# Mbuna ravenous but loosing wieght



## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

I have an 84g 6' tank that's been running for 6 years with an AC110 and XP3 filter along with 2 power-heads for circulation. The tank is crowded but not overly so. No new fish have been added in 3 years other then hybrids born in the tank. I do a 50% water-change weekly and filter cleaning bi-weekly. My water parameters have remained stable since the initial cycling I did when I set the tank up.

My fish have always been healthy until recently. Lately, starting with my red zebra they have been displaying shrunken abdomens as if they have not been fed for a long time. I feed them Tetra Cichlid Mini-granules twice daily in amounts they can consume in a minute or so. I also supplement with occasional blanched vegetables.

I suspect an internal parasite or something like that but couldn't find anything in the library that fit. Has anybody got a clue what it could be? I'm very frustrated because I have always prided myself on the health of my tank.


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

It could be tuberculosis aka the skinny disease. I thought some of my fish had this until I didn't see any other symptoms. Later I realized that all the skinnier fish I had were always like that and only looks skinny compared to their fry which I had raised in good conditions. I assume that the fish I bought were not raised in such good conditions and will permanently be stunted in size and in the stomach region because of it. If you suspect it is tuberculosis please be careful when cleaning the tank if you happen to have any open wounds because though rare, well very rare, it is communicable to humans.

That said it could be a whole host of other things, I'm just throwing something out there.


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

I don't see any other indicators of fish TB other then the shrunken belly which is most pronounced in the red zebra. Others seem very healthy but some of the adults in the tank show signs of going skinny.

Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill and not feeding enough. Is there any way to fatten up an Mbuna without the danger of bloat?


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

If you don't see any other TB symptoms then good news.

I had a gourami that was bullied out of a fair share of food, I isolated it and over fed it and changed the water a lot and viola *months* later it was better. Not sure how to accomplish this with multiple mbuna without causing bloat, or just letting the big fish get bigger. If you figure out a way I would like to know so I can get the chain store bought fish I have to fill out like their offspring. I have tried feeding and cleaning more in my mbuna tank but it seems just to make more poop.


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## teefers (Feb 11, 2007)

You're describing exactly what sounds like nematodes to me.

"A method of diagnosing a nematode problem is generally just a guess. When a fish is eating well yet is still not putting on weight, an intestinal infestation may be suspected. This is particularly plausible when a fish is eating regularly yet continues to lose weight, metabolizing body musculature to stay alive. This is usually seen as thinning along the back on either side of the dorsal fin. This often results in a well-fed fish starving to death."

-http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2007/03/trematodes-and-nematodes-in-fish.html

It's MUCH more common than TB.


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

I suspect it may be the smaller of the intestinal nematodes since there are no cysts associated with the larger ones. The recommendations I have searched say to use Levamisole Hydrochloride to treat the entire tank. My PH is 7.6 and it is said that the PH needs to be 7.0 for the medicine to be most effective.

Another recommendation was to use the same medicine used to treat flukes.

Has anybody used either of these methods to to treat for nematodes?


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## teefers (Feb 11, 2007)

People in another fish community I'm part of online have used levamisole successfully to treat nematodes in various species of fish, not just cichlids. I've personally never used it because my fish don't have nematodes, but if they DID, I would go for the levamisole, pronto!


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