# Sick mbuna, or maybe not ?



## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

Hi.

First of my native language is not english, so i'm sorry about spelling errors.

For around a month ago i acquired a 250 liter aquarium with around 25 Malawi Mbuna Labidochromis caeruleus Golden Spec, and already on the second day i noticed white stringy feces from a few fish, one of them was just hanging in the middle of the aquarium and spitting out food when eating, asked on a Danish forum and the answer was Bloat, now when i'm thinking back i'm not so sure that was right, but anyway treated the entire aquarium with metronidazole at pretty high doses, and decided to kill that fish that was hanging in the middle of the tank.

That was around a month ago today, and there has been no deaths, and i was told i'm seeing ghosts, there are still a few fish with white stringy feces, but all of them are eating, and none are acting strange the fish seems perfectly fine, but i do not like the white feces, sometimes it looks kinda like pearls on a string.

I'm checking the water values every second day, and it looks perfect, no2 is at 0%, no3 is at around 10-20%, ph is 7.2 - 7.6 and the temperature is set at 27 degrees celsius.

Got a bunch of new fish, Hongi and Afra Cobue and was seeing white stringy on them also, they have only been in the aquarium for two days, i did see the same stringy feces when they where still in the plastic backs, so i'm thinking stress maybe ?

There has been none natural deaths what so ever, only one Golden Spec crushed by a stone, my own fault, but a few of the smaller fish looks pretty skinny, maybe i'm not feeding enough ? I'm using Tetra Pro Crisp flakes for Mbuna.

Should i worry, or am i really just seeing ghosts and thing that are not really there ?

Here is a video from today:





Thanks in advance.
Ronni


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## du3ce (Sep 11, 2012)

how often and how much are u feeding them?


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

du3ce said:


> how often and how much are u feeding them?


I'm feeding them twice a day, and not more than its gone in 15-20 seconds, nothing hits the bottom.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I did not see any white thready feces...can you post a pic of what you are seeing? What color is the food you are feeding them? The feces should be the same color as the food. Clear sections are not terrible as long as the thicker, dark food-colored waste is also being passed.

250 liters is 66 gallons, what are the dimensions of the aquarium? I think you may have too many fish, even just with 25 labs. With the dimensions and the list/numbers of fish you have stocked we can recommend a good stocking level. Some of them do look a little skinny...maybe feed a tiny bit more so their bellies are not concave.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> I did not see any white thready feces...can you post a pic of what you are seeing? What color is the food you are feeding them? The feces should be the same color as the food. Clear sections are not terrible as long as the thicker, dark food-colored waste is also being passed.
> 
> 250 liters is 66 gallons, what are the dimensions of the aquarium? I think you may have too many fish, even just with 25 labs. With the dimensions and the list/numbers of fish you have stocked we can recommend a good stocking level. Some of them do look a little skinny...maybe feed a tiny bit more so their bellies are not concave.


I agree on there is a few to many fish, but the problem was the same with only around 18 Golden Spec, as it is now there is around still around 18 Golden, 13 Afra Cobue and around 7 Hongi.

Will have to get back to you with the measurements, got a small son that likes playing with the measuring thing, so right now its gone. 

I do remember the length being around 1 meter.

If you take a look at this video: 



 around 0:45 you can see a Golden Spec with stringy feces, food looks like this: http://fastfishfood.com/WebRoot/StoreDa ... VSmall.jpg


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Let us know about the dimensions. In a one meter tank (39") I would keep a dozen dwarf mbuna...like the afra or the hongi. I see the pic but can't tell for sure how fine it is since focus is a little fuzzy. Try feeding a darker food and see what happens.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> Let us know about the dimensions. In a one meter tank (39") I would keep a dozen dwarf mbuna...like the afra or the hongi. I see the pic but can't tell for sure how fine it is since focus is a little fuzzy. Try feeding a darker food and see what happens.


Most of the fish is small, there is only 3 big, and one of them is moving as soon i can find it a new home, it does not belong in my tank anyway.  As i wrote, the problem was already there with only the Golden Spec alone in the tank.

The dimensions is 1 meter long x 48 cm wide x 49 cm high, so around 235 liters sold as a 250 liters.

Im thinking if it can be a water problem.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Water should not impact the feces of the fish. You reported your test results and they looked OK. Since the food you feed is at least 1/2 lighter colored...the feces may be the color of the food which is fine. Just having a long strand attached is not a symptom of a problem.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

What about the very thin fish, Sunken belly i think its called ?

Ordered some Tropical Malawi food, will try that instead of the Tetra Pro Crisp.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Decrease the number of fish so they can each compete better. And feed them a little more. You already treated with metronidazole which would kill off any intestinal organisms causing the problem.

Look for a food with aquatic protein like krill, algae like spirulina, fruits and vegetables in the first 5 ingredients.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> Decrease the number of fish so they can each compete better. And feed them a little more. You already treated with metronidazole which would kill off any intestinal organisms causing the problem.
> 
> Look for a food with aquatic protein like krill, algae like spirulina, fruits and vegetables in the first 5 ingredients.


Tried taking a picture of the stringy feces without much luck, guess my camera is to bad.

But on of them it looked like very thin, and on another it was something like a zebra, white, black, white, black, white, black you get the picture.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

I know this is not a mbuna, but its looking for a new home, its just to show the stringy feces.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Black-white-black-white is fine. Since your fish are eating I would not treat until I saw additional symptoms. You are currently doing 15-20 seconds. Feed them enough so it takes 30 seconds for it all to be gone.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

DJRansome said:


> Black-white-black-white is fine. Since your fish are eating I would not treat until I saw additional symptoms. You are currently doing 15-20 seconds. Feed them enough so it takes 30 seconds for it all to be gone.


So what you are saying is that i'm seeing ghosts ?

Will up the food a little bit, and change over to that new Tropical Malawi, and hope the best, i really don't want my fish to die.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Not ghosts...just that feces that are intermittently light and dark are not a problem on their own. If there are additional symptoms then maybe you can diagnose something.

When the feces are 100% clear and thready and the fish are not eating...THEN you have a disease.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

Well that Nimbochromis livingstonii on the pictures had to go today, i really hate taking a healthy fish life, but suddenly it lost most of its color, and became extremely aggressive, and was chasing everything around.

Strangely enough the white feces was gone today, and it had normal dark, it must have something to do with the color change.

it looked like this today:


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## JonathanPrior (Sep 12, 2012)

male livingtonii change to a blue color at points as they mature, as yours did, and become very agressive. Its a real shame you got rid of it that way rather than taking it to your LFS......


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

JonathanPrior said:


> male livingtonii change to a blue color at points as they mature, as yours did, and become very agressive. Its a real shame you got rid of it that way rather than taking it to your LFS......


Well i've got around 60 km to the nearest shop, and the fish was really beating on my mbuna, so it was a choice i had to make.


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## du3ce (Sep 11, 2012)

you dont have a pond, river or lake nearby?


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

du3ce said:


> you dont have a pond, river or lake nearby?


tsk, tsk, never release in the wild.


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## Ronni.N (Nov 8, 2012)

Well, I don't think the fish is sick, changed the food to Tropical Malawi and i'm still seeing a few strings, but its dark, zebra like, the white color is gone.

And one of my L. caeruleus has eggs in her mouth, don't know the right term sorry.


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