Noodles Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 (edited) I've got a cichlid that is still acting normal, eating normal but is getting very skinny. It's stomach is sunken in and it's bones are starting to protrude. All the other fish in the tank do not look like this one. What do you think it is and what do I treat it with? Edited February 17, 2011 by Noodles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingin' It Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 kinda sounds like an internal parasite. I'm sure someone can probably recommend a medication for you, but it may already be too late. If you have a quarantine tank available it might be a good idea to treat your fish in there if no other fish are exhibiting symptoms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THUNDER Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I've got a cichlid that is still acting normal, eating normal but is getting very skinny. It's stomach is sunken in and it's bones are starting to protrude. All the other fish in the tank do not look like this one. What do you think it is and what do I treat it with? If possible move the cichlid to another tank and feed him about two to three times a day. Feed him protein based food in the morning and some spirulina flake or pellet in the evening. If he still skinny and theres no change i would have to say he has a parasite. Look for a parasite medicacation that he fish will can eat. Try to get the fish more food and see how that goes for now good luck and i hope everything goes allright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 it could be internal parasites or it could be 'wasting disease', a bacterial infection. either way, quarantine and treatment is definitely necessary. i'm leaning towards wasting disease since none of your other fish are exhibiting any symptoms, although it is highly contagious so keep an extra watchful eye on your main tank! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodles Posted February 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I've been trying to research "skinny disease". Apparently quite common for loaches, anyone heard of it happening to African cichlids? I've put the fish in a QT tank, and I'm gonna get some meds tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I've got a cichlid that is still acting normal, eating normal but is getting very skinny. It's stomach is sunken in and it's bones are starting to protrude. All the other fish in the tank do not look like this one. What do you think it is and what do I treat it with? If possible move the cichlid to another tank and feed him about two to three times a day. Feed him protein based food in the morning and some spirulina flake or pellet in the evening. If he still skinny and theres no change i would have to say he has a parasite. Look for a parasite medicacation that he fish will can eat. Try to get the fish more food and see how that goes for now good luck and i hope everything goes allright. i wouldnt feed any protien based foods. I would just stick to veggie based food until he eats again. I would guess this to be a parasite and would reccomend medicated food and a quarantine in a 10 gallon if you have it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Thera+A is an NLS food that is high in garlic and good at getting those internal parasites out w/o using potentially harmful medications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THUNDER Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I've got a cichlid that is still acting normal, eating normal but is getting very skinny. It's stomach is sunken in and it's bones are starting to protrude. All the other fish in the tank do not look like this one. What do you think it is and what do I treat it with? If possible move the cichlid to another tank and feed him about two to three times a day. Feed him protein based food in the morning and some spirulina flake or pellet in the evening. If he still skinny and theres no change i would have to say he has a parasite. Look for a parasite medicacation that he fish will can eat. Try to get the fish more food and see how that goes for now good luck and i hope everything goes allright. i wouldnt feed any protien based foods. I would just stick to veggie based food until he eats again. I would guess this to be a parasite and would reccomend medicated food and a quarantine in a 10 gallon if you have it As i said feed it protein in the morning so it has the hole day to be digested. Any hagen protein based food is not that good but nls or xtream food is perfect. If its a mbuna feed less protein because they can get bloat real easy with high protein based foods. It sounds like you fish is just not get as much food as the other guys and just needs to be fatted up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 i still dont agree with any protiens until he's eating properly again.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 If its a mbuna feed less protein because they can get bloat real easy with high protein based foods. Protein quantity has nothing to do with bloat. i still dont agree with any protiens until he's eating properly again.. As stated by the OP, it already is eating properly, and the last thing that you want to do to a fish that is otherwise acting & eating normally, is withold nutrients, which is what amino acids (protein) are. If it was a serious case of internal parasites it wouldn't be eating at all, so I'm leaning more towards this being bacterial, sometimes referred to as wasting disease. Skinny disease in loaches is usually referring to internal parasites. commonly seen in recently collected loaches. Noodles - what species of cichlid is this fish, and what meds are you treating with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BettaFishMommy Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 If its a mbuna feed less protein because they can get bloat real easy with high protein based foods. Protein quantity has nothing to do with bloat. i still dont agree with any protiens until he's eating properly again.. As stated by the OP, it already is eating properly, and the last thing that you want to do to a fish that is otherwise acting & eating normally, is withold nutrients, which is what amino acids (protein) are. If it was a serious case of internal parasites it wouldn't be eating at all, so I'm leaning more towards this being bacterial, sometimes referred to as wasting disease. Skinny disease in loaches is usually referring to internal parasites. commonly seen in recently collected loaches. Noodles - what species of cichlid is this fish, and what meds are you treating with? i agree with RD on proteins not causing bloat. it is stress combined with a weakened system that causes bloat in african cichlids. i had a beautiful and very healthy mbuna of sorts (never did pinpoint his exact species) and he was fed a high protein diet the whole time i had him from some point in mid 2008 up to late last year. never had a health issue with him and he grew to at least 6 inches. some of you might remember photos of Grindle. he's gone to live in a 300 something gallon tank now i mentioned wasting disease in my earlier post in this thread, and it seems nobody read/saw what i wrote. hopefully now that a second person has said something about it, it will be investigated as such? from what i have read, wasting disease is also known as fish tuberculosis, and highly contagious between fish, with the possibility of humans being affected too. make sure you wear gloves while mucking in your tank if you have any open cuts or sores! have you noticed any changes in the curvature of the fish's spine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neesmo Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 If its a mbuna feed less protein because they can get bloat real easy with high protein based foods. Protein quantity has nothing to do with bloat. i still dont agree with any protiens until he's eating properly again.. As stated by the OP, it already is eating properly, and the last thing that you want to do to a fish that is otherwise acting & eating normally, is withold nutrients, which is what amino acids (protein) are. lol sorry i either filled that part in, in my head or i didnt read it right haha. I thought he wasnt eating for some reason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodles Posted February 18, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 The fish is a Placidochromis phenochilus. I gave the tank a dose of melafix yesterday, the fish has been in a QT tank since i posted this but it has been slowly getting skinnier for a while now. It still acts completely normal in every aspect, and has no curvature of the spine. If it were wasting disease wouldn't there be sores or heavy breathing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RD. Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 If it were wasting disease wouldn't there be sores or heavy breathing? No, not necessarily. The problem with cases of "wasting disease" is rarely are lab cultures taken, or necropsies performed to ascertain exactly what caused the fishes demise. Years back when I was a mod on cichlid-forum I ran into the symptoms that you describe on a weekly basis, but exactly what triggered this symptom in each fish was impossible to say. Some cases could be fish TB, some could have been parasites, and others perhaps an unknown strain of bacteria. Your fish is eating normally so we should be able to rule out internal parasites, that leaves bacterial, or viral. I would recommend treating the infected fish with Kanamycin sulfate. It's a broad spectrum antibiotic that treats both gram positive & gram negative bacteria. http://www.novalek.com/aquavet/kanamycin.htm http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/KanaPlex.html Be prepared for the worse, many fish simply don't react positively to any form of medication once the disease has become too advanced. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moutain Dew Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 If it were wasting disease wouldn't there be sores or heavy breathing? No, not necessarily. The problem with cases of "wasting disease" is rarely are lab cultures taken, or necropsies performed to ascertain exactly what caused the fishes demise. Years back when I was a mod on cichlid-forum I ran into the symptoms that you describe on a weekly basis, but exactly what triggered this symptom in each fish was impossible to say. Some cases could be fish TB, some could have been parasites, and others perhaps an unknown strain of bacteria. Your fish is eating normally so we should be able to rule out internal parasites, that leaves bacterial, or viral. I would recommend treating the infected fish with Kanamycin sulfate. It's a broad spectrum antibiotic that treats both gram positive & gram negative bacteria. http://www.novalek.com/aquavet/kanamycin.htm http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/KanaPlex.html Be prepared for the worse, many fish simply don't react positively to any form of medication once the disease has become too advanced. Good luck! Where would you purchase these products? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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