Hi all.

I have a pair of Apistogramma cacatuoides in my Community tank and I have noticed the bellies on the male and female is slightly concaved..Is this a sign of lack of food?

How many times should I feed a fish tank? Atm I feed once with Tetramin Flake and I vary it now and again by adding frozen foods and sometimes a veg or two. I also have some frozen food for cichlids only which you click to drop out some pellets, however they didnt seem to interested (I cant remember the name) its in a little grey tub.

When the Apistogramma cacatuoides eat the flake 90% of it seems to come back out through the gills.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
Should I increase the amount of times I feed?

I will be adding another female next week however Id rather get my feeding amounts correct before doing so.

Thanks!

that might be a paracite that is causing the concaved belly

as you see them feed i wouldnt think it is much to do with the ammount of food you are feeding but it could be

i never really had a prolem like this with my chichlids but did do a bit of research when i got them but it was mainly for mbuna not too sure if the other type of chichlids or fish can get the paracite

i will have a look and see what i can find

a few things i have found on the net

Fish shouldn't have a sunken belly if they are eating. It is a matter of time before they stop eating and will become more ill.

Have you seen any white stringy poo?

Females can have a bit of a sunken appearance just after a spawn since they just release a large number of eggs.

An underfeed fish may have a slightly sunken belly, and a severely underfeed fish will have a concave belly. A slight sunken appearance can be a sign of a healthy male. You don't want your fish to have fat bellies all the time.

Some intestinal parasites can rob a fish of nutrients and case this sunken appearance. In this case, you would need to the fish in question. Some of these infections can be contagious.



the main idea is to issolate the fish just incase it is a paracite as you can feed it seperatly and will not pass on the infection to the other fish through its poo

hth

I'd agree with kbekl I think. Isolate the pair of them in their own tank. You know then that there is no competition for food, and you can treat for parasites if you need to.

Are they active in the tank, or do they seem a bit 'off'?

well I cant seperate due to space. I could put the female (who has the problem, male is slightly curving inwards but nothing compared to the female) into a breeding trap for a few days to see what colour the poo is?

Not noticed any eggs, However I have noticed the male Become more domanant over the cave he attacks anything that comes close inc female.

I lost 3 of my 4 Rams to similar symptoms, GD and tbh, if it is a parasite, there's not much you can do other than isolating them into a Q tank and treating them with something like Interpet No. 9 which may or may not be successful.

My Blue Rams both developed sunken bellies and, although they were eating and swimming ok, sadly they eventually succumbed after a couple of months. My one remaining Bolivian Ram is thriving though. Fingers crossed.

IMO don't add any more fish until you have treated this pair or at least moved them into a Q tank for treatment. You don't want to risk infecting any more fish.

Re: feeding. I feed my fish dry flake and algae tabs. (Mon & Fri) plus live/defrosted food and veg. (Wed & Sun). Seems to work fine. I've also tried the Cichlid pellets but they seem to have little or no interest in them.

i never noticed the sunken belly on my kribs when they were spawning

just treat the whole tank as the other fish may also have a paracite if that is the case but the meds wont harm the other fish

if they are like the kribs spawn wise they dissapear for a day or two and then they gaurd the spawn site aggressivly

I successfully treated internal parasites with Octozin. They come in tablet form so i crushed them & dissolved in tank water & added it to the tank.
Save the last few bits that stick in the bottom of the jug & soak some food in it for 10 mins then tip that in. Hopefully the fish will eat the medicated food & get it into their system quickly.

If you do see any stringy poo, get it out asap.

I'd stick a makeshift cave in & see if it helps. A breeding trap might add to the stress if she's unwell

well female was poo'ing tonight when i come to feed some flake.

nope its not white.

Not sure if I should doe the whole tank with Octozin and see if it helps but the femaes belly has been like this for a while now..

Give it til tomorrow then try the octozin, it wont hurt. Have you done a water test recently, just out of curiosity

yeah always 0-0

can Octozin have a negative effect on the fish what are fine and healthy?