# Sunken stomachs.



## THunter (Jun 30, 2013)

*:!: What size is your tank and what SPECIES of fish do you have?* 75 gallon mbuna. 4 Acei Ngara, 6 yellow labs, 2 elongatus mpanga, 5 rustys. All fish are ~1.5-2"

* :!: How long has it been set up?* Initial stock added 9 weeks 2 days ago after a complete fishless cycle.

*:!: What are your water parameters: *Temp 77°-79°, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, pH 8.2, GH ~13°, KH ~13° Nitrate <15ppm. 50% WC weekly using Seachem Prime. Fluval FX5 w/inline 18w turbotwist UV

*:!: How long have you had the fish and what symptoms do they have? *Feed NLS 1mm pellet once a day. 6 days after initial stock I had an outbreak of Ich. Treated entire tank successfully with heat & salt. A week or 2 later noticed a few fish with sunken bellies. 2 treatments of Prazipro cleared the majority of the sunken bellies up, except for 2 yellow labs. A few days later had a Mpanga and yellow lab die. Yellow lab was bloated on one side only behind pectoral fin, heavy breathing, trouble swimming, stayed on bottom & died within 24 hours. Had a Mpanga die 2 days later after the yellow lab within 24 hours (did not see symptoms)

Since treatment of prazipro i have two yellow labs have not been eating. Theyre hungry and active, mouth the pellets but spit them out. Severe sunken bellies, have not seen white thin feces (or any at all) from these fish during this time. Tired 1 treatment of API general cure, no improvement.

One yellow lab in particular has severe sunken stomach, been getting worse for the past 2-3 weeks. Is this bloat?! Isnt bloat a quick killer?! Wouldn't a potentional bloackage kill quick also? Theyre starving to death and wasting away.

Thoughts please.


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## hamza1996 (Aug 20, 2013)

Salam
Looks a nice setup my advice is to stop treating the fish. And sunken stomach isnt bloat
In bloat the fish would rather have bigger belly 
If the fish with sunken belly are hanging in the corner you should feed them something else.
These fish behave in this way when the water chemistry fluctuates. Nitate spikes. Change 10% water everyday for 2 weeks.
Inshallah it would work.


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Bloat can take a week or more to run through the symptoms which start with spitting out food. You may or may not see the long clear or white feces.

Any fish that are still eating should be fed metronidazole soaked food. The API General cure is met and something else. You could soak your NLS pellets in that. Empty the powder packet into a very small amount of warm water--as small as you can--like an eighth of a teaspoon. Heat briefly in the microwave and add the NLS pellets. Swish em around in the powder mixture for a minute or two--you want them in there long enough to absorb but not so long that they start to fall apart. Just dump it all in the tank.

The fish that are not eating: need to treat with either Clout or Parasite Clear. If you don't want to go with the trouble of the met soaked food then you can just go with this treatment for all fish. Start with a large, 50% water change and gravel siphoning before you treat.

Robin


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