Illness, Health & Nutrition • Fish not eating

[danielratti]

I just recently moved all my fish to a new place and maybe 3 of my fish are not eating now. the Lemon Jake was beat up fairly bad by my Protomelas Spilonotus Tanzania and now today he stopped eating along with my Kigoma frontosa. I put some of my new fish in the tank since they have been in quarantine for weeks now and they have been eating just fine. I am treating the whole tank with melafix to fix there fins and sores but I dont think either of them factor into them not eating. I did test the water and everything seems normal I will be testing it again today. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[DJRansome]

Getting beat up causes stress and stress is a big contributor to illnesses like bloat that have a symptom of not eating. In my tank if I allow stress to be present for any length of time, my demasoni a guaranteed to get bloat.

Sounds like you have a stock mix that is not ideal as well which could also be causing stress.

Any other bloat symptoms? Check the new article about bloat in the Library.

[danielratti]

The thing is though this fish were in the same tank for the past 4 years no problem. Then I moved Wednesday and those 2 started fighting. Today those 2 that were fighting are swimming side by side with no problems. They are just not eating. The frontosa was eating some food from off the sand. Maybe they just aren't hungry. I figured it would take some time for them to settle in since they spent a couple hours in a cooler during the move.

I will look into the article on bloat.

[DJRansome]

My fish died from one beating. He recovered from the beating, but then he got another illness and died of that.

Any time you move fish they have to re-establish territories, and that requires fighting.

Did they eat at all, even one time since the move? And then stop after the fight?

Or have they not eaten at all since the move?

I'd put the Lemon Jake in a hospital tank so fins and scales can regrow.

The frontosa may just take longer to acclimate to the new tank especially given his more rambunctious tankmates.

[danielratti]

Yeah they all ate up until today. I figured the smaller fish would of been the ones having more issues than the larger fish.


we are thinking of a place to put the jake right now.

[DJRansome]

OK then the not eating is not because of needing to acclimate to the new tank.

Malawi are always hungry...if they don't eat they are holding sick or traumatized. We eliminated the first and last.

[danielratti]

Yeah im going to put the jake in my girlfriends tank till he heals up. This hoping the Tanzania will calm down.

[danielratti]

Could the Tanzania not be eating because I did rearrange the tank on him and he is busy not trying to establish his new territory? He really has no signs of bloat he just isnt eating when i put the food in he seems to be getting it later off the ground. I feed NLS and Omega 1 mixed. He swims around the rocks and around the driftwood. The way he is acting is like there is a female in the tank actually.


Ill keep watching him closely. Is there anyway i could treat the whole tank for bloat?

[GTZ]

You can treat the tank with metronidazole. Link in sig. I might try just epsom salt for a few days first and see if it does anything to get them eating. If not, proceed with the metro.

[danielratti]

Thanks should I do water changes?

[GTZ]

I would do daily, around 20-30%. Dose epsom in the replacement water before filling to maintain the salinity level.

[danielratti]

Should I just use the Epsom and not worry about mixing it with the aquarium salt?

[GTZ]

Just epsom, aquarium salt will have little to no effect.

[danielratti]

Right, I've been sick and along to a fairly bad work related injury I've just been resting. But going out for the first time in weeks i got a young z-rock male im pumped about. Im just gunna put like 2 1/2 teaspoons in the tank and see if that helps. I did the 20 gallon and the lemon jake started to poop along with a couple other fish in the tank. Kinda weird how fast it works.

[danielratti]

Should I be adding more salt than what I am adding? It wont hurt any right?