Egg Bound Female

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</STRONG></DIV><H1>Hartwegi Eggbound</H1><DIV id=Qtextbox><P><STRONG>Author: hartwegi1</STRONG><BR><BR>Hi All! i am hoping someone may be able to help me here? i have a large adult female Veija hartwegi who' i presume is eggbound? just over 1 week ago she was at the point of laying her eggs, her egg tube was all the way out" the male got too excited and give her too hard of a time and she decided not to lay" within a couple of days i noticed her getting pale and not eating and breathing heavily, clamped fins, not active ect!' she has been sick now for aprox a week and hasnt eaten at all in that time, her egg tube is still protruding" she looked so sick in the last few days that i am very surprised that she is still alive" now i question wether it is because of the actual eggs not being laid(being eggbound) or more to the point that she has actualy aquired an infection or a parasite? i say this because a fish( female Jewel) that i gave to a freind recently' although it didnt come from the same tank' has since died, and had the very same symptoms" they both fell sick around the same time; having a feeling that it may be more so a parasite (it could have come from feeder fish wich i catch frequently(gambusia) or from recently purchased fish") i fed all fish i have with food i medicated with Paracide" wich i have had alot of sucsess with in the past on fish with simillar symptoms' being very much like bloat" and also dosed all tanks" now this morning when i went to see how she was doing crossing my fingers that she would not be dead, i was delighted to see that she has improved somewhat" ie! she is now swimming around, has some of her colour back( not a great lot) and is breathing more relaxedly, but the most promising sign of all i think! was that she actualy ate some food off the bottom' although hesitantly' then came to the top for more" but i still have my doubts about her making a full recovery!mainly because her egg tube is still a fair way out and this worrys me" should i try to gently squeese her eggs out or let her be? i have asked a few vets around here in country vic! but not one has been able to give me any advice for not having any experiance with fish" should i administer her some form of antibiotic? she is one of my best fish and ive had her for a long time' and i dont want to loose her, can someone give me some advice please?

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"AL"

</P></DIV><H2>Replies »</H2><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: Cichlid Boy</STRONG><BR><BR>I'm sorry I can't help more, but I would strongly suggest NOT attempting to 'squeeze' the eggs out of her.

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Hopefully she will continue to recover by herself, along with the medication you have administered.

</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: hartwegi1</STRONG><BR><BR>I forgot to mention that she was doing alot of scratching on rocks ect! as if to be very iritated by something around her gills or head region! and no other fish in her tank wich is a 6x2x2 has done this" although the female jewel who died did do the same thing" Well she continues to improve marginaly' she is now begining to mingle again with the other cichlids in her tank ie! stand offs, gaurding her territory ect! but at the same i still am worried that she may not pull through.

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"AL"

</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: saudukar</STRONG><BR><BR>The worst thing you can do is over-react. Let her natural immunity deal with it. Adding chemicals/meds in when you have no idea what your treating is worse than doing nothing.

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The ovidepositor could have been sitting out for any reason and not because she was eggbound.

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If you see physical evidence of whitespot/fungal infections separate her out and treat with meds other wise do nothing. The shock of moving out fish to hospital tanks when they are already weakened can just be the final blow. But naturally if she is being harrased it makes sense to move her.

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</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: hartwegi1</STRONG><BR><BR>i appreciate your comments saudukar! and thnx! but with many years of experiance, i know what white spot or fungal infections look like" im afraid its much more serious than that" it is definately an internal thing but what in particular i dont know? and yes i agree about the shock of moving her, i have left her in her own home where she has established a home' as i though it was the best option, and would give her the best chance at a recovery" and besides that i have been very surprised at the way her mate has behaved with her being so sick' he has not harrased her as would normally be the case" he has been a true gentle fish lol"( very surprising) she is even starting to react with him again( a possitive sign) as for the meds i administered' i believe from experiance that if i hadnt of medicated the tank she would not be showing any signs of recovery at all right now" fair enough i took an ("educated") geuss at what was the problem and how to treat it,But it is really starting to look like paying off", the med in question i have used wich has saved me many a fish that have shown simmilar symptoms' (wich is very simmilar to bloat) is "paracide"(Trichlorfon) used at the recomended dosage added to tank water, then i also add a small amount to their food( the key to recovery i believe) and feed it too them for a couple of days" very important not to "overdose" here i use 1 tab dissolved in a glass with only enough water to be absorbed by a handful of pellets" i have had aprox! a 90% sucsess rate treating cichlids with this med' and these symptoms, wich would otherwise die" anyways now she is showing signs of stringy white feaces wich i dont like' but i geuss at least now she is getting it out of her system" as i type she is helping her mate to ward off a pair of White edged rivs' that have their own little territory in the tank( wich by the way never do any more harm than bluff) so its really starting to put a smile on my dial

, i asked for help this morning as had planned on doing! since yesterday when i though i had all but lost her" it now seems i have made the right choices!, but its still not over yet" i have no idea what this disease or such is, But this paracide" is a wonder drug for fish in my oppinion if used early in particular" well it works for me" thnx for your reply's will keep you posted"

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"AL"

</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: YeW2001</STRONG><BR><BR>Hi Al -

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Not sure whether it would be worth your time - but there are vets who deal with fish

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Perhaps you could contact them for advice - at the very least they could autopsy the fish post mortem and potentially find some answers which could help in the future.

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I'm not sure what advice I can offer here - perhaps a bath (10-15mins) in tank water with epsom salts (2tsp / 5L) may help, but again I'm not sure.

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YeW

</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: hartwegi1</STRONG><BR><BR>Thanks YeW! i will look into it.

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Cheers" "AL"

</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: YeW2001</STRONG><BR><BR>Hartwegi -

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If you're in Melbourne - I think Dr. Jim Greenwood is involved with fish - talk to Melbourne Bill he would know better.

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</P></DIV><DIV id=Atextbox><P><STRONG>Author: hartwegi1</STRONG><BR><BR>Thnx once again YeW! i have spoken to Dr Jim Greenwood on a number of occasions via phone, But as he put it and he has a valid point! is that without actualy seeing the fish he could not give an accurate diagnosis" i beleive that what is wrong with my fish is a common problem with cichlids or fish in general and is what we often see and presume is bloat, and maybe it attacks fish most particularly when they are in stress and their imune systems are down" fortunately she has eaten again tonight and it looks like she may survive after all, she looks better every time i look at her' still remains to be seen though! and it also looks like as though it may not be the fact that she is eggbound after all? her tube is slowly extracting now. i'll keep my fingers crossed"

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