Hello Monster Fish Keepers,
If you have the patience, I have an ailing GT that I'd really appreciate some opinions on. I have a lot of background info that I think could be relevant, so kudos if you read this all. Here goes:
Young male Green Terror - I've owned him for about a year. Purchased at around 4-5", now around 6.5 - 7" in my very rough estimate. He was purchased with another male GT about the same size from the same store.
He was quarantined in a divided 40 breeder with the other GT, than they both went to separate tanks. He went into his own 40 breeder (Aquaclear filter, very thin layer of sand substrate, pots and PVC hides, a silk plant, weekly 50% WCs). He has otherwise never been kept with any other fish since I've owned him. (He was also moved to a new 75 for an upgrade a few months ago, then moved back to a 40 when he fell ill again to make dosing meds easier/cheaper.)
Great looking fish, great attitude. Right after purchasing, we weaned both GT's onto NLS pellets. My GT took several more days to wean onto them than the other fish, who needed no encouragement.
Several weeks later, my GT abruptly rejects all NLS pellets, even though he was previously eating them consistently. After another week or so, he slowly accepts them again.
This cycle more or less repeats in a worsening fashion. Perhaps 4 or 5 times now, this fish begins to reject his food. He often accepts his "preferred" foods still, and rejects various foods in a worsening order. (Basically, in order from least preferred to preferred he likes NLS, Hikari, bloodworms, tilapia fillet. He will reject them in that order.) He also eats less and less as he gets worse (i.e., eats 2 NLS pellets and then starts spitting them out, when healthy he'd be eating like 15 pellets).
Things I have tried already: metronidazole in tank water and in food (normal doses to huge doses), epsom salt in food (literally enough epsom salt to pickle his tilapia fillet), JBL Spirohexol (for like a month solid), PraziPro, Clear (no idea what active ingredients in this stuff), levamisole, removing substrate and vacuuming all waste religiously.
I have also got a microscope and scoped feces - never found anything of note whatsoever. No worms, no eggs. I have observed some small protozoan-looking things that for a while I thought were spironucleus/hexamita, but I also found them in other fish's waste as well - I now believe they were probably just commensal organisms in the tank, not even from the fish. I could also be wrong, and/or my microscope observations could be poor.
He is currently on an eating strike, going on probably about 6-8 weeks. He has lost significant weight (hollow belly, and lost weight/muscle along his back/spine area). The other GT has long since outpaced him in growth by a decent margin. I have just recently finally perfected my oral dosing skills on him - I can get anything in his belly now, and I have been force-feeding him powdered NLS Hexshield + extra epsom salt off and on for about 2 weeks. The only thing I've seen have any influence on him in the past is the levamisole - it made him nervous/agitated when dosed into the water. Getting desperate, I have given him 2 decent doses orally, over 2 consecutive days. He acts very agitated after a levamisole dose (much different than when I've just dosed him food); it almost looks like he's mini-flashing, but not striking the substrate.
I've read that levamisole causes "spastic paralysis" of worms - they contract uncontrollably, thus releasing their hold on the fish. So, could he be reacting to a bunch of long-term worms spasming inside his guts when I dose levamisole? Or is the agitation due to a big dose of a drug he tolerates poorly?
Any ideas, whatsoever? (And kudus, ya made it!)
If you have the patience, I have an ailing GT that I'd really appreciate some opinions on. I have a lot of background info that I think could be relevant, so kudos if you read this all. Here goes:
Young male Green Terror - I've owned him for about a year. Purchased at around 4-5", now around 6.5 - 7" in my very rough estimate. He was purchased with another male GT about the same size from the same store.
He was quarantined in a divided 40 breeder with the other GT, than they both went to separate tanks. He went into his own 40 breeder (Aquaclear filter, very thin layer of sand substrate, pots and PVC hides, a silk plant, weekly 50% WCs). He has otherwise never been kept with any other fish since I've owned him. (He was also moved to a new 75 for an upgrade a few months ago, then moved back to a 40 when he fell ill again to make dosing meds easier/cheaper.)
Great looking fish, great attitude. Right after purchasing, we weaned both GT's onto NLS pellets. My GT took several more days to wean onto them than the other fish, who needed no encouragement.
Several weeks later, my GT abruptly rejects all NLS pellets, even though he was previously eating them consistently. After another week or so, he slowly accepts them again.
This cycle more or less repeats in a worsening fashion. Perhaps 4 or 5 times now, this fish begins to reject his food. He often accepts his "preferred" foods still, and rejects various foods in a worsening order. (Basically, in order from least preferred to preferred he likes NLS, Hikari, bloodworms, tilapia fillet. He will reject them in that order.) He also eats less and less as he gets worse (i.e., eats 2 NLS pellets and then starts spitting them out, when healthy he'd be eating like 15 pellets).
Things I have tried already: metronidazole in tank water and in food (normal doses to huge doses), epsom salt in food (literally enough epsom salt to pickle his tilapia fillet), JBL Spirohexol (for like a month solid), PraziPro, Clear (no idea what active ingredients in this stuff), levamisole, removing substrate and vacuuming all waste religiously.
I have also got a microscope and scoped feces - never found anything of note whatsoever. No worms, no eggs. I have observed some small protozoan-looking things that for a while I thought were spironucleus/hexamita, but I also found them in other fish's waste as well - I now believe they were probably just commensal organisms in the tank, not even from the fish. I could also be wrong, and/or my microscope observations could be poor.
He is currently on an eating strike, going on probably about 6-8 weeks. He has lost significant weight (hollow belly, and lost weight/muscle along his back/spine area). The other GT has long since outpaced him in growth by a decent margin. I have just recently finally perfected my oral dosing skills on him - I can get anything in his belly now, and I have been force-feeding him powdered NLS Hexshield + extra epsom salt off and on for about 2 weeks. The only thing I've seen have any influence on him in the past is the levamisole - it made him nervous/agitated when dosed into the water. Getting desperate, I have given him 2 decent doses orally, over 2 consecutive days. He acts very agitated after a levamisole dose (much different than when I've just dosed him food); it almost looks like he's mini-flashing, but not striking the substrate.
I've read that levamisole causes "spastic paralysis" of worms - they contract uncontrollably, thus releasing their hold on the fish. So, could he be reacting to a bunch of long-term worms spasming inside his guts when I dose levamisole? Or is the agitation due to a big dose of a drug he tolerates poorly?
Any ideas, whatsoever? (And kudus, ya made it!)
