# Sunken Belly?



## bma57

My subdom male M. estherae has a very pronounced concave belly that curves inward from his pelvic fins to his anal fin. He's always been on the thinner side, but it's gotten more noticable as he's grown. He's the only fish in the tank like this. I know this can indicate parasites, but it's been like this a long time and he's active and apparently happy (except when the dom gives him a hard time now and then). He eats enthusiastically. His color is good. No stringy poo. No flashing. No other symptoms of any kind.

Is this necessarily a sign of a problem? Or could this fish just have an odd shape?

If it matters, it's in a 120g with 7 other estherae, 9 acei, 5 labs, 1 venustus, 1 ob peacock, 1 sp.44, and 2 bn plecos. Thanks.


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## Robin

Hi,

A concave stomach * _usually_ means either an internal bacterial infection or parasites. One possibility here is that this particular fish is healthy enough otherwise that he's able to fight off whatever is going on. The danger you face with that is that if he suddenly comes under some sort of stress that lowers his immune system then he could succomb pretty quick. 
How long has he been like this? Weeks? Months? Treating the entire tank to a week of metronidazole soaked food would be a good idea. If you're already feeding them some kind of pellet then I would make your own met-soaked food using those pellets.
* _usually. . . _
I've had a yellow lab for six years who has always had a somewhat concave belly area. Early on I treated him with the met-soaked food and it didn't seem to make a difference. He's what I call a professional eater--without exception he gets the largest portion of the food I drop in. But he remains thin. He's always been a runty-ugly little fish so I honestly don't know if there's some ongoing problem with him or he's just made that way.

I wouldn't asume that your fish is just made that way. Treat with met-soaked food or perhaps Jungle Parasite Clear which contains metronidazole and see if there's any change.

Robin


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## bma57

Robin said:


> Treat with met-soaked food or perhaps Jungle Parasite Clear which contains metronidazole and see if there's any change.
> 
> Robin


Thanks. I have some Jungle Brand Anti-Parasite food, but it looks like the active ingredient is praziquantel, not metronidazole. Would using this food be an appropriate treatment or should I buy something with met instead?


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## Robin

Sure use the prazi-food. Where your fish is still healthy and eating if the prazi doesn't do it then you'll have time to try the metronidazole.

Robin


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## bma57

Robin said:


> Sure use the prazi-food. Where your fish is still healthy and eating if the prazi doesn't do it then you'll have time to try the metronidazole.
> 
> Robin


OK... Time for plan "B". A month has passed and I have (per the instructions on the package) fed exclusively the Jungle Brand praziquantel treated food for the same three consecutive days per week for four weeks. There has been no change whatsoever. All fish still act normal and healthy, but the subdom male estherae still has a radically concave belly. A couple of others seem to have a slight inward curve as well, but not nearly as pronounced.

I figure it's time to go to the next level, so I went to what I thought was a pretty decent LFS and asked about anti parasitic medication containing metronidazole. By the look on the clerk's face, you would think I had asked her where to find a flux capacitor for my time machine. She attempted to help me, but could only find met in a powdered medication. Isn't there a liquid version that I can use to treat food? If so what are some products to look for? Also, if there are any tips or tricks I should know regarding treating food (either NLS or spirulina flakes) please pass them along.

Thanks for your help.


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## phamf

From my experience of handling sunken belly mbunas.....I've fed them regular NLS and the sunken belly usually goes away within a month..and comes back to it's normal shape. Sometimes I could just be the diet the fish is on.


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## bossfish

The powdered metro works great. I usually disolve some in a little water then soak pellet food in the metro water and feed. My understanding is that Metronidizole is pretty hard to overdose so I try to put as much medication as will disolve in the water that one feedings worth of pellets will soak up.


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## bma57

bossfish... Thanks for the suggestion. I'll pick up some powdered met and give your method a try.

phamf... Your input is appreciated, but NLS is pretty much the exclusive diet of this tank and has been for the 14 months or so that it's been running. I do give them Aquatrol spirulina flakes for a little change about once a week, and the cichlids do occasionally hijack the algae wafers meant for the plecos, but NLS is the staple.

Thanks everyone for the help!


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