L200 sunken belly

[SLIMESLAYER10]

I've got a L200 with a pretty sunken belly. I've had him for 6ish months now and he eats fine but his belly is still small. every other fish in the tank is fine and when i got him i treated him with metroplex. i can get pics if needed, so... any ideas!

Thanks!

[MarcW]

Have you seen white/stringy faeces in the tank? If so it could be worms.

I'm not familiar with Metroplex but from a quick search it seems you may need to add it to food to treat internal parasites. A gel based food, something like Repashy is good for this, there are you tube videos of how to mix up medicated Repashy if you aren't sure on how to do it.

Another alternative is something containing flubendazole, this can just be added to the water, rather than food if the fish isn't eating well, or being out competed for food.

If you see the white stringy faeces I would try one of the above, also if it's eating well but still has a hollow looking stomach I would probably try treating as above too.

As with all medications make sure you read the instructions and take precautions if necessary. E.g. Some aren't shrimp safe, some may damage the bacteria in your filter. As far as my experience has shown flubendazole at least is very mild and doesn't seem to do much harm to anything but the parasites.

Good luck.

[SLIMESLAYER10]

i have never seen any white poop in the tank... ill try to find some flubendazol so i can treat the whole tank instead of tearing the whole thing apart to catch 1 fish. do you know if flubendazol kills eggs? my other plecos and angel fish are spawning at the moment.

[MarcW]

From my experience flubendazole is very mild, make sure you get FLUbendazole not FENbendazole, the latter needs to be fed to the fish rather than dosed in the water.

Several others here have commented on how mild flubendazole is take a read through this old thread of mine: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=32242&start=20

Hope that helps.

[TwoTankAmin]

In the states I can find Flub. easily. There is some good info on the site I buy from:
Flub imfo http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/FlubendazoleTreatment.pdf
Site http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/ItemsForSale.html

[SLIMESLAYER10]

thanks for the reply's, i think ill wait till all the eggs are gone before i treat the tank just in case. Mr.L200 dosnt look to be getting worse so im in little rush... even though he was expensive as hell!

one last question, whats the difference between Flubendazol, Metroniadazole and prazipro? the seem very similar to me.

[kvnbyl]

http://www.nationalfishpharm.com/
my go to people. if you buy in large quantities it is a lot cheaper. i've got a lot of large tanks so it was easy to justify 500g, i share with the people in ly local fish club

[Fundulopanchax76]

How are you sure he eats well ? Do you see him eat ?

[SLIMESLAYER10]

ya, when ever i drop anything in and the lights are off/dimmed he comes out and bully's
the bristlenose out of the way