Fish is hiding and not eating

[Squirrelbuddies]

I posted this a day ago in the African section but no replies....

One of my kribs is hiding at the bottom of the tank under the driftwood. He has no appetite and no longer swims to the top for food like he used to. His poo (when he has it) is whitish. Belly looks a little swollen, too. It's been about 7-8 days now. Tried the shelled pea thing but all of the other fish eat them up.

Is this an internal parasite problem? If so, how do I treat it?

 

[simonbrown403]

SOUNDS LIKE IT, INTERPET DO A MED FOR THIS, JUST GO TO LOCAL AQUATIC SHOP, THEY SORT U OUT.
PERSONAL I DONT RATE IT MUCH I USE FENBENDAZOLE ITS A PIG WORMER MOST DISCUS DEALERS WILL HAVE IT.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Ok, thanks. I will go to the lfs and check this out. Should I be separating the krib from the others?

Also, just in case someone asks - water conditions are great:

Ammonia and nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5ppm
pH: 7.6

Tank is a 55 gallon and only has 9 small congo tetras and 2 small kribs. (I have 5 USD cats in the quarantine tank just waiting to join them!!)

 

[simonbrown403]

yes u can seperate, but still treat main tank just in case.
before and after u treat it give it a realy good gravel clean, becarse worm eggs can sit in gravel and in the poo on the bottom.

 

[Tolak]

Sounds like a parasite, I've treated angels with this condition with good success.

What I do is seperate the sick fish from the rest and put it in a 10 gallon tank. Turn the temp up to the top of what the fish can handle. From looking up kribs, this seems to be 81F. I bring angels up to around 90F, I know they can handle that temp. Make sure you have plenty of aeration, the warmer the water, the less oxygen it can hold. Treat with 40 mg per gallon metronodazole daily, usually sold as hex-a-mit, with 50% water change daily.


Usually after a week or a little less, I sprinkle a bit of metro on some frozen brine shrimp & mix it in. This is when they seem to start eating again. They sell medicated flake with metro, I just mix it in myself. Seems like once they start to even mouth & spit out the medicated food, they are on the road to recovery. Usually takes around 2 weeks to cure it.

Tolak