oscar prob? stopped eating, does huge "yawns'

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petspoiler

petspoiler

Piranha
MFK Member
Jan 7, 2011
3,352
33
81
rural Calif.
baby O, about 4 inches long, had been eating like a horse, grown over an inch this month.
A few days ago I had my hand in his tank messing with stones & fake plants, added some stuff. Next day, he stopped eating. I thought he's pouting, he reverted to shy behavior with me. didn't worry, he had been eating LOTS of food!. figured he could afford a little mood swing.
Nothing wrong with his appearance.

He's alone in temporary small tank. 80 degrees.
[the 60 G isn't cycled yet. the 75 has Geos and he turned instantly aggressive there. I only tried it briefly, that's NOT "the plan"]
No water param issues. I change it every day, usually 2x. It's kept with no detectable levels.

I dole out his food only as he finishes it. First, Hikari bio gold plus (my nls is too small), then cut red wigglers & pieces of shrimp.
His appetite was rocketing, he's associating me & my hand with food coming...eating it as soon as I drop it in.
Heavy duty bonding. lol.

SOoo it's been a few days, only today I'm worried. He sees food and acts like he's going for it. even takes a spike at it with his nose sometimes like he's gonna bite. but hits it and dives back down. then gives those HUGE fish 'yawn's, and shakes/jerks his body real hard from head to tail. does it a few times.
Seriously like a big 'ol bass mouth, as long & wide as it can stretch. but he is doing this every time it looks like he wants to eat and he gives that jerking everything he's got. LOL, and it's SO "full body boogie" (different), like he's straining on a choke.
I started wondering if something could be stuck in his throat.
Today he keeps acting like he wants to eat but doesn't.
I offered worms. all he did was get more dramatic with the spazzy bass yawns after he bumps or smells them.
Then stares at me, & glances at food in tank.
WTH?
Could the rock & plant changes cause this spiral? He seems to like it & huddles on them. he did right away & didn't hide from them.
He has only swallowed ONE pellet in about 4 or 5 days. Before that he was eating up to 7 pellets, plus worms and/or shrimp.
Today he looks thinner behind his gills.

sorry for the rambling but I'm confused.
I went to the lfs (HELL) and there was no appropriate fish, even for his larger tank.
 
What did you put in the tank? Are you sure it didn't have any chemicals or additives on it that could be leeching into his water?

Have you noticed anything like white feces? Sometimes fish that are irritated by things like intestinal parasites (hexamita) will continually spit out food and act like they cannot eat. Hexamita is usually brought on by stress. It's really common in small discus. One of the signs is white, stringy feces. Keep an eye on the tank. Bumping the heat can sometimes help with this. If you bump the heat, also bump the aeration because warmer water does not hold as much oxygen.
 
only put novaqua plus for water changes, no chlorine in the well water this week, but I err on the side of caution for metals.
Got air stone always.

no toxins. no white feces, no fuzz or cloudy eye, fins intact.
he has spit food a couple times with barely a nibble-but mostly ignores or, now, false attempts toward it- not spitting out.

bump heat without those signs, how high? start adding salt?

OH, duh! about adding to tank...was fake plants & slate rocks, already previously in geo tank. no probs.
there's no substrate in his tank... thin flat slate to add some "look" on bottom.
 
ecoli73 said:
Did he swallow something he shouldn't have?
Click to expand...
I put on a stethoscope and pulled out a tongue depresser stick, but he clenched his jaws shut.
;-)

The only thing he could've got would be a short string from frayed edge of silk plant or a small piece of crumb from slate rock. but there's hardly ever any & when I vacc the bottom every day the crumbs go out.. haven't seen him testing anything like that.
 
he's an f1 peru. got him from another MFKer, who got him from Rapps- I think in Feb.
 
does hexamita require parasitic treatment, and could he have it without the other visible signs?
why would he get a stress caused thing immediately after over a week of super appeitite & blossoming? decor change, and should I remove it or would that just be another change/stressor? he likes laying in the leaves sometimes, and sets on the slate.
 
Usually hex does take a while -- the fish wouldn't go from aggressively eating one day to refusing food the next.

He may be going through a brief pouty stage because of the decor change. Or he ate something he shouldn't have and it's stuck. Are there any little plastic pieces on the fake plants that he could have chewed off, or rocks small enough for him to swallow? Maybe he was trying to move something around and swallowed it? It's really hard to say.
 
I guess anything is possible.
his plants are all silk.
pieces of crumb from slate edges have been real small. I'd say near the size of 20 grit pool filter sand, maybe an occasional odd shaped piece, hardly larger than that.
he eats top floating pellets (no bottom scrounging), 1" cut worms sometimes are sucked in before hitting bottom or quickly. shrimp hit bottom but they're about 4mm chunks, so he picks em right up.
 
This sounds like pouting to me, it can be over the top sometimes. When I rearrange my puffers tank, she will pout and not eat for over a week sometimes. The only thing I'm not sure about is the "reaction" you are saying that he has when approaching food.
 
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