Severum keeps spiting out food?

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Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 3, 2012
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I have a red neck severum that I got about 2 weeks ago. He's at least 7inches long and seems to be acting normal untill it becomes feeding time. I've tried a few different pellet/wafers and frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp and krill. he tries eating anything frozen and any veggie pellet, but he spits everything back out almost immediately, and tries again. after a minute or so he just gives up and doesn't really end up eating anything. Hes in a 125g and is the biggest fish by far. so he's not being bullied. does this sound like the symptoms of any type of parasite? or some type internal infection?


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have this moved to the freshwater diseases section, it'll get more results.
 
Usually that's a symptom of hexamita, intestinal flagellates. Discus get this often when stressed. Sometimes larger cichlids will fall victim to this too. A symptom to look for is white, stringy feces.

If it's hexamita, the best treatment is pure metronidazole (I buy it at Jehmco.com) at 1/4 teaspoon per 10 gallons. Shake it up in a cup of tank water (it is hard to dissolve so don't worry -- just pour it in anyway) and add to tank. Do a 50% water change daily for 7 days, re-dosing with 1/4 teaspoon per 10 gallons after each water change.

While doing this your temperature should be in at least the low to mid 80s. Some say the heat will help kill the hexamita but I've had it work without the heat. The heat will raise their metabolism and encourage their appetite, though.

You obviously want to do this in a quarantine tank since it'd be really expensive to treat the whole tank with metro.
 
+1 to Ryan. I've noticed with hex, the fish don't exhibit much of an appetite and are not very active in the tank. Usually just hanging around in one spot staring at the back glass - very lethargic. If you have not noticed any white stringy feces and the fish is acting healthy, it might still be settling into the change of environments. I recently moved a large sev from a 75gal he had all to himself into a community 150. He hardly ate a thing for close to a month, he finally settled in, stopped pouting and is back to crushing food again.

Definitely read up on hex, but your fish might also just be slow to acclimate.
 
He pretty much acts exactly like you described. Not swimming much and hangs out in the same spot for 90% of the day. I've been to the few aquatic stores local to me and every one said it sounds like hex also. The only thing is no stringy white poo. Which makes me want to think he's just slow to acclimate. I ordered the meds and think I'm still going to treat him for hex. I have him removed from my 125 and he's in a cycled 30 at the moment. His color still looks really good too.


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Fish often look and act completely normal during the early stages of hex. Over time they will get thin and waste away due to their loss of appetite.

IMO metro is fairly safe as long as you dose it properly. It won't hurt to try it. Make sure you do the full seven day treatment. Raise the heat into the mid 80s while you do it. 50% water change every day, followed by a full new dose of metro. Offer foods like frozen bloodworms after three or four days and see if he keeps them down. Even if he's eating, complete the full treatment.

At the end you can do a large water change to remove the meds or you can put some carbon in the filter and pull it out. You may want to leave him in the 30 for a few days and observe that he's eating well before moving him back to the big tank.
 
Bloodworms are pretty much the only food he shows interest anymore. I've been reading that the med work better when ingested? Is spiking his food a silly idea? Lol


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Medicated food only works if they're actually ingesting food. Since he's spitting it out you'll just have to treat the water. I've never had a problem doing it this way.
 
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