Tiger Barb Oddly Shaped

i have 4 tiger barbs and 1 rainbow shark in a 20 gal and i do water changes once a week, today i did a very big water change in preparation to go to go to my local fish store and get more barbs, i noticed my red neon tiger barb was in oddly shaped. When i bought this tiger barb he was already naturally in a more long shape rather than a triangle like the rest of my tiger barbs, he seemed healthy aswell. today he seems to be even more slender and looks to have an indent making him look like he has a neck. it doesn’t look like anything that is affecting the fish at the moment as he/she is swimming and eating normally. Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? the other fish are all acting perfectly normal, the red neon tiger barb also has a split on his fin on his back(i’m not sure the scientific name). i just really hope everything is okay and thank you for taking the time to reply

can you post a picture of the fish so we can see what you are talking about?

Colin_T said:

can you post a picture of the fish so we can see what you are talking about?

Click to expand...

it is naturally deformed and has an intestinal problem that is causing it to waste away.

you could try deworming the fish. Praziquantel is used to treat tapeworm and Levamisole is used for thread/ round worms.

if the fish doesn't start to fill out after deworming then it could be a spironucleus infection but its probably just worms.

Colin_T said:

can you post a picture of the fish so we can see what you are talking about?

Click to expand...

Colin_T said:

it is naturally deformed and has an intestinal problem that is causing it to waste away.

you could try deworming the fish. Praziquantel is used to treat tapeworm and Levamisole is used for thread/ round worms.

if the fish doesn't start to fill out after deworming then it could be a spironucleus infection but its probably just worms.

Click to expand...

okay i will do that right away, is Praziquantel something i could buy at my local fish store? would i need to have the fish in quarantine tank while treating? thanks so much

Praziquantel is available from any pet shop. It is sometimes sold as a fish dewormer, and a treatment for gill flukes, and it is used to treat dogs and cats for tapeworm.

You treat the entire tank because if one fish has worms, they all have worms.

Colin_T said:

Praziquantel is available from any pet shop. It is sometimes sold as a fish dewormer, and a treatment for gill flukes, and it is used to treat dogs and cats for tapeworm.

You treat the entire tank because if one fish has worms, they all have worms.

Click to expand...

okay i just treated the tank and followed the directions on the bottle, the other fish seem fine other than my platinum green tiger barb is swimming straight down and the second he stops he will start floating to the surface, could this be a sign the worms infected him too?

If the fish swims down and then floats back to the surface it has either ingested a lot of air while feeding (common with barbs) or it has a swim bladder issue. Air being the most common cause. Wait a few hours and see how it looks. Try to feed frozen (but defrosted) or live food for a few days and see if the fish swims normally after that. If it does then the problem was air that the fish swallowed. If it is air the fish will fart the bubbles out in a few hours and swim normally after that.