HELP: Flowerhorn at risk

[Madman83]

I have a red dragon flowerhorn who is a year old. Close to 11 inches. for the last few days he is exhibiting strange behavior.

1. He lies at the bottom of the tank all exhausted
2. When i go near the tank he comes running and begs for food as usual
3. When i feed him he acts like he has barely seen the pellets and tries to bite my finger instead

it has been a week since he ate. I tried pellets, bloodworms and dried shrimp. Nothing works. Even tried force feeding pellets to him. he spits it out.

It could either be internal parasites (but why would he be so excited when am around expecting me to feed him) or it could be a vision problem (if so then how does he recognize me even when i am 2 feet away from the tank)

I am totally confused and feel very bad for the poor fellah

Have tried a 30 min epsom bath once but it did not help. totally depending on you guys to help me out

 

[kno4te]

Sounds a bit off. Post your water parameters and pics/vid of the fish showing what's occurring.

 

[Madman83]

i dont have a kit to measure water parameters but i use RO water which we use for drinking. Even did a 70% water change few days back but no improvement. I will try to post some videos shortly

 

[kno4te]

are u adding minerals back to the tank after replacing with RO water?

 

[Madman83]

just adding rock salt and epsom powder..been using this for more than a year with no issues up until now

 

[kno4te]

I think you should look at adding seachem replenish. This should help with getting the water to what is normally needed. I doubt rock salt will do this but in geussing at this.

http://www.seachem.com/replenish.php

Also would hold of on epsom salt as long term use can cause similar side effects to what your fish is exhibiting.

 

[Gourami Swami]

I agree you should be adding minerals back to the RO water, or using a mix of RO and tap water. I have an RO unit at home and tried to use it for my tanks for months, adding different amounts of seachem equilibrium and aquarium salt... I kept having fish do well for a period of time, then seemingly for no reason, drop dead. I gave up and went back to 100% tap water, and have not had the same problems since.