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Thread: Loss of appetite

  1. #1
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    Default Loss of appetite

    Hi guys,

    My blue that Pascale did not look after, she is seldom eating these days. If you may or may not know, her partner died on new years day. Since before then and still now she seldom eats much at all. Either that or I don't see her eat anything. She used to love bloodworms but lately she won't even touch them at all. She will only accept brine shrimp, colour bits and the occasional beefheart.

    I have always suspected hole in the head and I did medicate her a week feeding her metro beefheart every 2 days for about 6 days but that didn't seem to change anything. I have also given her prazi thinking that tape worm was it but that was not it. I will be giving her epsom salt tonight, maybe she has an instestinal blockage of some sort but I am not 100% sure.

    I've just about run out of my limited knowledge. I need help. Not sure how lon this can go on for before she reaches danger levels of mal nutrition...

    She's not showing any skin problems, no loss of colour, a tad bit listless sometimes but overall still swimming around as usual. She does have small spots around her head which looks like early HTH symtoms but she has never has stringy feces before, ever. breathing is normal, and she swims normally... she just won't eat!!!

    What do you think? what should I do next to get her to bounce back? it could be moving sickness (she was moved back to be 2 weeks ago) but that was 2 weeks ago. She should have bounced back by now... and I am not sure what happened to her mate but I was sure it was HTH. Should I do a metro dip? hmmm

    Chong

  2. #2
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Hi Chong,
    I would try a heat treatment + Metro and Next a Flubendazole treatment ASAP!

    Cary Gld!



  3. #3
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Hi Cary,

    thanks for the reply. How hot is heat? She is currently on 29-30 degrees C (85-86f).

    How should I administer the Metro? dissolved?

    Thanks again. She is my favourite and I am scared for her health...
    Chong

  4. #4
    Registered Member Carol_Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Is she all by herself? They don't eat as well without company. Bump your heat up to 92 for a metro treatment.
    Carol

  5. #5
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Got it. Yeah I thought lonelyness could be it but, not eating at all and don't eat as well is a big difference imo!

    OK 32 degrees and metro dissolved. I have always metro in beefheart in the past b/c everytime I dissolve I get a bacteria outbreak Let you know how she goes... :'( feel sorry for her...

    Chong

  6. #6
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Chong,
    Raise the temp Slowly to 93F make sure You add a extra airstone or to to help keep up oxygen levels.


    After temp is up I would then add Di-metro at 400mg every 8hrs for 3 to 4 days. If she starts to feed I would also add some regular metro to her food.

    hth
    Cary gld!

  7. #7
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Thanks Cary, I started to raise the tank temp already.

    What is the difference between Di metronidazole and regular Metro? I am not sure if I can get the "di" version, it is hard enough to source regular metro tabs...

    Chong

  8. #8
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    I agree w/ Cary and Carol... metro w/heat should solve this problem.

    Preeda L.

  9. #9
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Update,

    2 days later and she is still not very hungry, I am suspecting that it's the tank conditions (solitary confinement). I will try metro food tonight and see how she takes it.

    After metro I will do one round of deworming and I will put her back with the others and see how she goes. Small risk but i think they should be ok (after all they did grow up together...)

    She is more active though, but that could be the elevated temps.

    Chong

  10. #10
    Registered Member Carol_Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Lower temp slowly - only a couple of degrees per day.
    CArol

  11. #11
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    Default Loss of appetite Update

    Hi,

    Last week I had just finished a 3 full days of Metro treatment at high temps becuase I suspected that my blue (solitary fish in 2ft) had HTH as she was not eating very well at all. I also finished it off with Metro in her beefheart mix and some mild epsom salts to help her poop out anything that she may have had. Needless to say her bowels are now clean!

    So on Saturday I put her in with the other 2 after a 2 hour long reclimitzation process, so now I have a 4ft with 3 fish at about 4-5 inches average size. She is still not very eager to eat bloodworm or anything else for that matter (in fact they all aren't that eager on blood worms anymore...) My question then is is it becuase there are only 3 fish in the tank? maybe I need to qt new fish, lets say 3 or 4 more to add some more competition in the tank?

    I am stuck. She seems ok (looks fine, colouration is fine, everything is fine) just not eating as much as she used to. The other 2 are hungry and playful all the time.

    What do I do now?
    Chong

  12. #12
    Registered Member Carol_Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    If it was intestinal flagellates it may take a couple of weeks for her stomach to heal and for her tor egain her appetite.

    Do you think something may be wrong with the blood worms - freezer burn or poor handling by the lfs?

    Carol

  13. #13
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Good question Carol... this is my bloodworm story, maybe if i tell it to you you can think of something...

    I used to feed beefheart and colour bits only until i discovered Hikari Blood worms (curtesy of yourself if i recal correctly). Anyway i fed them that for over 6 months (all of late las year).

    Just before I got married I went out and baught a 12 pack box of hikari, (in a styrofoam container, heaps cheap from a mildly trustworthy LFS). They did not like them much at all. At that time they were spawning too so I thought maybe that was it.

    Now 2 months on and they still won't touch the same batch. So I went out and purchased a new pack just to check if it was a problem with my original pack, they won't touch these either...

    Jenny's gonna freak if I put CBW into our brand new (less than 2 week old) upsidedown fridge. And I am not keen on CBW either... but i fear that it may be my only hope... they still take to beefheart alittle so that is a good thing...

    Chong

  14. #14
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    I will beefheart it for as long as I can and try to mix in a small amount of bloodworm into the beefheart mix every day to ween them back but it doesn't look good for BW at this stage.

    Luckily I am not allergic to bw!

    what else can i feed them? black worms, bw, beefheart, brine shrimp and colour bits is all i know of. I heard brine is not that high in protien?

    Chong

  15. #15
    Registered Member Carol_Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re:Loss of appetite

    Sometimes if improperly handled the bloodworms can thaw and refreeze. Bacteria can begin to grow. Maybe the blood worms are bad? Do they eat the flake or pellets redily? Brineshrimp are pretty messy and foul the water quickly - I don't feed them anymore.

    Carol

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