Happy but not eating GT

[RD.]

Good advice, if it is Spiro you will most certainly need to treat the entire tank. I will only add that I once had a carpintis that required a second 3-4 day treatment of Hex-Shield to clean him out for good. That was approx 4 yrs ago now, and he is still doing great. Typically a single 3-5 day feed dose does the trick.

 

[tiger15]

I gave him a 4 day 8-hour Metro bath treatment in a bucket plus forced feeding of medicated bath water each day. It’s very traumatic to him as I nested him out each morning, dumped him into the bucket, and hand held his head tightly while squeezing bath water into his throat with a plastic pipette about 20 times a day. I returned him to the community tank each evening for recovery. It’s more than a week since the treatment. I observed a reduction of white poop , and for the first time in 2 months I saw him pick up couple pellets. His appetite has not fully returned, but he is definitely more active. What is surprising is that, despite fasting for two months, his belly has not caved in, so probably he ate tiny bit without me noticing it. I will wait and see if he shows further improvement before administrating further treatment.

I don’t believe in the need to treat the entire tank. He has been showing symptoms for 2 months, yet none of his tankmates show any symptoms of infection. I believe hex are ubiquitous but opportunistic affecting only stressed out fish.

 

[RD.]

I believe hex are ubiquitous but opportunistic affecting only stressed out fish.

Correct, which is exactly what this fish is - stressed. Not only from the parasite within, but now also from the medicated bucket & force feeding treatment.

I returned him to the community tank each evening for recovery.

And by not treating the entire tank, each evening you have continued to expose this now very stressed out fish, to an environment that with certainty contains more of the Spironucleus pathogen. If that is in fact what this fish has.

Good luck, I hope that it comes around.

 

[tiger15]

Correct, which is exactly what this fish is - stressed. Not only from the parasite within, but now also from the medicated bucket & force feeding treatment.




And by not treating the entire tank, each evening you have continued to expose this now very stressed out fish, to an environment that with certainty contains more of the Spironucleus pathogen. If that is in fact what this fish has.

Good luck, I hope that it comes around.

The reason I returned him every evening back to the community tank is that he was treated in a bucket without aeration or heater. Day time room temp is fine, but night time can be chilly. I ran out of hospital tank and even if I had, prolong bathing in a hospital tank can stress him more from upsetting BB balance. He recovered quickly when I returned him to the community proving that he could tolerate the trauma. He appears to have improved but not been cured yet, awaiting further observation.