Sick Firemouth

[japes]

My Firemouth juvie has been sick over the past few days, and I can't diagnose the problem. He's only a tiny guy at 3.5cm, housed in a 42Gal tank with a juvie Severum, Blue Acara and BN Pleco who never seem to bother him. These fish seem fine.

About 3 days ago he started not eating at all, I've been giving them a varied diet of a custom Prawn/Peas/Broccoli/Multi-vitamins mix, Hikari Staple, High Protein Pellets and Peas since I've been keeping them. Over the past three days he's shown no interest to eat whatsoever. He sits generally still, not resting on the bottom, breathing heavily. Shows no signs of bloat as he isn't 'fat', and is aware of his surroundings.

Water parameters are as perfect as they can be, Ammonia 0, pH 7.1, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5ppm. He's currently sitting near the surface, something he's never really done before other than feeding time, breathing heavily but not gasping for air above the surface of the tank.

I haven't fed the fish for over 24Hours and while the other fish are keen to eat whenever I walk in the proximity of the tank, my Firemouth continues to lurk at the back and take no notice, while hardly moving and breathing heavily.

 

[Dovii dude]

Keep an eye on the Acara or the Sev,or you might have bought a sick fish,does he have any spots on him??

 

[Dovii dude]

What is the temp of your tank??

 

[japes]

What is the temp of your tank??

The fish have been together for at least 3 weeks now.

Tank temperature is 26 celcius. No spots at all. He's got patchy colouring but he's had that for a while, I figured it was rather normal given that Juvie firemouths slowly turn from iridescent white to a darker grey (which is what appears to be happening)

 

[Dovii dude]

Not trying to alarm you,but something is going on there whebn the lights are out!!

 

[japes]

Not trying to alarm you,but something is going on there whebn the lights are out!!

As in aggression? I really doubt it, the Severum dominates the tank and he's really not that aggressive. My Blue Acara is a big sook, and neither tend to take any notice of the Firemouth during the day.

 

[japes]

Been thinking about the comment above and it's definitely possible, although unlikely. But given every common fish disease I've read through bearing no similarity to the Firemouths symptoms, it's making me think it's fairly probable.

Thankfully if it turns out bad, the fish is easy to replace given it's size, but 'Merrick' is my favourite little guy and I'd rather not see it come to that =(

 

[convict94]

just an idea but he could have internal parasites and that might be the reason for him not eating.what kind of filtration do you have and do you have an airiator?

 

[japes]

just an idea but he could have internal parasites and that might be the reason for him not eating.what kind of filtration do you have and do you have an airiator?

This crossed my mind but I was under the impression that internal parasites only upset appetite, not breathing rate and general activity.

Running an Eheim Classic 2215 with the spray bar pointed so that it makes a fairly audible ripple sound, no aerator.

 

[japes]

Little guy passed away last night unfortunately, no idea what it was but he actually had permanently extended pelvic fins, and with such a small fish I may not have been able to see possible extruding scales, so it may have been bloat.

Either that or random/injury caused by another fish. RIP.