African Blue Diamonds

I got 3… came in tiny and emaciated… they are eating, but going to take a while, until they look good…

This is the smallest…
These are the other two

But just for comparison, I got 3 Fantastic’s last… several months ago now… in the same condition, the smallest died, but these are the other two now… trying a little different feeding regimen for the Diamonds

Got a couple African tetras

Nice black markings. Did you order from the same place that sells Oscar Tetra's ?

Only place I could find them right now

deworm them

So kind of a question… or discussion… I’m sure worming is solid advice, but wouldn’t intestinal tract worms take up the normal space food would, in the gut of a host, and the gut would look more normal, but the body might be more depleted and if they had not eaten for long periods, would be more the representative of the pictures of these I posted??? It seems, that getting fish from Africa, to the States, is challenging… Dan’s Fish ( a very good distributor ) had even made a video, about why he was going to quit ordering African tetras, and even though he wormed them all, he had trouble getting them to survive, because they were so starved, by the time he got them ( these fish did not come from Dans )

I’m likely to lose the that 1st, smallest one, as it looks like it has already started consuming muscle, for lack of food… similar to the smallest Fantastic that I had gotten months before..
I’m feeding extra gut loaded frozen brine shrimp right now, as it’s easier to not over feed them with that, than processed foods for a few weeks… the others in the tank, aren’t complaining…

I would expect them to be full of worms, and for those worms to have already found new friends in the entire tank. It's the danger of no quarantine. I would try prazi first, as my experience of African fish says dangerous nematodes seem uncommon.

The African fish exporting business is small and disorganized, and it's very common for the captured fish awaiting sales to be fed boiled rice. It's a race against starvation with many species. If those are captive bred, then there's no excuse. One of those fish is in advanced starvation, and unless it's worms, I would not be confident in that seller again. They should have been conditioned before sale.

Whether they can be brought around again depends on how long they've been starved, or how long the gutworms have had the upper hand. Usually, a combination of both.

I worry about your tanks Magnum. Seems to be that new, non quarenteened fish are going into your established set ups on a weekly basis. You've got a hell a lot more balls than I have!!

Hope these fish pull through, bet they like nice soon if they do make it.

Magnum Man said:

So kind of a question… or discussion… I’m sure worming is solid advice, but wouldn’t intestinal tract worms take up the normal space food would, in the gut of a host, and the gut would look more normal, but the body might be more depleted and if they had not eaten for long periods, would be more the representative of the pictures of these I posted??? It seems, that getting fish from Africa, to the States, is challenging… Dan’s Fish ( a very good distributor ) had even made a video, about why he was going to quit ordering African tetras, and even though he wormed them all, he had trouble getting them to survive, because they were so starved, by the time he got them ( these fish did not come from Dans )

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If fish have lots of round worms in their digestive tract they can appear fat and look like a gravid (pregnant) guppy. However, most fish don't have that many worms in them and they get skinny. Combine intestinal worms with gill flukes, starvation, stress from shipping and potentially poor water quality during that time, and fish can lose condition very quickly.

Tapeworms tend not to make fish fat if there are lots of them in the fish.

Praziquantel treats tape/ flat worms and gill flukes.
Levamisole treats round/ thread worms.
Flubendazole treats both types of intestinal worms and gill flukes.

Flubendazole might suit you Magnum. I can testify that it's plant and filter friendly. Used it many times over the years, especially when I had live bearers.