Sunken Belly Prognosis

[fishytales]

I’ve lingered around this and other forums for quite some time now. Thanks for everything y’all do to help fishkeepers!

So I’ve had my first cichlid tank for about a year now and three months ago I noticed a concave belly on one of my cichlids. Not knowing much about sunken bellies, I ignored it. Soon it showed up in a couple more fish and a month later I lost 4 of them. Not until recently did I figure out that it’s a disease, potentially caused by parasites.

So after scouring through 100s of threads, I treated the tank with metro and prazi and also set up a medicine tank for the ones looking really bad (3 of them). I’ve seen significant improvement in their behavior and eating since I treated the tanks.

So my 70 gal tank now has 20 mbunas, 2 of them with a slightly curved belly. They’re all active I’ve always maintained my tank at 0 ppm ammonia, nitrites and minimal nitrates.

My question is for the fish in the medicine tank - how long before they return to normal. They all eat and poop fine, no stringy white poop or anything like that. But after 3 weeks I’ve not seen any improvement in their belly. Can anybody post about your experience with this and how long it took for the fish to recover?

Really appreciate your time!

 

[coralbandit]

I think prazi works in one or two doses.
The metro may need to used for up to 3 weeks of dosing every two days to be effective completely.

 

[fishytales]

Ok thanks. I did a couple of doses of prazi and metro in the water and then food soaked in metro for almost a week. The fish did eat it...my main question is, assuming the fish is cured, how long does it take for the belly to return to normal?

 

[coralbandit]

What are you feeding them ?
I have not kept Mbuna but believe they are mainly heavy vegetable eaters ?

 

[fishytales]

Well just NLS cichlid pellets.