Female A.agassizi unknown problem.

[beleg]

My female A.agassizi seems to be sick again or i am too worried..

symptoms;

• Her right abdomen seems a tiny bit swollen compared to left when observed from top. Her stomach seems full with food however she doesn't seem to be developing any eggs , her behind is still like when she just laid eggs.
• She has lost some of her appetite, Takes one or two mouthfuls of food and then shows no interest but does not spit out food.
• She keeps fanning her anal fin and tail in weird motions, in opposite directions. The tail and anal fin have lost their shininess/transparency and appear a little matte.
• She still chases the male around and they court all the time.
• Her feces seems normal , not white stringy.

I will take a picture and put here. but there is not much to be seen. She just doesn't behave her usual self. What can it be?

 

[fishgeek]

some form of abdomenal space occupying lesion

fact that stool looks normal suggests less liekly gastrointestinal tract
poor appetite is non specific and maybe related to pressure in the belly that you are seeing as the swelling

fact that swelling doesnt look even makes me think more likely solid lump/growth etc

tb would be a big worry

andrew

 

[beleg]

I hope not.. Today i fed live worms and her appetite is like before. I'll keep monitoring her.

Meanwhile i saw a hydra on the tank glass which annoyed me. It must have remained from the daphnia i fed in order to get levamisole in to the fish. They are fry predators and hard to eradicate.

 

[fishgeek]

hydra are pretty susceptible to many things
copper/most of the benzimidazols/praziquantel has been suggested

copper from copper wires and small (9) volt battery is probably easiest

andrew

 

[beleg]

Its Camallanus again. This morning i saw a worm on female. Male seems healthy but i treated the tank again. They refuse medicated worms but they are hungry for any other type of food. Maybe i will get some clean daphnia again.

Is it a good idea to treat a tank with cichlids in it with copper?

 

[fishgeek]

inveterbrates are infintely more susceptible to copper toxicity that veterbrates

can you hget soluble levamisol?
i found the levamisol hydrochloride i use very effective straight in water

andrew

 

[oscarbartoni]

Pearl gouramis are good at ridding a tank of hydra, as long as there are no small fry in the tank.

 

[beleg]

Hi Andrew,
I use Levamisole prepared for human consumption. It dissolves in water , although not very easily. I talked to a vet and he said its hard to get Levamisole in liquid forms in Turkey. Its usually mixed up with other de-wormers. I previously used this medicine with good effect. I will try it again.

hi oscar,
I never managed to keep labyrinth fish for too long. They usually come from Singapore and don't survive well.

 

[beleg]

Weird experience here. Last week i mostly fed the female with whiteworms soaked with levamisole and decapped dry artemia eggs. The treatment dint work so well so i separated her to a cup and dosed levamisole like i did before with mild aeration. On second day when i checked the cup to change all the water , i saw that she had made few small piles of orange(artemia) colored poop and the poop had fungus growing on it. The fish looked healthy. Anyway i prepared another bath and let her stay in the cup. On second day i checked again but she didn't have this kind of poop. Instead she had white poop but i don't know if its due to heavy levamisole or protozoa. as soon as i released her she disappeared into one of the coconut caves. She is still hiding, its almost 7-8 hrs since she is released. Her breathing might be a little bit more accelerated.

What can cause the fish to make poop which can have fungus grow on it? I never experienced such thing before.

 

[fishgeek]

the fungus is a opportunistic/secondary invader

i would assume that the poorly digested food(read poo) was just nutrient rich enough for fungal growth.. just like happens with egg's or any other nutrient left on the bottom of a tank

for some reason doesnt sound like she is digesting well at all
you have covered the nematode and protozoa with levamisola nd metronidazol, does anyone near you know how to work a microscope and could you examine a faecal sample
it may be soething other than we have been assuming

andrew

 

[beleg]

Unfortunately no. No one i know has a microscope.

I haven't dosed the tank with metro, just used levamisole. I skipped metro because she has slightly swollen abdomen (not sunken as in most protozoa cases). Should i try it? Its hard to make them eat food soaked with medicine so i will go for 25mg/l direct use in tank. Should the external filter be turned off during treatment?

I haven't seen her at all today. I hope she recovers.

 

[fishgeek]

didnt you do the metro in daphnia?

filter shold be left on
metro is not particularly water soluble so pre dissolve in warmed water or mix with food

try this

 

[beleg]

I just applied levamisol this time. I don't see her anywhere.. Probably lost her

Edit:
She is alive but not well at all.. I found her resting tail up in front of a wood. I dosed Metro but this looks like dropsy to me.

 

[fishgeek]

something is distending the abdomen as we thought at the begining

i fear that you will lose her shortly
andrew

 

[beleg]

Can it be dead worms? Although i fed them frozen bloodworms , i think its very unlikely that she has real bloat/dropsy of swim bladder..

 

[fishgeek]

i would stick with my first guess that there is a tissue swelling/growth within the abdomen
hence the enlargement you intially saw not being symmetrical

only further diagnostics or necropsy would tell

 

[beleg]

I see. Thanks Andrew. This morning she was very near death. I'll need to find new mate(s) for the male now..