# Sunken Belly due to worms or bloat?



## Pabs92 (May 17, 2016)

Hey guys,

Please take the time to read my whole post and thanks in advance 

I currently have a 125 gallon tank with a fluval fx6 and a fluval 406 for flitration. I use aragonite substrate to maintain the alkalinity of the water and have a few anubias in the tank as well. Nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels read at zero before and after my weekly 50% water changes. My temp sits at 80 typically but often drops to 78 during water changes. I use prime to dechlorinate. I have two fluval 55g circulation pumps and my filter outlets creating adequate surface agitation, no film at the top. I feed NLS thera A pellet foods, in addition to nori (sushi seaweed wraps with no salt or additives). I feed NLS every other day in the evening, with nori every morning and on the no NLS eves.

My stock list includes :

3- Yellow Labs
3-Red Zebras
1-milomo hap
1-rohdessi hap
6- OB peacocks
1-demasoni
1-red top zebra
1-kenyi
2-bumble bee
2- pictus catfish
1-upside down catfish
1- unidentified synandontus cat
1-red shoulder peacock
1-afra lion cove 
2- dragon bloods
3-sunshine peacocks
1-eurek
1- red fin borleyi
1-german red
2-regal blue
1- salousi
1- taiwan reef

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THE PROBLEM* : So, for about six months now , my taiwan reef hap has been spitting out food after trying to eat it. Very recently, I watched him pick up a bunch of the NLS pellets and hold them in his mouth until he eventually regurgitated a mouth full of pellets. He seems to eat the nori as I see him not only ingest it, but poop it out. I havent seen any white stringy poo or really any being produced by him, if he does its small and intermittently. He has a very pronounced sunken belly and does seem to have disproportionately large eyes for his body size, he has progressively lost his color over time.
*
NOTE :* Although I am quite disappointed in my self for this sunken belly situation, the AGGRESSION in my tank is LOW. I have found an awesome balance with overstocking and colors so that my aggression has been well distributed and not targeted on any particular fish, including the ones with sunken bellies. All my fish approach the glass for feeding while some of the sunken bellied fish go about it a bit more lethargically. None of the fish hide constantly. No strange swimming. Also, some of these fish have had sunken bellies for months and have not died or acted differently than described.

*ALSO* I recently added a peacock, red shoulder, and dragon blood, the OB and red shoulder both will try to take food, attempt to process it in their mouth but ultimately spit it out. I have about 7 other fish displaying sunken bellies, two of which also wont eat. I am having tons of trouble trying to figure out what is happening and how to treat it. The crux of the situation is that, if suspect fish wont eat, then I cant get them to eat any metro.

I have read some about these medicines as they keep coming up in my research:

-Levamisole
-Tetra Parasite Guard (contains prazi pro and metro)
-Clout
-Metro
-Prazi pro
-epsom salt forced injection mixed with baking soda and metro (or something similar)

I hope the descriptions I provided help any one who reads this in determining the problem!
I greatly appreciate any constructive feedback, these fish are one of my passions and am determined to do my best to give them an excellent quality of life!
THANKS!!!

sincerely,

Pabs 92


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## euphr (Aug 9, 2015)

Sounds like he may have parasites because of the sunken belly. If he wasn't getting some nutrition then he wouldn't have lasted six months. How old is he?

I would put him into a QT and treat him with metro laced food as it sounds like he is eating something and will work better than just dosing the tank, but I would definitely do both. Use the bloat guide for treating the tank with metro. I typically double the dosage that the bottle recommends for dosing the tank.

Then watch him and see if he improves. If he starts to eat like what you believe is to be normal then you can work to fatten him up by feeding him two times a day, maybe three.

I think at this point anything more could be overkill and stress him more.


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## Pabs92 (May 17, 2016)

euphr said:


> Sounds like he may have parasites because of the sunken belly. If he wasn't getting some nutrition then he wouldn't have lasted six months. How old is he?
> 
> I would put him into a QT and treat him with metro laced food as it sounds like he is eating something and will work better than just dosing the tank, but I would definitely do both. Use the bloat guide for treating the tank with metro. I typically double the dosage that the bottle recommends for dosing the tank.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply euphr! I've considered this as an option, my only concern is that metro needs to be ingested by the fish in order for it to work, while this guy is still hanging in there he spits up all his food after holding it in his mouth.


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## alexau (May 17, 2016)

It is a worm(((


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## Pabs92 (May 17, 2016)

alexau said:


> It is a worm(((


what makes you think so? and do you have any treatment suggestions?

Thanks!


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## euphr (Aug 9, 2015)

Metro doesn't need to be ingested for it to work. I agree that Metro is more effective when you are able to get your fish to eat metro food but you can dose the tank with Metro.

If you don't think metro will work then I would pull him from the tank and treat with Levamisole or Clout. Both are strong anti parasites and Levamisole can stress the fish out so you want to treat only those that are showing symptoms of an issue. Levamisole is a three week treatment so he will need to be QT for that period of time as you need to get all the eggs and etc. You will likely want to treat with an antibiotic at the same time because as the parasites die off they will make his stomach sore and he will not want to eat as he is healing.

I know when i went down the path of Levamisole i did a lot of research and made sure to do it properly as the wrong dosage can kill your fish real quick and there are a lot of water changes required. when i dosed my main tank it made some of my fish paranoid for a couple days after.


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## Pabs92 (May 17, 2016)

Thanks for the help Alex! I am thinking I will probably go down the levamisole route!


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