How to treat Internal Parasites and sunken belly in African Cichlids ( Malawi) using metro

[crunch7]

Hi ,

My main tank a 75 gallon 4.5 feet long African Malawi Cichlid community tank with some 25 odd has been infected by internal parasites as I have noticed few fish are having sunken belly and stringy white poop.

I have done the following already since past 4 weeks.

I am keeping them on main veg protein diet.
Introduced garlic to the food.
Used the metronidazole 1200 mg for the tank 3 times with 50% water changes in between.
Water is 100% fine.

Still the parasites seems to stay there.

The problem could be the carbon which slipped from my top filter to the sand in my tank which is extremely hard to remove now.​

Majority fish have no problem but the ones with sunken belly keep spitting food out and are getting worse every day.

So I need some guidance in the following areas.

1) How to treat the whole tank with metro ( successfully)
2) Do you recommend that I should remove or change the filter media in my filters, If yes then till what extent.
3)Do you recommend that I should remove or change the gravel sand in my tank, If yes then till what extent.
4) In case you have any other experience in this regard I am all in
5) I am not that good in using the siphon/gravel cleaner.

Thanks in advance and will appreciate if people with genuine experience in this matter can help me out.

Best
Crunch7

 

[Colin_T]

How long have they had the sunken belly for?

If you added the correct amount of Metronidazole and it didn't make any difference then they probably don't have an internal protozoan infection. You could try treating them with Praziquantel, which treats tapeworm, and then Levamisole, which treats thread/ round worms.

When treating for intestinal worms you treat once a week for 3 weeks. The weekly treatments are to kill any worms that hatch from eggs in the fish or tank.

---------------------
A small amount of carbon in the gravel is unlikely to do much especially if it has been in the tank for a while. If the carbon has been in the tank for any length of time it will have absorbed as much as it could until it was full, then it would stop absorbing chemicals.

Fresh Garlic isn't a good food for fish because it has some chemicals in that can make them sick.

---------------------
To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will absorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down, do a 75% water change and complete gravel clean. And clean the filter before treating. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[crunch7]

The sunken belly keeps on popping up in some fish or the other. Could it just be that some fishes are eating all the food. But then the pectoral fins are clasped too. I will say I am trying to treat sunken belly for more than 2 month's time. Most of the sub dominant ones are getting the disease.

 

[crunch7]

Could you suggest the dosage for the medications and whether they will have any impact on the beneficial bacteria in the tank ? Also do I need to change the filter media after every week of treatment? Should they be fed during this medication period ?

 

[Colin_T]

I have no idea what the dose rate is for Praziquantel or Levamisole but it should be on the packaging.

Neither of these medications affect filter bacteria or plants and can be safely used on any fish.

You keep feeding the fish while they are being treated.

You treat all the tanks at the same time and do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 24-48 hours after treating. Repeat treatment every 7 days (for a total of 3 doses) to kill any new worms that hatch from eggs.

--------------------------
The only filter material that needs replacing is carbon (black granulated substance) and that is not really necessary in most tanks. Carbon will absorb chemicals like fish medications and plant fertilisers so should be removed if you are treating the tanks for diseases. Used carbon should be thrown out.

Have you been replacing your filter media?

--------------------------
If you can post a picture of the sick fish (sunken belly and clamped fins) it might provide more info.

Set your camera resolution to 2MB and use a flash. Have the tank light & room light on and open the curtains to maximise the light in the room. Take a number of pictures and put them on your computer. Then pick out a couple that clearly show the issue and post them on here.

--------------------------
How long has the tank been set up?

Have you checked the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH?
if yes, what were the results in numbers?

How often do you feed the fish?
If you are only feeding once a day you could try feeding them more often (2-3 times per day).

 

[terry simmonds]

Hi surely the carbon filter is taking your medication chemical back out of the water, I would remover the carbon filter whilst medicating



QUOTE="crunch7, post: 3800285, member: 84156"]Hi ,

My main tank a 75 gallon 4.5 feet long African Malawi Cichlid community tank with some 25 odd has been infected by internal parasites as I have noticed few fish are having sunken belly and stringy white poop.

I have done the following already since past 4 weeks.

I am keeping them on main veg protein diet.
Introduced garlic to the food.
Used the metronidazole 1200 mg for the tank 3 times with 50% water changes in between.
Water is 100% fine.

Still the parasites seems to stay there.

The problem could be the carbon which slipped from my top filter to the sand in my tank which is extremely hard to remove now.​

Majority fish have no problem but the ones with sunken belly keep spitting food out and are getting worse every day.

So I need some guidance in the following areas.

1) How to treat the whole tank with metro ( successfully)
2) Do you recommend that I should remove or change the filter media in my filters, If yes then till what extent.
3)Do you recommend that I should remove or change the gravel sand in my tank, If yes then till what extent.
4) In case you have any other experience in this regard I am all in
5) I am not that good in using the siphon/gravel cleaner.

Thanks in advance and will appreciate if people with genuine experience in this matter can help me out.

Best
Crunch7[/QUOTE]