# Yellow lab internal parasite?



## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I have had 5 yellow labs for quite a while now and am having problems with them looking very emaciated with sunken bellies. They are 1m:4f in my 125 with rusties, around ten, and my breeding group of demasoni of 1m:8f as well as about 35 small growing out dems. They act normal and the normally very dominant female has toned down since I put them back in the 125. I had removed them to my 67 for about two months to try to fatten them up. My ammonia and nitrites are always zero, nitrates 20 or below with about 50-75% water changes weekly. My kh is around 11, gh 15-18. All the other fish look fine and healthy. The labs don't get picked on or pushed around. They seem to eat plenty when I feed them NLS pellets once a day with fasting day once a week. I also supplement with spirulina flakes a couple times a week. When they were in the 67, I treated the tank with some type of antiparasite med to no avail. It was something with a brand name like Jungle med or jungle something or another. They have been like this for months and months, they swim fine and act fine otherwise. The males belly is flat but he looks a little thin, the dominant female was big and filled out without looking obese but since reintroducing them to the 125, she has thinned out a bit. Two of the remaining three girls are severely concave bellied and the third is just slightly concaved. Any thoughts or things to try would be appreciated. I had thought that it was just stress from the big female before so I had her and my second male in the 125 for a while. I don't ever have the two males together anymore as the last time I tried the one tore up the other one overnight. The females are all with the cool calm and collected male that has since recovered from being tore up by the dominant male.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

No one has any thoughts here?


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

I also have a Yellow Lab that has a sunken body. It is slow moving but it eats and isn't bullied by any tankmates. It's the only fish in the tank that has this problem. I have one other Yellow lab and its much bigger purchased at the same time. The Lab looks like the one in this picture only to a lesser extent.

One main question I have is if this is something that can be passed on to the tankmates? Also how can I help this fish? Sorry to OP as I don't have answers for you but maybe I can help generate some for our situation.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

My worse one almost looks that bad. I did notice yesterday about ten minutes after I fed them that one was off by itself with its buccal cavity swollen and was constantly doing the gum chewing motion. I said to myself that as bad off as she is that there is no way that she could be holding. It was water change night so when the tank was drained I found her because I wanted to strip her if she somehow was holding. She was back to normal with no chewing motions or swollen buccal. I have only ever seen one of them spit food on one occasion so I'm wondering what was going on there. They will puff their fins up and their throats out if they are challenging each other, but this one was by itself.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

Metronidazole should be the answer. Can anyone confirm this on this site? Funny thing is I've found a lot of sunken belly threads on the net and most of them are dealing with yellow labs.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Praziquantel would be my first choice for treatment (Prazi Pro). While metronidazole does well with anaerobic flagellates, it's not suited for cestodes or monogeneans whereas praziquantel is.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I was going to say that they were treated with metro before. Should I be concerned with the rest of the tank? The rusties, dems, and synos? Oh, one BN pleco too. Should I quarantine the labs for treatment? I have a couple twenties that I could use but aren't cycled anymore as I got out of breeding. I could remove them from the 125 and put them in the 67. It only has some growing out rusties and dems as well as my second male lab. He would need to swap places as he will kill the other if they are in the same tank. My strongest of my lesser three females is almost back to a flat stomach but I have been feeding a lot lately just to see if I just wasn't getting enough to them. The other two subdominant girls look bad and the dominant female has lost a little girth in the lower half of her body since they all went back into the 125 from the 67. She was the picture of what a healthy lab looked like to me but she may just be getting old at this point as she was easily the largest in length as well.


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## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm not sure on the dosing or pricing for the medication. If you can swing it, treat the whole tank. If you're not seeing improvements after a few weeks (following the treatment) you might want to treat the worst case fish individually.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

k7 can you post every medication you've tried so I don't go down the same road please?


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I have tried metronidazole, jungle parasite guard, and just did large water changes and dosed all my tanks with Prazipro now. It appears that it can be used as a precautionary med as well, and my girlfriend lost most of her freshwater shrimp recently, so I dosed them all. I had been using the same siphon and moved some plants and whatnot between all of the tanks, so as a precaution I have sorted equipment to only be used for my cichlid tanks and others to only be used with her planted tanks. I've read about multiple people using the prazipro up to four times in a row doing water changes at day three and redosing. If anyone has had a similar experience and it worked out well, please chime in. I'm wondering whether or not to repeat the dosing or just let it ride out. On a good note, the Prazipro is inexpensive as a treatment. I bought a small bottle for around twelve dollars and it dosed my 125, 67, 20, and 6.6, with plenty left to redose the 125 and 67 for another round.


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

yeah metronidazole and jungle parasite guard were what I found in most threads. Hopefully Prazipro works, keep us posted!


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

I will definitely update for better or for worse. I will try to get a couple pics of the two that look bad and put them up here. Then hopefully in a couple weeks I will see them filling back out again. Crossing my fingers that this will work as they are and have been in with a ton of other fish and if its a parasite that could be affecting the others, then I definitely need to get it sorted. I had been questioning whether my fish in my main tank were growing to slowly or not at all anymore. They all look healthy besides the labs though so I didnt know if I was just being paranoid.


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## k7gixxerguy (Jan 12, 2012)

On a related note. Anyone that has successfully gotten rid of internal parasites or worms, should I expect or should I be looking for strange detritus? I'm assuming they die off and the fish would pass them. Or would they just get broken down like food would and appear like normal fish poo?


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