-
You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up
Dwarf Pencilfish bloated/deformed?
- Thread starter JBFUK
- Start date
You can order daphnia online from eBay. Normally turns up pretty quickly and often in a better state than the stuff you get from your local fish shop.
MirandaB
Member
Personally I wouldn't go with crushed peas as they're micropredators so not really equipped to deal with vegetable matter and that might make them worse.
Frozen daphnia might do it if you can't get live but as @Conort2 said you can get it online...don't know if you've got any ponds in your area at all as a quick dip with a net might yield some as the mild weather has kicked mine into gear outside.
Frozen daphnia might do it if you can't get live but as @Conort2 said you can get it online...don't know if you've got any ponds in your area at all as a quick dip with a net might yield some as the mild weather has kicked mine into gear outside.
I used to have female cherry barbs that looked like this if not worse all the time. It was rather unsightly but didn’t affect them believe it or not. It was just a combination of them Being pigs and then being gravid on top of that. Granted this could be something else, although the other pencils in your picture appear fine but they look like males to me.
I’d be tempted to worm regardless. It’s one of the few treatments I undertake even when I don’t see symptoms. You should see some of the stuff that comes out of fish that look very healthy.
Cheers
I’d be tempted to worm regardless. It’s one of the few treatments I undertake even when I don’t see symptoms. You should see some of the stuff that comes out of fish that look very healthy.
Cheers
MirandaB
Member
Just tip them into a net and rinse in some old tank water
If seems like if I were to go down this route of live food, it would be daft not to cultivate the water fleas myself. I'd better do some reading.
Out of interest what do you use for worming and do you treat your main tank or remove the fish and treat?
Out of interest what do you use for worming and do you treat your main tank or remove the fish and treat?
I use cloverleaf wormer which is flubendazole. I treat the whole tank and it’s a pretty mild treatment unless you have snails. It apparently helps against camallanus but the only thing I’ve found work against them is esha ndx.
Camallanus worms are particularly dangerous and can wipe out a tank. These show themselves as red spikes from the fishes vent. They’re often prominent in dwarf cichlids raised in the Far East.
I would give the live daphnia a go first as all other fish seem very healthy.
Cheers
Not advice, but from my experience…
A net in some water, whether the local village pond, or some stream nearby normally gets something edible in the net. Most of us aren't too far away from a water source. Stagnant is better 😬 When a fish is "proper" ill and quarantined then introducing something risky from a water source nearby isn't my top concern. In fact, it's something I have done for years and I really don't lose that many fish. You've got to be careful not to bring in a predator like a water boatman though, in fact try to only bring in things that aren't much bigger than the tip of a biro. If the water source is very questionable, as in not from a local moving water course, then I would use a muslin cloth to strain the water and refill the jar with aquarium water and the cloth contents - that, I've only done once. Water is often more cleaner than you'd think, if there is some film or some not right smells, find a different collection site.
I've turned around some of the weakest nano fish, into breeding adults from some "grimey" water from a local stream.
Please don't use your aquarium net at the water you're collecting from though, believe it or not you can do more damage by introducing things from our tank to the water course, than the other way round.
Last edited:
