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Single aulonocara baenschi not eating

12K views 40 replies 7 participants last post by  orangeversion 
#1 ·
Hi. I have 10 Aulonocara baenschi Nkhomo Reef and 10 Placidochromis sp. ''Phenochilus Tanzania'' Lupingu in a tank. I bought them all around 1-1.5" about 3 weeks ago (the baenschi were closer to 1.5", the haps closer 1"). I feed NLS 1mm pellets 3x/day and all are healthy/fat and it might just be my imagination, but I think they've grown quite a bit in these 3 weeks. 1 of the baenschi is up to ~2.5" and has colored up already.

However, one of the baenschi is starting to be noticeably smaller than the others and looks skinny. I noticed during feeding, it is more timid. So I space out the feeding and ensure it has opportunity..but when it gets a pellet, it just spits it out. The other haps his size (one or two might be smaller) have no issues eating the pellets, so i don't think theyre too big. Should I add some flake food to help the small one eat? Or just keep trying til it figures it out?
 
#28 ·
Just watch the fish now, see if all of the fish are eating and not spitting out the food. Sometimes the fish that are sick look like they are trying to cough, or chewing on nothing. If you can get them to eat the soaked pellets, good.

The best defense is clean water, so don't stop water changes.
 
#29 ·
Thanks, I do plan to set up a 20g long as a hospital/hopefully breeding tank, but not for a few more months.

I dont know if I'm paranoid from losing the one fish but I feel like a couple of the star sapphires have concave bellies. Started the metro/focus/garlic soaked pellets today. Fish went nuts for the garlic, but there were some uneaten pellets at the end. A couple weeks ago the pellets wouldn't even hit the floor. I plan to do this for at least a week, feeding only 1x a day. Should I be doing any water changes during that time?
 
#30 ·
noki said:
Just watch the fish now, see if all of the fish are eating and not spitting out the food. Sometimes the fish that are sick look like they are trying to cough, or chewing on nothing. If you can get them to eat the soaked pellets, good.

The best defense is clean water, so don't stop water changes.
Oops, sorry, missed this reply. Thanks for the input, will continue to change water.
 
#31 ·
Sorry, one more question. Done with day 2 of feeding medicine soaked pellets. Maybe the medicine makes it gross, or maybe they're all suffering from the same parasite/infection...but definitely noticing more fish spit out pellets and less pellets being eaten. Im going to continue this treatment for 5 more days to bring it to 7 days total. After that, if theyre still spitting pellets, I was considering treating the water column with pure metronidazole from national fish pharm. Good/bad idea? Would that add further stress to the fish? Especially any that aren't sick?
 
#34 ·
shiftyfox said:
Have you tried feeding flake food..?
I did...some fish took to the flakes and some didnt. Might have been my imagination but some of the ones that did like flakes started to not like pellets. I didn't want to create picky eaters so I tried to get them all back on a staple pellet. But you're right, for the sake of getting medicine into all of them, maybe I should be soaking some flakes as well. Then I can ween them off it again when I'm sure everyone's healthy

I did 7 tablespoons of epsom salt in the water column and I'm feeding 1x a day metro/focus/garlic soaked pellets. 3 days down so far. I plan to continue doing daily water changes of 15-20% and will add back 1 tablespoon epsom with each water change while treatment continues. Going to see how they are after 7 days of this and determine if pure metro is needed in the water column after
 
#35 ·
Fingers crossed it works and they start eating for you, so frustrating when they don't.
Epsom salt is always my go to if I suspect bloat and normally works alone. Like you mention if they won't take medicated food then get some metro into the water.
I assume fish are showing signs of white stringy poop..?
 
#36 ·
yup some of them started showing white stringy poop. Seemed like even more so after I started with the epsom and metro. Not sure if thats a good sign? They're shedding whatever they need to?

I dissolve the epsom salt in a cup of tank water and just dump it in. Guess we'll see if it works in a week or two
 
#37 ·
Sounds likes it's working. The last fish i quarantined with suspected bloat white stringy poop teamed out of her after adding the same combo
Over a few days it must have added up to at least 60cm that had come out of the fish. Day after she started eating as normal.
 
#38 ·
shiftyfox said:
Fingers crossed it works and they start eating for you, so frustrating when they don't.
Epsom salt is always my go to if I suspect bloat and normally works alone. Like you mention if they won't take medicated food then get some metro into the water.
I assume fish are showing signs of white stringy poop..?
You're right its getting really frustrating. Can't get them to swallow the medicated food, so starting the water column treatment tomorrow. I can tell theyre hungry, they still aggressively attack the medicated flakes, but just spit it all out. Then they spend hours sifting through sand to look for food, but still won't swallow the leftovers. I end up vacuuming most of it up during daily water changes. My worry is that once they don't like something, they won't even go near it. NLS and northfin pellets they won't even try, those just go straight to the floor. The flakes theyll try but spit out, so im hoping the medication doesn't ruin it for them to where they wont even try these as well. Keeping the epsom salinity the same by adding a tablespoon during every water change. Once I start treating the water column with metro im gonna try the NLS thera A pellets. Hopefully the garlic and lack of medication will entice them.
 
#39 ·
I just wanted to clarify your statement about Epsom salinity in your post above. Epsom salt is not sodium based so hence no salinity, it is a mineral called magnesium sulfate.

If you haven't read it already, the Malawi Bloat article in the C-F Library gives a good explanation on treating it.
 
#40 ·
Deeda said:
I just wanted to clarify your statement about Epsom salinity in your post above. Epsom salt is not sodium based so hence no salinity, it is a mineral called magnesium sulfate.

If you haven't read it already, the Malawi Bloat article in the C-F Library gives a good explanation on treating it.
Thanks, sorry, wrong terminology. Meant I'm trying to keep the same level of epsom salt by replacing 1-2 tablespoons dissolved epsom salt with each water change of 15-20%. Great article and i hope following it to a T will get these fish eating again
 
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