Spotted pike characin losing color

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Longfindragon

Longfindragon

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 19, 2015
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My little spotted pike characin looked a little pale today, his black spots look really faded and his base color was almost white. I did a water change even though parameters were all good just in case. He's still only eating feeders, rosy reds/ little minnows, could his lack of color come from over feeding or poor diet?
 
How could I correct it if that's the case? He's a fussy little thing if it doesn't move around, it ain't goin down.
 
Its a condition that is easier to prevent than to cure. I would switch to livebearers, which are considerably low in thiaminase but getting your fish off live foods is critical. You could try supplementing your feedings with vitamins also.
 
One other thing to consider, if you are not quarantining your feeders, they can create a whole range of health issues....
 
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Tie a frozen silversides to a fishing line, and put it in front of the outlet of a powerhead or wavemaker to make it look it is swimming.
 
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starve him until he takes prepared foods like tilapia. You won't kill him by not feeding him for a few weeks. Took me a month to get my odoe pike to take tilapia, and another month to get my delhezi to take it as well. Don't give in before the fish does, they won't starve themselves.
 
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What's mentioned above is a good way to help break off of feeders.

The only thing I would mention is to try this after the gar has recovered. Take the advice from wailu boy. Switch to guppies/small convict etc treated with MB. This will treat the feeders and gar if there's an infection. This will give time to also recover from thiaminase from the rosie reds.

If starved and there's an infection or thiaminase def then it'll likely end an already stressed fish.

Just something to think about and the advice mentioned by wailu boy, rocksor, and predatorkeeper87 is correct and can be done.
 
Thanks for all your advice guys! So after almost 24 hours of not eating his color completely returned I gave him 1 feeder ( I have 4 left to get rid of) and he still looks good. I think this was a case of overfeeding as I've read that it can cause loss of color in characins. None the less I'll buy the fishing line and frozen food today :)
 
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