[hollyfish2000]

I have a lovely Red Shoulder that stopped eating about 3 weeks ago. Tank is 58 gallon mixed peacock/hap male tank with no aggression. I do 20 percent water changes 3X a week and all parameters are excellent and constant.

After he stopped eating, I treated the tank with Jungle Parasite Clear with two rounds per instructions. He started taking pellets again (a bit) after the second treatment. Then he stopped eating again. He looks otherwise normal. He did hide during feeding, but afterward came out, swims around, color is good, no abnormal breathing. I finally was able to catch him Saturday night and put him in a hospital tank. I have now treated the tank 3X with Jungle Parasite Clear per instructions. He still looks normal, swims around. He is still not interested in eating. This morning I noticed a very, very long string of clear material coming from his anus. It almost looked like a very long hair. This is the first time I've seen this. What do I do at this point? I'm assuming I shoudl switch to Clout? Or is he doomed? I'm very frustrated . . .

 

[cichlidaholic]

It's not unusual for one round of meds to not cure intestinal parasites.

You can either go ahead with the JPC for another full round (3 treatments) or switch to pure metronidazole or Clout. I prefer JPC because it contains both met and praziquantel.

Truth is, once they stop eating, it can be very difficult to do anything for them. It's always better if you can get them to ingest the medication. I don't give up until after I've done 2 full rounds of a treatment, though.

Could one of your hairs gotten in the tank? I've heard of this happening before...

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

I have more JPC at home. But could buy metro or Clout if you think it better. Is it stronger? Should I up the JPC dose a bit more than indicated on the label? I also have Prazi-Pro on hand . . .

I'm pretty sure the thread was hanging from his butt. It was clear (I'm a brunette!) but as thin as a hair . . .

 

[cichlidaholic]

I would just go with another round of the JPC - you'd be fine to treat daily with it if you have time for the water changes.

Clout is the more harsh med in as far as fish seem to have bad reactions to it more often. As far as the content of the meds on the package, I'm not sure which one is stronger.

Ideally, soaking food in met is the best way to go, but it's no help when the fish won't eat.

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

Thanks. I can start treating JPC daily beginning tomorrow and running through the weekend. I do have the anti-parasite food, but it's not helpful now . . . Bless his little heart, he's hanging in there . . .

 

[cichlidaholic]

Please post back and let me know how things are going!

Good luck!

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

UPDATE -- No progress to speak of. I did 25 percent water changes with daily dosing of JPC for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He is exactly the same. Won't eat, swims around a bit, no labored breathing, color seems fine. On Monday, I did another 25 percent water change and dosed with PraziPro. I guess my last step is Clout. I may wait until the weekend to do that. This has been going on for a month, at least. It's very troubling . . .

I tried tempting him with pellets, flakes and even a blood worm and he swims away . . . (then I have to vaccum it up later!) If he seemed in distress, I'd euthanize, but that doesn't appear to be the case at this point.

 

[hollyfish2000]

UPDATE 2: My red shoulder did not take the pellets I gave him, until they went into the gravel and I moved away. Now he is searching through the gravel, it appears to me, to retrieve them. Not sure what to make of this, but it certainly seems a good step forward. I'm going to read the prazi-pro dosing directions to see if I do a second time.

 

[cichlidaholic]

That's good! Hopefully, he's eating something.

It would be great if it were a bare bottom tank so you could know for sure!

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: I put a flat piece of slat on the bottom and used this as a "feed bowl" for the red shoulder. I'd drop pellets onto it and also bits of sinking wafer. The Red Shoulder wouldn't eat from the water column, but was definitely eating off the slate. Anyway, I had planned to leave him in there for a while more, but I unexpectedly on Sunday found a Ruby Red that I'd been looking for for two months. So Red Shoulder had to go back into main tank in order to quarantine new fishie. (I didn't the 10 gallon was big enough for both)

So this is the deal: Red shoulder stopped eating SIX weeks ago. For the past two weeks, he's been in a hospital tank and dosed with 3X JPC and one dose of PraziPro. He is still looking fine in terms of color and breathing. He is now back in the main tank, staying in the front (not hiding in the back) but staying close to the substrate. He did not come up to eat this morning, but did not run away and hide either. He just swam around the substrate (waiting for food to come to him???)

Kim -- Any ideas of what could be the issue? I can't believe it would be bloat. Wouldn't he be dead by now? I can catch him and put him back in the hospital tank if he's still not right when the Ruby Red is able to come out of quarantine. But I'm not sure there's a point to do that . . .

All other tank inhabitants are great. Water quality is excellent.

 

[cichlidaholic]

I don't think it's impossible for a fish to linger for 6 weeks with bloat, but if he weren't eating at all, he should be pretty much a skeleton by now, so I really think he's eating something.

Give him time to settle back in the main tank and just watch him closely.

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

He is definitely is decent flesh, thinner, I'd guess, but certainly not significantly different than my other fish. Not skin and bones by any means. So you're right, he's got to be eating something. I'll watch and see. I'm just getting annoyed with him! i'm so happy to have found a ruby red, though. So that's the good news!

 

[hollyfish2000]

I ended up euthanizing the red shoulder tonight. He had seemed to be doing OK back in the main tank. Not eating, but not hiding either or acting distressed. Tonight, though, his fins were tattered and one eye was clouded over. He seemed out of it and swam right through a shower of pellets and didn't even notice anything. I finally decided I'd tried everything and it was time to send him to the big aquarium in the sky . . . This is my first euthanized fish. I used Euthanaise and it went smoothly. No suffering . . .

 

[cichlidaholic]

Sorry about your loss, hollyfish2000.

I can't stand to see a fish that I think might be suffering, so if it's any consolation to you, I would have done the same thing.

Kim

 

[hollyfish2000]

Thanks, Kim. It was a bummer because he was a lovely fish and it seemed that he was hanging in there. But yesterday, I could just tell a downward spiral had started and I needed to intervene. I still wish I knew what was wrong with him. I treated the entire tank twice and then him alone 4 times for internal parasites with no obvious benefit. He had no symptoms other than loss of appetite. My thought yesterday was that his immune system was so low that he was now prone to bacterial infections, so I think that was very much a secondary problem.

My water parameters are always perfect, there is very low/no aggression in the tank. I did have one wild caught peacock that I got in December. He had been quarantined at the reputable LFS for several months. My suspicion is that he brought in some sort of parasite that did not respond to JPC or PraziPro. I eventually lost him and three others, including the Red Shoulder, over the past 2 months. In all cases the only symptom was loss of appetite. No one else is affected, though, thank God. Cross my fingers!

 

[Guest]

I believe fish do get sick and ill just like we do. Cancer, or other illnesses... Doesn't always have to parasite or some sort of infections. Glad rest of your fish are doing well.

 

[cichlidaholic]

With the wild fish, it's always hit or miss with me. I've had really bad luck buying them when they first come in, and do much better with them if I let the importer deal with them awhile. I've learned not to rush to buy them just because I'm afraid someone else will get there first!

I also think we need to be really careful as far as feeding wild fish goes. I never start mine out on pellets, always flake. I always treat them with a round of JPC while in QT. (I started doing this after I lost $300 worth of fish in a month! Lesson learned... )

I think it's also possible for the wild fish to bring things into our tanks that they are immune to, but our tank raised fish are not.

Your guy may have had what they call "wasting" or "skinny" disease. Not sure there's any real science behind it, and it's not something I've ever dealt with personally. There doesn't seem to be much you can do about it, though.

I wish veterinary care were more readily available for fish. I'd at least like to be able to get a necropsy done of one I suspect died from internal parasites. But I guess that really wouldn't hold many answers, since the parasites may be different. Veterinary care is so expensive here that I can't get the nerve up to walk in there with a dead fish. My cats alone pay the vets mortgage payment for a month out of the year! :lol:

Kim