# cichlid with sunk in belly



## hanna1 (Apr 21, 2011)

hi everyone,Im new in fish keeping and I would like to ask one question(sorry for bad spelling).One of my cichlid has sunk in belly and I went today to a pet store and I bought JBL Nemol against parasites.They adviced me to do 30% of water change,removing both of my carbon catridges and put that medicine in.What happen after few hours is that all fish started to act differently(not swimming as happy as before),so I tested water my ammonia wet up to 1.My question was, what do you think why this happend?rest of the water parameters are perfect(I use API master kit).What I should do now?Thank was cicled since end of march and for abouth one month amonia was 0.Please halp me if you can.tnx[/quote]


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## Chunkanese (Feb 4, 2011)

When treating tanks for parasites and removing the carbon sometimes theres ammonia, and nitrite spikes, due to the bio overload. Basically your taking out bacteria that convert ammonia and nitrite so for a few days you may have a little spike. As long as its low levels it should be safe while treating the fish. Im in the same process. *** just been monitoring the fish, and also use plants to help soak up some of this waste.

Make sure to keep your carbon cartridges wet so that the bacteria colony doesnt die off. I put mine in a small rubbermaid tote with an air bubbler.


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

If your ammonia is high, it's generally from overfeeding or insufficient or unestablished filtration. However, having a sunken belly, in my experience, is from under eating. This could either be from not feeding enough, or having other fish that are more aggressive getting to the food, preventing the other fish from getting enough. So, that being said, it's hard to say with the amount of info you gave.

Maybe giving a little more info would help. How large is your tank? How many and what type of fish do you have? What have your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate readings been over the last few weeks or so? How much and what do you feed? What type and amount of filtration do you have? And, the fish that you're asking about - what kind of fish is it?, how long have you had it and has it had a sunken belly since you had it?, is it acting normally otherwise?

Maybe that would help me a little more to help you, but someone else may have some input too!

Good luck!


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## hanna1 (Apr 21, 2011)

First of all,thank you so much for your replies,as one of you asked for more info. of the tank here it is:Tank is Juvel Rio 190liter with fluval U4 underwater filter,in the tank I have abouth 15 african cichlids(2-3inch),one big pleco(6inch)one small(2inch)and one burundi frontosa(6inch).I bought this tank from my friend together with the fish in march this year,just after few days of setting this tank in my home underwater filter stopped working and I had big problem with ammonia for quite few weeks( after I replaced faulty underwater filter for new one).So fish tank was going through cicle for abouth 6-8 weeks with all fish inside.I was doing 50% water change every 3 days until Amonia was 0,Nitrite:0,Nitrate:10-20 and P.H:8.2,these parameters stayed like this for few last weeks(3-4).Nothing new in the fish tank I didnt added(fish,plants etc...)Only change what happen two weeks ago is that I realised that heater in the fish tank was faulty from the start I bought this tank(I replaced friends old heater with new one for up to 300 liter tank)and water temp.was whole time 19 degrees celsius,eaven my thermostat in the tank was showing 26 degrees so I wasnt suspicious.Now water temp.with new heater is 26 degrees and of course I replaced faulty thermostat with digital more expensive one.Food wich I give once a day to the fish(abouth 2 pinch) is called Aquarian sinking pellets,you also asked about fish who has sunked belly,that fish was perfectly healthy untill few days ago,fish is not eating, but he bit my hand when I was doing water change like he is hungry but doesnt want to eat.Rest of the fish has some sings of stress, they are still swimming but not happy as before. Sorry for such a long text ,Im new in this and Im still learning .Thank you all for all yours advices I realy appreciate


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

Hmmmm... I'm heading to bed now, but I'll read this again in the morning and see if I come up with anything to recommend. I'm not the expert by any means, but hopefully we can figure something out.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Parasites is a common cause for a sunken belly and the ammonia is unlikely to be related to your medications. Does the label on the medication say it will or will not kill your biofilter?

You get ammonia when your biofilter cannot keep up with the source of ammonia. So either the source of ammonia has increased (dead fish? tank or filter needs to be cleaned?) or some of your beneficial bacteria have died off. That probably would not happen overnight, so look for another cause.

Meanwhile the ammonia can kill your fish too, so do water changes to keep it under 0.5 at all times.

Do you have another established tank? If yes, you can add filter media or substrate to the tank with the ammonia to bolster the beneficial bacteria.


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## smitty (May 7, 2004)

Hanna your tap water could also be the result of the ammonia readings.


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## hanna1 (Apr 21, 2011)

I tested tap water, its fine ammonia is 0,I dont have another tank so I have to keep this fish in this one,I tested my water in the fish tank again and readings are:Ammonia:1,Nitrite:0,Nitrate went up from 10-20 to 80,P.H. 8.2.Today some of the others cichlids are showing more sings of sunken belly,as someone advise me to do water change its ok,but what is going to be with medicine wich is in the tank,should I treat the tank again after water change?None of the fish died in this tank so that cant be ammonia problem,I clean filter sponges every 2 weeks in the dirty fish tank water when Im doing water change,once a week I clean 20-30%water in the tank.Im so confused I dont know what to do ?tnx


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Well for sure you need to do a 50% water change today and a 50% water change tomorrow for starters to get the ammonia and nitrate down.

Do you vacuum the substrate to the glass every week?

If you can't figure the cause, you will just have to live though the mini-cycle until the bacteria colony can grow large enough to handle the problem.

It does seem like an extra source of ammonia though, because your nitrate increasing means your bacteria are healthy and producing waste.


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

Wait for some input from others on this, but if you're having cycling issues, I have used Bio-Sphera before to cycle my tank and it worked great! I switched from a 75 to a 180 gallon tank and wasn't able to use much seeded filter media. I used the Bio-Sphera and, believe it or not, the 180 was cycled in a day or two, and stayed that way... Kind of expensive and hard to find, though.


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

What's the latest on your fish? Did any of our input help out?


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## hanna1 (Apr 21, 2011)

You all gave me right advices, just in the UK we dont have I think such as good medicines for fish like you do.I thought to buy this flagyl(Metronidazole) but Im not shure is this which you normaly use for treating a fish?here is the link:http://buymetronidazoleuk.co.uk/index_en.html,how safe is buying this medicine over internet and how I should use it?No any improvement,Im thinking to try Octozin or Interpret anti bacteria,Im not shure any more and I dont know what to do any more?Please help!tnx


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

What is going on with the tank now? You've tried everything we said?


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## hanna1 (Apr 21, 2011)

hi,sorry for late answer,I done water change of 50% every day,( these past three days) today ammonia is 0.25ppm,nitrite 0ppm,nitrate 5.0pmm(gone down drastically)ph 7.8 .tnx


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## Pizzle (May 24, 2011)

I think that the first responder, chunkanese, gave the right reason for the ammonia spike. Those carbon cartridges contained a large portion of your bacteria colony. When you removed them it put your tank out of balance.. The thing I do with the carbon cartridges on my Penguin 350 is to cut a slit in the top of the cartridge and dump out the carbon. Then I stuff some filter floss or other filter material in there.


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## snoskiur (Nov 10, 2010)

I agree... I mentioned in an earlier post that you may want to try Bio-Sphera. Look it up.


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