try to get a test kit fir ph

 

i took these pics today. im very worried about himIn addition to the sunken belly he has those black tiny spots on his mouths and his body and this red patch near his gills. Im starting to suspect septicemia and thinking of starting a treatment of kanamycin.
What do you think? should i try more anti parasite med or should i start with kana?

 

Did you ever test the pH?

I don't think it's septicemia.

 

Still didnt but i dont think it will mateer much. i have a substrate that is suitable for african lake ciclids and supposed to make the wate hard and alkaline and im doing water changes once a week with this fish alone in a 200 L tank so there's no reason for the Ph to be a problem

 

Hexitima / TB
If its eating ya maybe try kanamycin/metronidazole and garlic food

 

It sort of does matter about the pH. If it’s not high enough fish will stress out more which leads to problems. If pH is too low the results are the same but death is faster (I’ve seen it).

If you don’t know the pH, it is what it is.

Perhaps get a box of API General Cure and go with that and see if that will resolve the sunken belly. Since this is so extreme I would recommend that you do more than 2-3 does. Watch how it eats. If it spits out the food that just means that there still a parasite. Watch for white poo, if it starts turning brown that’s a good sign.

This might take over a month for this to resolve so keep watching the fish eat and do the water changes as recommended by the medications.

 

Hexamita? he isnt pooping white and iv already treated with metro

 

Again he is eating, no spitting and the poop is good, in the color of his food , not white.

 

Someone told me theres a coomon problem with fish that they are born with short intestines,he's saying that beacause the fish poop is looking good and he is still loosing weight that can be the problem with him Did you hear about it? he's saying that the treatment is to put food that wont rot and to leave it in the tank for all day, that way the fish can eat whenever he wants and he will absorb more nutritions. what do you think? do you suggestions for food that wont go bad for 10-12 hours in the tank?

 

I don't think too short of intestines is a thing, though feeding him more often and longer doesn't sound like a bad idea. Just feed him multiple times a day.

 

well the med that i managed to find was gyrdol by JBL ,its active ingridient is praziquantel. im about to try it tommorrow, did anyone has exp with this? i also ordered levamisole but it will arrive in 2 weeks