hi i recently got a johanna he was picked out of a large tank with a fair few of them in the tank i took him home and put him in the quarantine tank after a while i noticed she has a sunken belly then a while later i notice small worms whitish about 3 to 4 mm long on the glass in the water and just underneith the sufarce of the gravel as well as sunken belly she has started to flick i was hoping to get some advice and some info on how to treat this poor fish

What size tank is she in now?

What are your water parameters?

What are you feeding her?

The small white worms on the glass and in the water are probably planaria from overfeeding/the fish not eating it's food.

The flicking could be from some sort of parasites on the gills or water quality.

Get back to me about the water quality and if you can tell me more about how the fish is behaving.

Also, if you can e-mail me a pic send it to ryan at powerfulwebsites dot com.

 
      
-- Ryan Chapin
HappyCichlids.com

ph 7.6 ammonia 0 nirate 0 nitrite .25 hardness 8 its in a 40 ltr hospital tank we feed it sera flora vegie food and some cichlid palets not much at all. the fish eats but has a sunken belly the fish does seam a bit eratic at times and is behaving like it has gill flukes that i can dealth with but the sucken belly shows me internal paricites but i cant find any meds to treat ive been told its stress witch is crap. i do have a worm dip but since ive never used it b4 and its for pig,s and chickens but a mate you used to be a mad fish breader swares by it
      

There shouldn't be any nitrite at all. It might be that the bio filter you have in the hospital tank isn't yet established, so the nitrite poisoning isn't helping.

Try adding some prime to see if you can neutralize the nitrite and get some more gravel and filter medium from a cycled tank into the hospital tank.

As far as internal parasites go, I've used Clout with great success.

It doesn't sound like he has bloat exactly, but read this article and use this cure to start out with.

http://happycichlids.com/Freshwater_Disease_Identification_and_Treatement/Malawai_Bloat.html

Hope this helps.
      
-- Ryan Chapin
HappyCichlids.com

i got the nitrite and nitrate mixed but the tank hasnt been tested for a few days so ill test it again and get back to you i could find your email in the forum to send you a pic
      

Yeah test it again and let me know what you find out.

My e-mail is:

ryan at powerfulwebsites dot com

(typing it in this manner to avoid more spam) :)
      
-- Ryan Chapin
HappyCichlids.com

How is your fish doing?
 
      
-- Ryan Chapin
HappyCichlids.com

yeah its good i worked for 4 days and didnt see it for a while but its looking better belly is starting to fill out a little so ill keep up with the small feeds few times a day. but the worms (little white one,s) are still on the glass and in the gravel we did a water change and a good gravel clean got rid of a fair few but there are still a large number in the tank. im thinking of doing a whole tank strip even though i dont know if they are harmful or not but to me worms cruzing around ya hospital tank isnt good. thanks for asking
      

I wouldn't worry too much about the worms. If they are what I think they are, they are harmless. Just keep the feeding down to as much food as the fish will eat in about 1 minute and do thorough gravel vacuuming every week or couple of days and they'll go away.

I'd also suggest doing 25% water changes every day to keep the water clean for your fish; that's always their best chance for recovery.

Moreover, the bloat cure that I recommend would knock out any parasites that he has.

Hope this helps. . . .
      
-- Ryan Chapin
HappyCichlids.com