# Sunken belly.....



## chago

I've seen several fronts with sunken bellies...... but why does this happen?, Why do I have some with full bellies and others with sunken ones?

How do I fix this?


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## lloyd

it could be a simple diagnosis. internal parasitic infections can cause sunken belly. the fish continues to eat, but fails to gain nutritional intake, because of the aggressive competition for it from within the fish. sometimes fecal material will offer clues. passing string type feces, empty stool casings, herniated/inflamed anal tissue, etc. are all potential diagnostic clues. sometimes, there are no visible clues, other than weight loss, and/or the incapacity to gain it. treatment is simple, most shelf drugs are 100% effective, and it's always best to treat the entire tank. 
secondary options of diagnosis rapidly become scary. everything from TB, toxic shock, cancer, internal organ failure, etc...obviously, accurate diagnosis can be pretty tricky (and expensive, if not impossible) for wet pets.
i always err on the side of caution by starting with the parasite treatment. an otherwise healthy fish should respond (begin to show gain of weight, feces returns to resemble color of pellet) within weeks of a successful treatment. second round treatments can't hurt, but some antibacterial meds (if added for a 1-2 punch combo) can cause other troubles, if the second treatment is carried out too soon. 
in my fish room, if the fish fails to respond, it becomes 'c' graded. aka 'medium risk tank mate, poor visual appeal, inappropriate for breeding' HTH.


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## chago

hhhmm..... its kinda weird..... he eats, his feaces are the same color as the pelets, he looks and behaves healthy, but he's always been skinnier than the others...

This is him:


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## lloyd

he looks like a typical healthy male, who just doesn't eat aggressively enough. i would tempt him to indulge in a few krill feasts over the next month (spiked with an internal parasite med, just in case). he does look a bit stressed, but that could be a temp reaction caught in the photographic moment.


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## chago

thats great to know!!!.....

he's usually relaxed.... chasing all the others jejje..... but he gets super stressed and upset everytime I turn the lights on.... he'd rather have them completely dimmed....


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## KapampaGuy

Not trying to derail the thread but this topic struck a cord with me. I have a large male front eating well with a caved in abdomen feces looks healthy not white and stringy. He was also just shipped from africa less than a month ago could he still look skinny from being starved before shipping? To be on the safe side *** been treating his food with metronidazole and i'm considering a round of clout. What could i attribute this to?


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## lloyd

KapampaGuy said:


> He was also just shipped from africa less than a month ago could he still look skinny from being starved before shipping?


 fish might be fasted for a few days/week prior to shipping, to help reduce waste accumulation in packaging, but i doubt anyone would take that effort to the extreme of weight loss. if your fish is hollow bellied on arrival, i would: black mark the supplier as a 'c' grade distributor, give serious reconsideration how badly i really want that particular fish, then (if i didn't already cull it for credit) start a full round of anti parasite, anti bacterial, anti fungus treatments in a Q tank. any/all fish with hollow belly are in poorer shape than most of us would ever suspect, IMHO.
(edit to add: some folk might think i'm off the wall, with all this 'b-c' grade talk, but i have bought a plenty load of fish over the past few years, and am quite full of receiving WAA's (aka: whatever arrives alive) for my money. :x) vent over...


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