# Skinny belly fish disease?



## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

Hey guys, so one of my GBRs started developing skinny belly. Pix are below. This has happened twice in the past with 2 of my albino tiger barbs, and they ended up dying a few days/a week afterwards.

The tank is 30 gallon, with 2 GBRs, 2 Amano, 4 red fire shrimps, 2 Dwarf puffers, and a bunch of neons. They co-exist fine, and almost no aggression happens in the tank, except between the 2 dwarf puffers for territory, and one GBR chases this skinny belly GBR around very often. When I feed them, both GBRs get roughly the same amount of homemade frozen jelly food and live blackworms.

Could the live blackworms cause this disease? But then my other GBR and my DP, who eats mainly only live blackworms and ignores everything else, have not gotten the disease despite feeding on them for months.

My question is what disease is this. IP? And how to treat it. Sorry for the blurry photos. I snapped them this morning before rushing for work.

1. The skinny and the chasee (I think is a female)

























2. The chaser (I think is a male)









I think pic 3 and 4 depict the difference in belly size the best.

Thanks


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## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

I'll be watching this for an answer as well. I have a few Cardinals and a Platy with skinny belly but they've had it a long time. Like months and still act normal and eat normal. Really weird...


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## MochaLatte (Nov 19, 2011)

Same thing was happening to my GBR and I had to separate them. The dominate one chased the submissive one to death. I had 3 and now I'm down to only 2. The same thing probably happened with the barbs.


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

MochaLatte said:


> Same thing was happening to my GBR and I had to separate them. The dominate one chased the submissive one to death. I had 3 and now I'm down to only 2. The same thing probably happened with the barbs.


I guess I'll try separating them out as well. 

What baffles me though, was that one of the albino tiger barbs who died, though not the biggest barb in the group, was the most dominant male barb in the tank at that time, who would chase every other barb around and ate everything. Then one day (after my 3 weeks vacation and under the care of a girl who subletted my room), he got skinny belly though still eating A LOT, but he was no longer dominant. After a couple weeks, towards the end of his life, he stopped chasing after food and died. Maybe the rest of the barbs ganged up on him while I was gone, and a new order was established and he was bullied to death?


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## GitMoe (Aug 30, 2010)

I dont think this is from chasing. I would believe it if somebody said it was caused by a parasite...


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

If you have 2 male rams it is very common for one to kill the other. It happen to me. Also if you have 3 rams 2 will pick on the other till it's dead. 

I had this happen to my festivum I had 3 they were fine till the 2 strong ones started picking on the one till he was so badly bullied he stopped eating and would no come out in fear of the others. He got very skinny and I separated him too late I ended up putting him down. I gave the other festivum away and now I have just one he is 5". 

I had 2 male balloon rams the dominate one fought the other to death basically. 

I had 2 male Bolivian rams I gave one away before things got too bad and now I just have one big happy healthy guy with my discus

Cichids are my favorite type of fish I have 8 differing kinds right now. I know them well. They can be nasty to each other and even kill. They can have behavior problems but I love them. 

Yours is getting bullied to death basically. you need to separate them.


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## beardedcharmer (Sep 24, 2011)

I would treat with metro (buy from angelsplus or kensfish) at 1/4 tsp per 40 gallons. Then treat with prazi.


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

Snowflake311 said:


> If you have 2 male rams it is very common for one to kill the other. It happen to me. Also if you have 3 rams 2 will pick on the other till it's dead.
> 
> I had this happen to my festivum I had 3 they were fine till the 2 strong ones started picking on the one till he was so badly bullied he stopped eating and would no come out in fear of the others. He got very skinny and I separated him too late I ended up putting him down. I gave the other festivum away and now I have just one he is 5".
> 
> ...


She's still eating fine, roughly the same amount as the chaser. I make sure she gets her worms and meal. Do you think bullying/chasing can cause her belly to get skinny?

I'll separate them tonight as per advice though.


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

beardedcharmer said:


> I would treat with metro (buy from angelsplus or kensfish) at 1/4 tsp per 40 gallons. Then treat with prazi.


I was not able to find Metro from either site...


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## beardedcharmer (Sep 24, 2011)

metronidazole, it is under parasite meds at angelsplus and combo meds at kensfish. There is no real down side to using metro and prazi as they are both very safe.


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

you can also buy it from thatfishplace.
http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/198758/product.web


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## beardedcharmer (Sep 24, 2011)

msjinkzd said:


> you can also buy it from thatfishplace.
> http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/198758/product.web


DON'T, they sell 100g for $65 where kensfish and angelsplus sells 100g for $13. Same stuff but you pay 5x's more for the "seachem" label

http://www.kensfish.com/product2836.html
http://angelsplus.com/MedsParasite.htm


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

i also have angelsfish plus fish food with metro and would be happy to s end you some for shipping. I just plain forgot until I just walked downstairs. You would need to make sure you had a dark container to keep it in.


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## Snowflake311 (Apr 20, 2011)

gtu2004 said:


> She's still eating fine, roughly the same amount as the chaser. I make sure she gets her worms and meal. Do you think bullying/chasing can cause her belly to get skinny?
> 
> I'll separate them tonight as per advice though.


Stress can cause many health problems. Just seperste the skinny fish and keep his water extra clean feed him well. He could recover. DO NOT Use meds if you dont know what it is you are treating. Meds will only stress the body more. Clean water no stress and good food should help. 

Bulling/stress will cause a fish to wither away other time. It's good he is still eating. I have seen this happen too many times being a cichlid owner. I lost my male blue acara years ago and I still have the female that basically killed him she is 5 year old now. 

With my festivum he would still eat when he was looking skinny then it became too much and he stopped eating. You never know how bad the bullying is because you are not watching the tank 24/7. 

Good luck just try and nurse him back to health with clean water good food and a pinch of salt. Also Heat will help stimulate the appetite and helps the body heal faster.


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## beardedcharmer (Sep 24, 2011)

I do agree with clean water being the best cure. The reason I suggested metro is that it is very safe and it will clear up nematodes and flagellates. Prazi is also a very safe med. If the fish follow the same pattern and die after 2 weeks the clock is ticking. Petsmart has general cure which is prazi and metro mixed together. Hopefully it is not TB.


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

So a sad update.

I separated the fish from the bullying GBR and into a 20G High tank that I hold some shrimps in. The water quality is very good in that tank, and when she was in the tank, I rarely fed the shrimps (maybe a little bit every 3 days). I use a sponge filter with a powerhead in that tank and it's been running for about 4+ months.

So for the past week she tried to eat the live blackworms that I dropped in, but I noticed that she seemed unable to swallow as she spit out the worms everytime she tried swallowing. She kept on trying to eat again and again but she was unable to. Her belly got really pink/red by this point.

I didn't see her in the tank yesterday partly because the tank is pretty well planted, and so thought she might have been hiding some where. She had stopped eating the day before even when I dropped in live blackworms. Today I saw her and I don't think she's going to make it  She's not swimming normally, but rather twitching and spiraling. Attached is her picture taken an hr ago. I now have her in a salad bowl and I don't think she's going to make it at all. I am suspecting IP was the cause, but by the time I received some medicated food from msjinkzd, the fish was not interested in eating anything anyhow. I would like to make sure of the cause with other experts so I can better treat my fish in the future.

Could the cold temperature have caused this? My heater got messed up and the tank was slightly below 70 for a few nights before this happened.

Skinny belly killed my fish


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## beardedcharmer (Sep 24, 2011)

that fish looks to have been sick for a while, probably internal flagellates or nematodes or could have been TB.


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