HELP ME
- Thread starter R Estrella
- Start date
Been feeding him pellets and shrimp. He seems to like the shrimp better, does not eat the pellet except to spit it out again
He looks incredibly stressed. Not bored. Your water doesn’t look right. The bubbles on the glass is a dead giveaway. Flowerhorn’s don’t need gravel or anything like that to keep then happy. Something is wrong with your water, tank, etc. You are in the Philippines? So the temp has nothing to do with it. Water and or environment. He’s not old enough to be experiencing inbred early death...
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Bubbles on the side of the glass. Looks like your tank isn’t cycled or your cycle was killed by chemicals that you don’t know about that had recently been upped or added to your water supply. When a FH looses his hump it’s water quality/stress related, and is a really bad sign. Especially if he’s been doing fine for the last six months at that size.
You’ll need a water test kit as soon as possible so you can see what is going on with his water. Stringy poo could be from stress or an internal parasite.
You never answered my question about his scales. Are they lifting up?
I zoomed in to show you what I’m seeing.
I can see why you'd ask that but no, that's not dropsy -- it's common for flowerhorns with shrunken heads to look like that, it's more like shriveled skin. When its hump begins to return to normal size it'll go away.
OP if you're seeing white stringy stuff then yes it's assuredly his poo, and in that case your fish likely has Hexamita. Here is a Sticky thread with suggested treatment using epsom salt. Start first with this, and then if doesn't produce any positive results you'd probably need to medicate with Metronidazole.
Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus
Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus with Epsom Salt Solution This is a rather safe way to treat any newly imported fish, as a prophylactic, just as one would use a de-wormer. It's not only an extremely cheap way to treat fish, the active ingredients are readily available world-wide, and it's...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
Also try soaking his pellets in garlic it may increase the chance he doesn't spit them out. I'd also try to wean him off the shrimp (but not right away, get some epsom salt into his belly any way you can for now while's he still eating) -- too much shrimp really isn't good for FH's (too high protein).
Good luck and keep us updated.
