1 of 3 Not Doing Well

[Fish Tank Travis]

I have three small cichla and when I got them they were all the same size. However, two of them have readily eaten anything I put into the tank while the third has only eaten a few red wigglers in the past few weeks.

Here are some pictures of the weak one:


Here are pictures of the other two:


Like I mentioned, they all looked the same when I got them. They are all in the same QT/grow out tank currently. I feed every night, always red wigglers and then I switch and give some Hikari carnivore pellets and shrimp pellets. The little one often goes for the pellets but immediately spits them out. I have seen it eat three red wigglers over the last few weeks, but then doesn’t seem to gain any weight with the red wigglers it eats. The tank has been cycled for over over a year and is a 29 gal tank with a SunSun 303B on it. Does anybody have any ideas why this little one is having so much trouble, and do you have any ideas of what I can do to try to help it get better?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Eating then spitting out, with the sunken belly, sounds like maybe internal parasites such as hexamita? Have you noticed any stringy white poops? Epsom salts are supposed to help. Either soaked food, or if not eating, a solution force-fed down the throat with a pipette. Metronidazole would be the next step if that doesn't work. I have had hex and battled it with varying degrees of success. The fish who would eat the soaked foods generally made it, my cichlids who would not eat it, did not respond well to the pipette technique and passed away.

Not positive this is hexamita, just what it sounds like to me. In the earlier stages, my fish would chew up food then spit it out. The majority of my fish got this last year (because I didn't quarantine) and while most recovered, I lost a really nice lyonsi and blue labridens cichlid. Was pretty pissed about that.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Is Metronidazole a medication I can buy at my LFS or is it an ingredient in a certain medication?

 

[jimmie1974]

Looks like that dorsal is beat to ****. Azul and tem

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Looks like that dorsal is beat to ****. Azul and tem

I think they are just clamped down and look odd in the picture. The dorsal is actually just fine, but is usually clamped.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Bump for any other suggestions. Should I get a medication to treat the tank, and if so, which medication would be best?

 

[cigars]

Try a prazi treatment (treatment for internal parasites) see if that increases appetite

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Try a prazi treatment (treatment for internal parasites) see if that increases appetite

Ok, I will try to grab some from Petsmart tonight.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I stopped in at Petsmart and the only medication they had with Praziquantel in it was API General Cure. I went ahead and got it and put the first dose in tonight. It says to wait 48 hours and then add a second dose without doing a water change. Then it says to wait another 48 hours and do a 25% water change while adding carbon to the filter. I will probably skip the carbon and just do a larger water change or two. Anybody have any suggestions that are different from my current plans?

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Oh, also, should I keep feeding while doing the treatment?