EBJD not eating, hanging out in corner please help

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Biglou

Biglou

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 5, 2015
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Hey guys, I purchased this beauty about a month ago. He was always VERY active and kept up with my oscars while eating. I noticed last night and this morning he didn't rush to the front of the tank as usual to eat, just sitting in his spot. There is no white stringy poo, and the water parameters are all correct in the 100g. My filtration is amazing for this tank so that's not an issue. Their main diet consists of pellets/carnivore food sticks, freeze dried plankton/blood worms, with the occasional superworms gut loaded with flakes. Any ideas if this could be some type of parasite? The only parasites I've seen actually show symptoms such as the stringy poo. I just hope he's ok, he was expensive and is a beautiful fish with lots of personality :(
 
If he is not laboring in his breathing I would not get concerned about it.
 
DBLN8 said:
How many Oscar's and any other fish in your tank. In a 100 gallon tank with multiple Oscars (any more than one in a tank that size IMO is over stocked) he may be getting picked on or harassed during feeding.
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there's 2 oscars, a few dither silver dollars and just the cleanup crew, (cat, and pleco) the dempsey doesnt get picked on at all, no lesions on body at all and he looks great. None of the fish are over 6" and I'm upgrading to a 200g after the holidays.
 
Biglou said:
there's 2 oscars, a few dither silver dollars and just the cleanup crew, (cat, and pleco) the dempsey doesnt get picked on at all, no lesions on body at all and he looks great. None of the fish are over 6" and I'm upgrading to a 200g after the holidays.
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What's your water change schedule? I know you said water parameters are correct, I only ask as i found out that keeping a single 6 inch oscar in a 90 gallon by himself, i was changing at least 60-70% a week just to keep nitrates around 10-20ppm, I imagine I'd be doing at least 100% a week with two oscars and further fish.

Might sound extreme, and that's exactly what I thought until I measured for myself. I've never had a fish like an oscar produce as many nitrates.
 
convict360 said:
What's your water change schedule? I know you said water parameters are correct, I only ask as i found out that keeping a single 6 inch oscar in a 90 gallon by himself, i was changing at least 60-70% a week just to keep nitrates around 10-20ppm, I imagine I'd be doing at least 100% a week with two oscars and further fish.

Might sound extreme, and that's exactly what I thought until I measured for myself. I've never had a fish like an oscar produce as many nitrates.
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Usually my nitrates stay around 40ppm, as that's the nitrate in my tap water unfortunately. I tested again yesterday and it spiked to 140ppm..... it's nearly blood red in the test tube I'm amazed. You've gotta be right about these oscars producing this much waste, I might bring one back to my LFS before I upgrade to my 200g in Jan. I picked up Deep Blue nitrate reducer pads which I put one each into my canister filters. And I also picked up nitrate reducing pouches that I put in the back of my Marineland bio wheel filter. I also put in a large floating plant to help absorb some nitrate over time and also a leveling out chemical that also says will reduce nitrates. Now I don't know how fast this will all take to work, as I haven't tested yet this morning, but my EBJD is still doing the sender thing, sitting up in the corner and not coming to the front to eat as usual. Although he will eat if I drop a food stick by his head. Sorry I'm rambling but I don't want to lose my EBJD, I did 3 water changes in the past 3 days about 40% each according to my LFS instructions and the guy told me to ignore my nitrate readings... I dot get why he would say that because something is making the EBJD act this way. Any suggestions, and did I miss anything? Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
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Biglou said:
Usually my nitrates stay around 40ppm, as that's the nitrate in my tap water unfortunately. I tested again yesterday and it spiked to 140ppm..... it's nearly blood red in the test tube I'm amazed. You've gotta be right about these oscars producing this much waste, I might bring one back to my LFS before I upgrade to my 200g in Jan. I picked up Deep Blue nitrate reducer pads which I put one each into my canister filters. And I also picked up nitrate reducing pouches that I put in the back of my Marineland bio wheel filter. I also put in a large floating plant to help absorb some nitrate over time and also a leveling out chemical that also says will reduce nitrates. Now I don't know how fast this will all take to work, as I haven't tested yet this morning, but my EBJD is still doing the sender thing, sitting up in the corner and not coming to the front to eat as usual. Although he will eat if I drop a food stick by his head. Sorry I'm rambling but I don't want to lose my EBJD, I did 3 water changes in the past 3 days about 40% each according to my LFS instructions and the guy told me to ignore my nitrate readings... I dot get why he would say that because something is making the EBJD act this way. Any suggestions, and did I miss anything? Any help would be greatly appreciated
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the majority of people working in pet stores don't have a clue sadly, you're doing the right thing with the water changes; keep changing and doing readings every couple of days until you can level it.

I used to think people exaggerated Oscars and nitrates, I guess its one of these things that you don't really believe until it happens!

Your ebjd should hopefully perk up if you can get the nitrates back to 40ppm.
 
By the way, when I bought my EBJD. He had a parasite which I quickly eliminated (stringy white poop) he got better right away with metro and it's been about a month with him acting cope tell fine after that as he was cured. Now that he's acting funny, is there any way some other parasite could be an issue?
 
Biglou said:
By the way, when I bought my EBJD. He had a parasite which I quickly eliminated (stringy white poop) he got better right away with metro and it's been about a month with him acting cope tell fine after that as he was cured. Now that he's acting funny, is there any way some other parasite could be an issue?
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Completely fine* sorry my phones stupid auto correct lol
 
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