Depressed FlowerHorn- sick?

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mhill90

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 5, 2011
114
2
0
Central PA
I got Frankie my FH when he was 3".. he's about 6-7" now.

When I got him, he was kept in a 30 gallon tank right on the fish room counter. He loved the interaction, and was always trying to get your attention.

Well, once he got bigger, I placed him in a 75 gallon on the bottom row of my fish rack, and it seems that he's gotten rather depressed. He's gotten much darker in color, and just kinda floats around. He doesn't even really have an appetite.

This would happen occasionally, and I would treat with Metro because I assumed internal parasites/issues, and it seemed to help, but not for very long..

I moved him last night upstairs to my 72 bowfront temporarily to see if he perks up.. if he perks up, then his tank will probably be moved upstairs.

In the meantime, I am wondering what I can/should do.

I have every medication under the sun available, except for metro, and SALT. Ugh. Can't believe I'm out of salt!

He's being kept at 81 degrees. Which I am wondering.. is 85 too hot? (all of my fish are kept in the 70s) except for him.
 
It's probably the location of the tank. 81 is fine. Most FH keepers only put the temp at 85 for the sole purpose of pumping them up for show. Slow down with the Metro. If he shows signs of internal parasites then treat accordingly. If he eats, treat with RD.'s epsom salt solution. It's easier on the fish but hell for hexamita(which FH's are prone to get) Metro should only be used only if he stops eating. You could try adding a dither fish or use a mirror to distract him?
 
Well I only used metro twice. Since I only had a small amount bottle. He isn't eating. Like, he wont go after food and when he does take a piece, he just ends up spitting it out. I moved him up here thinking it would help. I have some guppies I could throw in. He normally chases them and eats them. Well on the rare occasion when I would throw one in. I think he may have had HITH but the metro seems to have cleared it up. He doesn't have a sunk in stomach and he is eating or food would be left in the tank and food is always gone when I come back.
 
Are you certain that the food isn't being sucked up by the filters? If he is eating when you're gone, he's probably stressed in his new location and not eating until he feels safe(Away from you). Do you see any stools in the tank?
 
In the tank he was in the filter is very clean. No residue of what would be food. I didn't feed him in the new tank until this morning. So no stools. But he didn't eat the food this morning. Right now he's sitting on the bottom of the tank. No clamped fins or heavy breathing though. And his color is slowly returning. His black is very prominent and his red is coming out. Before he was a washed out purple grey color.
 
He's probably just really stressed out. Leave the lights off for a while and try feeding him again tomorrow.
 
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