I need help!!! Fast

[jeff meredith]

Ok, my jaguar has been having some problems. I have apparently not been aware of said problems though. I've had him for almost 10 years now. Recently (about 30 days ago now) I put some convicts in the tank with him. And even more recently, some crawfish. So first he started losing interest in his food. I have home made food that I offer the tank (tilapia, shrimp, salmon, and magi cut up and mixed together frozen). It's not like him to not eat. He would be the most veracious eater normally. I thought maybe he had paired with one of the convicts. I know weird and unnatural but if heard of it happenening and I thought maybe he was just interested in mating. His vent tube had dropped down and I assumed he was trying to fertilize. Fast forward some and I now notice a sunken belly. I couldn't see it before so to his pectoral fins being so full when tucked against his body. I've noticed he'll clamp his fins, but it's not all the time. It's way more often than what I would consider close to normal. I just noticed last night that he's scraping on objects. And this morning he yawned. I haven't seen him do that in a very long time. Almost 8 years. I guess I should've shown more concern when he didn't immediately devour the crawfish...his favorite food.

So current list of symptoms
Sunken belly
Clamped fins
Scraping
Yawning
Uninterested in food

Help is definitely needed...please

I plan on doing a 50% water change tonight and removing him to a quarantine tank. He's such a hardy fish, I would've never thought he would have anything wrong with him.

 

[Wailua Boy]

Likely some parasite was introduced with last fish introduced. If you havent treated this tank with metro and prazi, you could start there. That should take care of any possible hex and many other parasites

 

[celebrist]

How long did you quarantine the other specimens before introducing them to your main tank?

 

[jeff meredith]

How long did you quarantine the other specimens before introducing them to your main tank?

I didn't have a quarantine tank. I've never needed one before. None of the other fish are showing symptoms though. Just him. Do I need to treat the entire tank and all fish? Or pull him out and treat him individually?

 

[Fisher...]

I would definitely treat the tank for parasites as mentioned above.

 

[jeff meredith]

ok, so I wanted to update you guys. When I got home from work that night, i did a 50% water change and I pulled him out of the tank and put him in quarantine. As it was too late to get meds from the lfs, I went first thing in the morning. I picked up so epsom salt, some general cure and some garlic guard. When I got home I made a 3% salt solution and mixed in some general cure. I internally injected it into his belly with an eye dropper.

I heard this would be a good thing as it'll get the parasite to want to leave.

Anyway, shortly after I saw two excrements one was white and stringy, then the second shortly after was almost like a gelatin consistency and it looked like there was a worm inside it.

Today, when I woke up I tried feeding him some medicated food with the garlic guard. He was uninterested still so I gave him another dose of the meds internally.

I know this will take time, but it's stressful.

Any further tips or something I should change?

 

[celebrist]

Hard core

 

[Fisher...]

I always just soak my pellets in the 3% Epsom solution if needed. I think I would still treat the rest of the tank though. General cure works pretty good for parasites.

None of my frontosa will touch anything with garlic in it so maybe your jag may not like garlic either? Maybe try feeding your regular food and see if he'll eat any.

 

[celebrist]

My pink tail doesn't like garlic either

 

[jeff meredith]

Only reason I put garlic guard in the mix was because I heard it'll help entice appetite and most fish don't like the taste of meds soaked food? I'll start dosing the main tank asap. Thank you guys for the insights. Hopefully, he'll start eating in the morning.