sunken belly and clamped fins

[Corie Dora]

I have a female cacatuoides which underwent a day of stress a few weeks ago when a heater failed. The tank temp dropped from 80F to 60F overnight. I was able to slowly raise the temp the next day, but she has been losing weight ever since, and now has a clearly sunken belly. She swims with her fins clamped, and it seems that she isn't as buoyant anymore. She's eating eagerly, but not as much as usual. She swims around a bit, but spends most of her time with her face into the cave.

The male she was with during 'the chill' is fine.

Any ideas on what this might be, and if there is anything I can do for this girl would be much apprciated.

Thanks.

 

[fishgeek]

a fish that is eating and losing weight makes me concerned about internal parasites
faecal samples would help differentiate between nematodes/cestodes and protozoa and then allow choice of apprpriate medications

prehaps the chill has just allowed a drop in defence's and subsequenty more obvious signs
andrew

 

[Corie Dora]

Fecal samples? Is that something I can do myself? I have a small microscope.

I was wondering about parasites myself and thinking that maybe the chill lowered her immunity and gave a good window for something to develop. I will try to post a pic soon.

 

[fishgeek]

yes you can collect faeces relatively easily

place the fish in a small floating chamber for a few hours and anything passed will be there for you to analyse

once you have the sample it needs to be mixed with either water to make a thinner consistency to spread on a slide

this in mammalian sample is done by mixing with a relatively larger volume of strong salty wtaer , shaking vigourously and then allowing to settle, the water should be to the top of the container, add more after shaking, so that it forms a meniscus
touch a glass slide to this, worm eggs will be floating here if present

then get a dropper and collect some material from the bottom of the chamber worms and protozoa would likely be here

i think that in some case placing a glass slide against the fish's vent and applying gentle pressure is even suggested in some fish with visibly swollen vent region

once looking under the microscope
you should intially select low power magnification and have the condenser(apeture type device) beneath the stage(where slide sits) at its lowest settings and be looking for , acyually a link would be more useful here
i'll see what i can find
best of luck
andrew

 

[fishgeek]

decent starting point , not the best images though

nice pictures though better than likely to get at home