New fish not eating

[ferrax]

Hi , I just bought a 4" Pb last saturday. He doesn´t eat and ím getting worried. The fish has no visible signs of desease and breathes normally. He is a bit more active since i tunerd off the lights. I started treatment with sterazin yesterday for flukes cause he was twitching and rubbing

any ideas or suggestions please

[Nigel]

Hi...generally they don't eat when they are moved. If they are kept alone, they take longer to settle down. If there isnt any abvious signs..suggest you wait without medicating. Check droppings to see if they are white and slimy. If so medicate accordingly.
Hope this helps..
Nigel

[ferrax]

what about the twitching and rubbing of the gill plates? I saw him do this last night thats why I put sterazin. Should I continue with the treatment ?

Thx

[EthanCote.com]

Hey Ferrax,

In regard to the twitching and gill rubbing, is he doing alot of this? If it is just occassional then I'll wouldn't worry about it, but if it is a constant thing then yes get some appropriate treatment for it.

Not sure about the treatment u r giving him so I can't comment on it.

To get him to eat, perhaps try raising your temperature to 88F or 90F for a few days and see how that goes. You might also try to add a 1tbsp/10 gallon of salt to your tank. Normally this helps to deal with stress and also promotes slim coat production.

Also try live food if you can get your hand on it. Normally this stimulate their appetite when all else fail. Either that, try a variety of frozen food. Go to the food section to find out the names and brands.

What is the tank size he is in and is he in with other fishes?


HTH.


Cheers,

Chi.

[Jeff]

Ferrax,

Remember the larger the fish the harder they ship. It would be normal for him not to want to eat for a day or so untill he settles in.

[Carol_Roberts]

4 inch fish scratching? Whats the ammonia level in tank? Was tank fully cycled? How long was fish in transit? Maybe ammonia burns to gills in transit now bacterial infection?
Carol :heart1:

Gradually raise the temp in your tank up to 92 or 93 degrees. This will get his metabolism up and make him more hungry. Also, see if he has the white stringy feces, in which case you would want to treat with metronidazole. I think it is a little early to be throwing in that med but if it seems to be helping then stick with it, i guess. Someone else here can prolly help you more.
brad

[ferrax]

tank was previously cycled and my amonia level is 0

I haven´t seen him twitch anymore and hes a bit more active since i put him in the hospital tank, still isn´t eating though

This morning while i was looking on the tank i noticed a thick stringy piece of white feces, at first i thought it was a piece of flake food that i had given him.

I´m gonna raise the temp see if anything happens

Thx for all of your input

[Denny]

i think you may looking at a case of hexamita, or hex. this is fairly common with discus and one of the most common problems on this board. you will do well by looking gor all of the past threads on it as there are several good ones. treatment is done with metronadazole. treatment schedule is in the threads. you may also have flukes if the ammonia is 0, which was my first thought. that can be treated with flubendazole.

there is a checklist that will help you give us more info so we can help you more if you fill it out.

denny

yup....sounds like hex. Get that temp up to 92-93 degrees....don't be scared. Also add some non-iodized salt at 1 Tbs. per 10 gallons as this will help ease stress. Then go get some metronidazole or hex-a-mit, as it's sold in stores

[ferrax]

Thank you all for the info

I found some more thick white stingy feces today, i´ve brought the temp up to 88º and gonna bring it to the temp suggested until tomorrow. I ´ve got some flagyl will this do? Also should i complete the fluke treatment that i have already started and then treat with metronidazol, or do i stop the fluke treatment?

[Wolf]

Thats a good question. If you can get him to eat, you can mix the metro into the food and feed it to the fish. That usually gets them going a little faster. I had good results treating my fish with that method. I'm not sure about whether you can continue the fluke treatment at the same time but I would be more worried about the hexamita at this point than the flukes. Hopefully, someone will come along and give you some better advice on what to do.

[ferrax]

well today I´ve started the metro treatment, i did 3 50% wc in the last 2 days to remove the sterazin. He seems to be doing bettersince I raised the temp to 32ºC, I caught him nibbling on the bottom and searching for food.

Lets see how he reacts to the metro.

I´m treating as follows for 5 days

250 mg of metro / 10 gal
50% wc after every 8 hours and repeat the dosage

What do you guys think?

[limige]

sounds like a good plan, repeat that for 5 days. one he's eating soak his food in the metro before feeding. hex is a common reason for discus to quite eating sooner treated the better.

mike

If you are using metro bought from a fish store, like hex-a-mit, or something of the like, increase the dosage to 400 mg/10 gallons. If you bought it from a med retailer then continue with that dose. Definately stick with the 50% WC every 8 hours and redose..but only redose for the amount removed. You really only need to do this for 4 days, as 3 days is enough to get rid of it and the 4th is an insurance day, but if he's still not doing well do the 5th day. Get some salt in there - non-iodized - like Kosher salt at 2 Tbs. per 10 gallons. That will ease some of the stress he's going through. Keep the lights off for now. He'll be fine in a few days. After the metro treatment is done, keep that temp up for a week and a half, and then gradually bring it down to 86 or 84 or whatever you prefer to keep them at.
HTH,
Brad

[ferrax]

He is actually doing very good as of now. He is active and is constantly searching for food , I presume. He doesn´t seem stressed so i think i´m gonna just continue with the treatment without salt or anything else.

Thank you all once again for sharing your thoughts regarding my situation.

I´ll keep you posted on his progress. :thumbsup:

it's a good idea to use salt whenever you get new fish, whether they appear stressed or not. I thoughouly suggest you put some in at 1 Tbs. per 10 gallons for a week or so, only replacing what you remove via waterchanges.

[ferrax]

I´m on the third day of treatment and my fish looks better everyday that goes by, he even nibbles on the food i give him even when i´m in front of the tank watching him. Something has happened that i´m a bit worried about ( I say a bit because the fish seems fine).

when i got home from work today the water was extremely cloudy and i could clearly see a white film all over the tank.

Is this from the med? Today I skipped one of the treatments due to my absence. Could this be residue from the med?

[ferrax]

oh and by the way brad I did add salt ::)

THx

[tango0806]

Do most people believe in the treatment with metro that is 250mg per 10 gallons twice per day for 5 days? I suppose we all have different treament schemes I have used metro for years and my treatment scheme has never changed. I slowly lower my Ph down to 6.4. Then 250mg once daily for 3 days skip a day on day 5 I do a 25% water change and treat again. Day 7 I do a 50% water change and add carbon to the filters. I leave the temperature at 93 degrees until day 10 then start lowering the temp slowly back to 85 and the Ph back to 6.8 and on day 14 I remove the carbon and resume normal filtration. By then the fish are starting to eat again and the white stringy feces are gone. If not then I wait 2 weeks give them a rest and try a Praziquantel treatment,

John

[ferrax]

hi. I would like to say that my fish has almost fully recovered and his apetite is growing each day. Thanks again everyone for your insight and comments.

here´s a pic of him

[ferrax]

http://ferrax.no.sapo.pt/images/768.jpg

[Carol_Roberts]

I'm glad he's better :thumbsup:
Carol :heart1:

he looks quite happy ferrax.

John,
sounds like a good treatment schedule to me. Most people here use close to 400 mg/10 gallons though every 8 hours. They only treat for 4 days as well. I think you should stick with what works for you though!