im not going to address your issue but i hope youre aware of how dangerous it can be to overfeed african cichlids and especially dangerous if the food is too high in protein as rift lake cichlids usually eat algae primarily. there are some piscivorous fish in the lakes of course so each fish needs individually researched. id also like to say that if a fish doesnt have a sunken belly it is frankly overweight, bloated, overfed for the time being, is sick, or finally everyone’s favorite internal parasites. i personally like how my fish look a little on the chunky side if im comfortable with the species. i also keep allot of geos that are wild caught and ive had a colony that died of bloat leading to bacterial infection from overfeeding. i now make sure their stomachs are sunken before feeding and have never had another issue. remember just about every aquarium fish is overfed. i wouldnt worry about them. but if you are id avoid medicine until something becomes more clear garlic soaked food can aid in ridding a fish of nematodes and other parasites you could also feed them a dewormer but i wouldnt. if african cichlids have hard clean water theyll do perfectly fine. cichlids generally arent fish to worry over all that matters for them is water quality and proper ph. people make ph out to be unimportant but for african rift lake cichlids and south Americans ph can lead to huge health problems later in life. best of luck.
Sunken stomach?
- Thread starter ksmith3631
- Start date
I agree, best not to overfeed any fish, it may lead to bloat, constipation, dropsy or swim bladder disorded (SBD is not lethal on its own if it is not parasites or bacterial infection). However, it has been established its worms or parasites in fish as it is showing that it is listless and whole tank should be treated to prevent huge outbreak as I have to deal with one myself.
