Lima Shovelnose not eating.

[Mentzer]

My limas not eating. I never see him hang around the top or mid like most shovels ive seen.

And no ones picking on him, he just hangs out by my drift wood and would just sit there.

I tryed Shrimp sticks, cichlid pellets, alage wafers, and feeder fish.

Did that during the day, and after the lights are off to see if hes eating.

He nevers goes for the food or i never see him with a fat belly.

Anything else i should try? Im gonna try some garlic to get him hungry tomarrow night and see how that works.

I also have the same problem with my needle gar, theres a thread for it in the gar section.

Thanks

As you are also concerned about your gar I would be looking at the possibility of perhaps an internal gram negative (or postive) bacterial infection. Other than the lima and the gar what are the other fish like? Feeding, swimming, general behaviour? In particular what are the faeces like from the lima and gar? Colour? Are they very thin, stringy and opaque? You might want to try a broad spectrum bactericide, coupled with inreasing your water tempo slightly to speed up metabolic rate initially before a specific narrow range one. Also adding salt which shall act synergistically with the broad spectrum bactericide agent. You really need to check all your perameters and also the other fish in the tank etc.