Bloated Stomach on FoxFace

[Mr.Asbury]

I have had this one spot fox face for about 4 days now. Its stomach looks puffed out, but he has been eating PE mysis like a hog (I have him and 2x cardinals in an observation tank, and he eats some of their share too). I also have a veggie clip in there for him, which he has been picking at. Is his stomach swollen because he's eating this much, or do you think he has a problem?

 

[Big G]

Have you seen it "poop"? White and stringy?

 

[HotRocks]

Can you upload some additional pics? Like looking head on at the fish?

 

[wesman42]

Can you upload some additional pics? Like looking head on at the fish?

Are you looking for whether or not it bulges out on both sides or just one?

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Sorry for the late response, we had our first match of the season last night and I didn't get home very late. I was not able to get a good head-on picture, but I did get one of him facing each direction. He is still eating like a hog, and doesn't appear to have any issues swimming (although he does still hide). I have not noticed any stringy poop, and he did not poop in the ~25 minutes I watched him after he ate today. He probably did right after I went back to the main tank to feed them, knowing my luck.

Here are the new pictures:

 

[Victoria M]

umm, well, that is interesting. I am thinking not enough greens, and intestinal parasites. Deworming time.

 

[Louis Z]

I would use General Cure just in case dosed in the water and also soaked in the feed or use the Seachem’s metroplex and focus , I also use Seachem’s garlic additive to make it more palatable . I see that you have Banggai cardinals , are these wild caught or captive bred? If the fish is overeating then lower the amount of food to see if the swelling goes down as he digests the food. If it doesn’t then you can say there is something there than overfeeding .

 

[Louis Z]

The reason I am focusing on the cardinals is they have issues http://en.microcosmaquariumexplorer.com/wiki/Banggai_Cardinalfish. Have they started to show any white stringy feces . Mine went from eating to poor health in a few days and eventually perished . The last clue was the white stringy feces . The other fish in qt with them also developed issues of not eating and hole in the head on my imperator angel . Also noted something on the imperators head where the holes were forming . Not saying that this is what you have but be aware of possible protozoan infection that metronidazole and praziquantel will treat . Here is an article on freshwater Spironucleosis but also mentions that this has saltwater versions of it too https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/VM/VM05300.pdf

 

[Mr.Asbury]

I would use General Cure just in case dosed in the water and also soaked in the feed or use the Seachem’s metroplex and focus, I also use Seachem’s garlic additive to make it more palatable. I see that you have Banggai cardinals, are these wild caught or captive bred? If the fish is overeating then lower the amount of food to see if the swelling goes down as he digests the food. If it doesn’t then you can say there is something there than overfeeding.

I believe they are wild caught, but I will call my LFS to verify. I tried to go through ORA to get captive bred ones, but they did not have any available at the time. What was the time frame on this taking place? I do not want to make the mistake of adding him to the main tank too quickly. There are about 10 more small (~10g) tanks in storage here that I can clean up and separate the foxface from them. May hook that up today. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Mr.Asbury]

umm, well, that is interesting. I am thinking not enough greens, and intestinal parasites. Deworming time.

I do have a veggie clip in there, and he has picked it clean. I'll get some deworming stuff just to be safe. Is there any harm in adding this to the food of the other fish in there? Also, what do you recommend for this? I'll make a trip to the store this evening to grab whatever's needed.

 

[Victoria M]

Happy to see that he is eating nori well. I am happy to read you are using a quarantine process. Treating all the fish is nessesary. You will find the threads and articles at the top of this subforum to be remarkably educational and helpful. Fascinating stuff really. It will help you become the proficient part time pharmacist and veterinarian you will need to become in order to successfully keep a box of water with fish in it. Happy reefing

 

[Mr.Asbury]

I saw it poop today. It was small, white, and almost circular - it was not long and stringy. Does this change anything about the diagnosis?

 

[Mr.Asbury]

Saw him poop again, and it almost looked like a piece of undigested shrimp that came out. Any last minute advice before I go to the store here in a little bit to get something for intestinal parasites?

 

[HotRocks]

If you are seeing white poop of any sort, I would treat with metro or general cure soaked food.

 

[Louis Z]

Praziquantel is a dewormer , metronidazole is an antiprotozoan . Protozoan do invade the intestinal system . I literally sprinkle General Cure and mix with partial dry pellets that swell and absorb . I use Sera brand but any type of pellets that swell with water is good . Basically I am adding small amt of water to dissolve the general cure and that is absorbed by the pellets , I also add a couple of drops Seachem’s garlic drops to hide the med flavor for picky eaters . I also then add some frozen food just to again hide the flavor of the meds . If you want ,you can always use seachem’s Focus which is an antibiotic polymer which can adhere medications to the food . Those would be the first line of dewormer that I would try . If you have persistent worm issues then a fenbendazole or mebendazole https://www.thomaslabs.com/product/fish-bendazole/fish-wormers

 

[Hypen2000]

Wait, are you guys serious about him needing to de-worm and treat w/ meds? I've had 2 foxfaces and they simply overeat all the time and regularly look like the picture you are showing. They are regularly more "bloated" than my other vegi eaters (mainly 3 other tangs and some angels).

I just assumed it was normal as the foxface is very healthy and has been like that each time I overfeed or leave the vegi clip in the tank too long.

At any rate, think it would be best to be sure he needs the whole deworming process before doing it as that's a lot of work. Sorry if I'm mistaken but just my experience.

 

[Hypen2000]

Also, forgot to mention that when the foxface gets larger (3 plus inches) he rarely gets that large stomach. But with my little one (~1.5 inch) he gets it a lot. So maybe it has something to do with how big/mature they are?

 

[Louis Z]

Yes I recommended to stop feeding to see if it was overeating . If it still looked bloated then something was up. . I now realize how heavily parasitized many of the fish are. I no longer just qt now. I always treat as soon as they come in . Just recently got new fish and they looked fine but after one week in qt without treating they started to have problems . That reinforced my return to treating right away . That week of waiting to see had delayed treatment . I eventiually lost some of the fish.

 

[Victoria M]

White feces is the big indicator of a problem.

 

[Victoria M]

Also, forgot to mention that when the foxface gets larger (3 plus inches) he rarely gets that large stomach. But with my little one (~1.5 inch) he gets it a lot. So maybe it has something to do with how big/mature they are?

Just trying to get a better picture if you don't minding me asking a few questions. How long have you had these fish? Did you put them through a quarantine? Were they purchased from a LFS or from online?
BTW My baby clowns get bulging little bellys when I feed them a lot in one sitting. That is not unusual to see.