trouble for my cichlid

[gadazobe]

My p.elongatus in my cichlid tank seems to have developed a hernia It looks like some of his guts are hanging out of his anus. Apart from that, he seems fine, swimming around, eating and making a general nusiance of himself, as usual. The water parameters are good, no ammonia, no nitrite, low nitrate and no other fish are affected. Could it be a problem with the food swelling in his stomach and forcing his guts to move? He's now one of the smallest fish in the tank (from being the largest and a bully) but he insists on eating the larger granules that the others eat. I do put smaller granules in for him and a few other smallies, but he doesn't want to know. What do I do, leave him and see what happens, medicate the tank or what? Help please.

 

[semper fi]

had this problem with my psuedos a few years ago. is he abnormally fatter than usual? if so, could be malawi bloat. basically he is constipated. cut back on feeding and soak the pellets in tank water before feeding to the fish. you will not starve the fish if you even fast them for a day or two.

had this problem with my p. callainos and p. estherae a few years ago. they were fine and i could not find anyone who would tell me what was wrong. it seemed like the protrusion was pointed and sometimes was more noticeable than usual, but always there. they swam around fine and ate normally. was told by one person that they were just maturing. the p. callainos still has the protrusion it has gone down now. took a few months. keep an eye on him and let us know.

maggie

 

[gadazobe]

This protrusion isn't pointed, it's like a blob for want of a better word It's pink and white - in fact it looks like one of the pellets that's been in water for some time and it's got stuck up my fish! I feel like netting him and trying to pull it out but I'm too scared to just in case it's part of him

 

[cichlidmaster]

Silly question, but I have to ask..........

Are you sure it's a male fish??? I had a female frontosa get egg bound and before I realized the problem she went belly up.

Fish can get eggbound just like birds.

CM

 

[gadazobe]

I think he's male - he's blue with vertical dark blue stripes, yellow fins edged with dark blue and three egg spots on his fins. And his attitude is definitely male chauvanistic But he's not himself today - this must be beginning to affect him - he's hiding much more than usual and not parading himself to all and sundry

 

[gadazobe]

Seems like he had a bad case of constipation. Today he's fine, nothing hanging out and he's back to normal - making a general nuisance of himself I'm so pleased that things righted themselves.

 

[semper fi]

glad to hear that he is back to his normal self. as if a male being back to his normal self is ever a good thing!

hey cm, what do you do for a fish getting egg bound? never heard of it.

maggie