# Several fish getting sunken bellies parasite question



## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I am a member of a cichlid group on facebook and was discussing my fish with a very knowledgable gentlemen on there. I started my 125 with my mbuna from my 67 and some sand from a 75 mbuna tank that I had my yellow labs in for a while. The labs all except for the two males (separate tanks) 1m:5f in show tank and 1 male in my 67 as a growout tank for lab and dem fry, all started to thin out. At first I attributed it to just the fact that the rusties and demasoni were very fast aggressive eaters. Down the road a bit I put the group in a 75 and tried fattening them up for a month or five weeks to no avail. They progressively went downhill and during all of this had dosed with prazipro as well as did several 3-4 day runs of feeding metro soaked nls pellets. Fast forward a bit and the mbuna leave the 125 and my haps and peacocks enter. Two of my three most timid fish, rubescens (easily the third largest fish in the tank by a longshot) and my ngara flametail both have started to look thin. The ngara is borderline but not quite going concave yet. The Rubescens is a bit concave but not horrible looking by any means yet. So discussing this and my stocklist with this guy on FB, he said something about hexamita and that I should treat with metro soaked food for 10-14 days and either replace the sand substrate or bake it because the hexatima are in the fish's detritus which gets in the sand and just as the fish get better, they mouth some sand and put it right back in. The fish in question do eat just not as aggressively as the others. I have two of those labs in a divided twenty alone trying to get them back and the female appears to very slowly be coming back (over at least 3 months) and the male stays about the same. (This male was traded for one of the original 2 males because of his very black fins verse what I had, but he had a slightly skinny belly too when I acquired it. The other labs have since been euathanized as they looked too far gone. I obviously dont want this running through my expensive haps and peacocks, which reminds me that the tank boss, a 6.5" venustus has just ever so slight a concave belly as well. Is hexatima what causes bloat? Have any of you done this with substrate during treatment? Any other thoughts? *** heard of some type of disease, fish tuberculosis, I think that some people thought that the labs might have had/have. I want to nip this in the bud. I do have a large container of metro that will arrive today.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I may have added the haps and peacocks in May I believe as point of reference.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

Wow, crickets. Really? Being on the FB groups and on here I have seen a lot of this with yellow labs especially over the past several months. I really thought someone here might be able to give some more insight.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

I usually recommend praziquantel (PraziPro) for sunken stomach due to internal parasites. 
Internal bacterial infection is another possibility however this usually results in death within a few weeks at most. Another possibility is stress. Fish that are stressed due to harassment often look emaciated. You'll find them hanging out near the top of the tank or behind heaters/filter intakes etc. when they're not aware of your presence.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

GTZ said:


> I usually recommend praziquantel (PraziPro) for sunken stomach due to internal parasites.
> Internal bacterial infection is another possibility however this usually results in death within a few weeks at most. Another possibility is stress. Fish that are stressed due to harassment often look emaciated. You'll find them hanging out near the top of the tank or behind heaters/filter intakes etc. when they're not aware of your presence.


I think you were the one that told me to try the prazipro. I went through several cycles of it in all of my tanks as it claims to not be harmful and can be used as a preventative as well. It seemed to have no impact. The female labs that had it were on both ends of the stress spectrum. The dominant female who ruled all the labs got it last and the latest male is quite dominant and aggressive. The Venustus is the tank Boss and has just ever so slight of a going thin belly and noone challenges him. The ngara looks decent now but not coloring back up fully and the rubescens will likely be removed to the 67 once the quarantine is over because it at times can be seen lurking at the top even though I have only once seen anyone chase him, let alone cause any damage. As a precaution, I am removing all substrate from the 125 as well and treating them with metro soaked nls pellets for about ten days or so unless anyone else has any other ideas. I will do small daily water changes as well to try to remove all detritus in case it is a scenario like the facebook guy was talking about. At a loss and I dont want any losses from this.Tank parameters are 80 degrees, ph 8.3, kh 10-11, gh 15-16, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates never over 20-25.


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## Jaciesla (May 2, 2012)

I will share my noob experience with you and I have learned much since this story.

When I first started keeping African's I kept very common and basic fish, such as Yellow Labs. I too had a problem with sunken bellies in my 90 gallon and even took a fish to the vet to see what was wrong. I had tried many different medications in the tank ($$$) and all I could think of is that it had to have been parasites. The results came back from the lab and my fish did in fact carry tuberculosis (as do most Africans) but that is not what killed the fish. Apparently I had not been keeping up on my water changes enough, so I now do them at least once a week. I have not had a sunken belly since  
I also feed veggie flake infused with garlic every day to ensure there are no parasites.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

Jaciesla said:


> I will share my noob experience with you and I have learned much since this story.
> 
> When I first started keeping African's I kept very common and basic fish, such as Yellow Labs. I too had a problem with sunken bellies in my 90 gallon and even took a fish to the vet to see what was wrong. I had tried many different medications in the tank ($$$) and all I could think of is that it had to have been parasites. The results came back from the lab and my fish did in fact carry tuberculosis (as do most Africans) but that is not what killed the fish. Apparently I had not been keeping up on my water changes enough, so I now do them at least once a week. I have not had a sunken belly since
> I also feed veggie flake infused with garlic every day to ensure there are no parasites.


Thank you for that input. Water changes are not an issue with me though. I stay on top of my water quality very closely and do a significant water change weekly matching water temperature and using my own adapted buffer recipe to maintain appropriate ph, kh, and gh. I had been breeding for a while too, so keeping up on the water changes kept my mbuna acting like bunnies, except for the labs. They never did breed although the males that I got later tried with them to no avail. The five females I had were large adults when I acquired them and had not had a male lab present the entire duration of their adult life up to that point.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

I had a yellow lab with sunken belly. I used API General Cure which is 250mg Metrondizaole and 75mg Praziquantel at the same time. I think I did 3 cycles of it and the yellow lab looks and acts like a normal fish now.


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## THunter (Jun 30, 2013)

JP_92 said:


> I had a yellow lab with sunken belly. I used API General Cure which is 250mg Metrondizaole and 75mg Praziquantel at the same time. I think I did 3 cycles of it and the yellow lab looks and acts like a normal fish now.


Im in the same situation as the OP. I had/have a few fish with sunken bellies. It started with some white tailed Acei. I did 2 full treatments of Prazipro and now those Acei don't have sunken bellies anymore. They look and act like normal fish now.

However now I have some juvenile yellow labs (that were in the tank with the acei since day 1) that have sunken bellies...one in particular is really bad.

I just finished a dose of API General Cure. Add-wait 48 hours, Add again-wait 48 hours, Water change.

JP_92 when you say "3 cycles" do you mean you did three separate 'Add-wait 48 hours, Add again-wait 48 hours, Water change' ?

Not trying to Hijack this thread, sorry.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

No worry about hijacking, same issue so no derailment seen. I know that this is fairly common as I've seen it here enough and also in local tanks and on facebook cichlid group posts.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

THunter said:


> JP_92 said:
> 
> 
> > I had a yellow lab with sunken belly. I used API General Cure which is 250mg Metrondizaole and 75mg Praziquantel at the same time. I think I did 3 cycles of it and the yellow lab looks and acts like a normal fish now.
> ...


I was treating around 30gallons so that used up 9/10 packs. I did an extra add. 3 adds in total instead of 2. With the last pack I think I mixed some of it with flake food and then fed the fish. Now my yellow lab looks like this --> :fish:


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