Thin Fish
 

Been watching my fish over the past while and noticing a couple are getting thin. I typically feed a mix of frozen food, occasionally pellets and nori.

No, I'm not a newb but this is the first time I'm seeing this happen. All the fish are aggressive eaters and no one seems to go without. I watch the ones that seem a bit thin and they are all eating. How do I get these guys to fatten back up? Ones I'm concerned about is an anthia, lubbocks wrasse and my sailfin tang. The others are all fat and look great. No diseases that I can see.

For frozen, I mix cyclopeeze, Mysis, Pacifica Plankton and occasionally others (no brine) just to mix things up for them. I generally feed once per day, in the evenings as they aren't all up when I leave for work in the mornings.

I drop food until they are no longer hanging around at the surface, seems that's about the time they lose interest or have had enough, plus there's food in the water column.

Should I add an auto feeder for pellets during the day and frozen at night?

Seems like they all eat their fill, if food is still in the water column and they start to lose interest.
So some are fat and some are not. Even though they all eat.
Only thing I could think of is maybe some have internal worms/parasites?
I think prazipro works for that in the display tank. Research it though as I have never used it in the DT, just in the QT
And you are right in assuming they will do better with more feedings throughout the day, but smaller portions.

I think that once a day feeding is not enough personally. I know a lot of people on here say they only feed once a day but in my experience a couple to three feedings a day is best.

I usually feed frozen once a day. Pellet and flake once a day. And nori/marine grazers every day as well.

Skimmer runs thick but I would rather have a bit of algae and happy fish than clean glass to watch thin fish through.

And yes an auto feeder is nice to add if you can get a good one that can be programmed.

for thicking up fish. that really sounds weird.
Pacifica Plankton, and New life Spectrum pellet. i find fatten your fish!

i only feed my tank once a day in the morning.
i roughly add 100-120 grams of pellets every morning.
what is a lot.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am not sure if there's a worm or parasite which could be causing this. I will read up on the symptoms. I believe I have Prazipro at home as well, will have to check to make sure its still good.

Regarding feeding. I have always fed my fish 1 time per day. The fish affected are not new to the tank and have been there for quite while - min 6 months each. I will bump up once I adjust my lighting schedule to ensure they are all awake in the morning.

I watch the waistlines of my fish too. I like them fat and happy :)

How do you get your fish to lose interest in food though? lol Whenever there is food in the water column mine go ape-sh*t making sure they eat as much as possible.

They haven't lost interest, they eat, just getting thin. I was out this aft for work, so stopped by Concept and picked up more pellets and pacifica plankton. Gonna double feed for a while and see if they fatten back up!

The only thing I might be thinking is parasite. See anything else that could indicate that? Maybe some garlic pellets to see if it helps?

I haven't seen anything noticeable on them. Could be a worm or something internal. I fed the pellets and frozen tonight, all are eating but noticed the anthia wouldn't touch the pellets.

I have seachem para guard on hand, will read if reef safe.

My bottle of prazipro says its ok in reef systems. But it will kill flatworms of the order POLYCLADIDA
I'm not sure, but I think that would kill feather dusters.

Para guard is for external parasites. I think I will follow the additional feedings for now. Frozen food has garlic mixed in. I am not comfortable treating meds in the dt and I'm not confident I can set up a qt quick enough to be effective.

I've been watching my fish and here's what I'm observing.

Sailfin - has approx 1/2" long flat back poop and 2 white stringy things hanging out of its anus. This definitely does not look normal. She normally is a strong swimmer, but she looks like she's getting blown around a bit by the power heads.

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psc2cbf37c.jpg

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/...psc012d94c.jpg

I haven't witnessed the others pooping.

Is prazipro my only option here?

Those are worms. My Discus would get similar feces a few days after feeding blood worms.

I had skin flukes in my Marine tank before and I prazi pro'd the display with no ill affects.

It's worth a shot.

Here is my post on it. http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...ight=prazi+pro

Prazi Pro received Kien's blessing so it has to be good then, right??

Thanks Ross for the link. I'll pick some up in the morning and try to sneak back home to treat. I'm getting worried with how thin she is, assuming the others are affected as well.

Curious where they came from or how they were introduced. Nothing new in months!

Frozen food...

Seriously??? They can survive being frozen??

I am not a fan of medications in DT. In term of prazipro, it is mostly reef safe but it will most likely kill your featherdusters, worms (bristleworms etc).
Also prazipro may suppress appetite of your fish a little. I would just continue with the treatment if that's the case. The appetite will come back after PP is removed.
The best protocol for PP treatment is 5 days on, 5 days off and 5 days on again. The 2nd treatment is to kill 2nd generation parasites. PP can't kill eggs.
The parasite most likely is with your fish all the time. It's impossible that the parasite comes with the frozen food as someone suggested.
Good luck.

You've never seen worms in the cod we eat? After its been thawed?

Thanks for the instructions, I wondered if it was a one time dose or ongoing. I don't have any feather dusters but loads of bristle worms. I hope the 3 that seem affected can hold on a few more days.

Nope on the cod, I don't like seafood, so have no clue, but seeing worms on food would be enough to turn me off it if I did eat it.....gross :puke:

Was able to pick up some prazipro today and get the tank dosed. All the fish look active and actually looking to be fed again (fed this morning).

Been doing some reading and do believe it is possible for the parasites to come in on the food. Just reading about human issues and foods.

Fingers crossed that they all pull through.

24 hour update - I am super impressed with how fast the Prazipro has worked. Last night after feeding everyone, I checked in to see how they were doing. First, all ate extremely well. When I went to check, my sailfin was having her evening bowel movement. I was absolutely horrified by what I saw. The poor thing was pooping worms only. Was kind of hoping that it was just one big long one, but appeared to be many 1/2" ones. Then, watched as the others thought, yum, food. Thankfully they spit them back out. Fed and checked on everyone this morning and again everyone is eating lots. I have not seen the other 2 poop and I am not sure the anthia will make it. She is eating only the smallest bits and then hides.

I can only imagine how horrible they have felt with these nasty things.

Glad its working out for you!

Thanks Ross!

All is good today. I bought new era pellets and the fish really don't seem to care for them, bought some Pacifica plankton, but forgot it in the work freezer. Have some cyano showing up as I've had the skimmer off since dosing and kept the filter socks off. I need to do a water change, but wondering if is hold wait until I'm done treating?

Either wait until the dosing is done before WC
Or just dose the proper amount to the new water before you add to tank

Update, I completed a water change on Nov 11 and redosed the amount for 25 gls. I completed the second dose of Prazipro last Wednesday evening. There are no further signs of worms in the fish, but I did lose my one anthia. The wrasse and sailfin seem to be fine and I keep hoping I will stop seeing the sailfin's ribs every time I look at her. Tonight is day 5 of the second treatment, I plan on doing another water change this week and get the skimmer back up and running. I've had my dual reactor offline for a few months now, but would like to get carbon running again to clear up the water.

So I'm sitting here watching my fish and it looks like my yellow tang has worms coming out his back end now. Wth?? Should I dose the tank again? Last dose was 2 weeks ago.