GT help please

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
R

rodald

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2010
71
1
0
Guatemala City
Hello everyone
Just received a green terror from a friend, he didnt wanted it anymore because it wasnt growing, as soon as I received it I noticed that it has sunken belly, as far as I know sunken belly = intestinal parasites, I have never had this problem with any of my cichlids but I have treated against parasites using metronidazole in the food, in case it isnt eating how should I treat it? do I put the metronidazole direct into the water? please help me.
Right now I have it in a 20 galon quarentine tank with some indian almond leaves.

Thanks for the help.
 
I'd add some aquarium salt. Don't over do it, but at least the amount it calls for (I think it's a rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons).
 
Just soak pellets in salt water. If he's still eating, it should cure it. I've had to do this with gt's before, and it clears it right up if they're still eating.

Use water from your aquarium, and make a 10% Epsom salt mixture. Soak pellets in mixture, feed pellets. It's never failed for me with GT's. I now do this with all new GT's I get as a preventative measure. I do the treatment for 1 week, and feed once per day.

There's many articles written on this treatment.

It's most likely worms BTW (sunken gut and no growth are dead give aways). Soon, he'll stop eating, and then you'll really have troubles getting him healthy again. If he's not eating, you'll likely have to pull him out of the tank and use a syringe to inject medicine into his stomache (through the mouth, not like a needle in the gut or anything). If you can't get him to ingest meds, most fish will die from ip's eventually. The typical water additive meds don't really work too well for worms.
 
4D3 said:
use metro@!@
Click to expand...

Metro is a lot harder on fish than just using the epsom salt method I talked about a post above yours.

Based on the symptoms, the epsom salt method will work better. It's a proven method for the symptoms described.
 
Definitely use salt first. If that doesn't help then use the metro, no sense in the use of meds if salt can clear it up. Make sure to vac the substrate for the worms that he's passed too. Hopefully it's not the dreaded camallanus...I battled that stuff. Tried salt...still there...fenbendazole...still there...levamisole seems to have cleared it up though. Going on a month and no red butthole worms...fingers crossed.
 
Is the fish eating?

Praziquantel & metro combination is an effective cure if the epsom salt doesn't help. I don't know what is available in your area as far as meds go. API General Cure or Tetra Parasite gard are both effective. Remember when feeding GTs it is important to have a good amount of vegitable matter in their diet. They don't digest meaty foods as effectivly as some other cichlids do and are more like Africans as far as feeding is concerned. NLS Thera +A is and excelent staple for them, it contains a higher level of garlic which is benificial in keeping the gut flora where it needs to be. A lot of times with these guys the trouble is a bloom of bacteria in the gut caused by meat based foods spending too much time in the intesinal tract as it is diffacult for them to digest. This presents as a bloated condition however as opposed to the sunkin stomach but still produces the stringy white poop and is often confused with IPs. I just mention this as it is useful information going foward. GL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom