Skinny Blue Throat Trigger
 

My male blue throat trigger has gotten quite skinny in the past while. He's eating frozen foods and right now I've been feeding 2-3 times a day. All my other fish are fat and healthy. They did have worms a few months ago, I treated and they cleared up, but he didn't appear to have them.

How do I get him to fatten up? There's been a few times he's gotten stuck to a power head when feeding, but he's either pulled himself off, or I've helped. He's normally an active swimmer, but he's now mostly hanging out in the rocks, except when feeding. Help!!

I would catch him and put him in QT
Just so that he does not have to compete for food and is left alone and not hiding. Recuperating
In QT I would treat him for worms again with prazipro just in case he did have some left.

I get concerned with catching sick fish that I will end up stressing them more and killing them....that said, I do have a 10 gl tank, live rock in my sump and some spare equipment I could set up.

Unfortunately, it's going to be a few days before I can, as I need a new sw mixing container, my mom had to put her 20 yr old horse down today so heading out to help her, plus I have a sick dog who's going into the vet today. Figures s$&/t hits the fan last day of holidays.....

I don't want to lose this guy, so hopefully I can get what I need tomorrow, get water mixing and have a qt set up by tuesday evening. For now I will keep up the feedings, he does seem a bit stronger and staying away from the power heads...

Prazipro is your friend. If and when you decide to QT the fish; perhaps supplement the feedings with a vitamin supplement such as Selcon as well. Good luck.

To stress a fish less, when you catch him, usher him into a container with the net, ie ice cream pail. Should be easy, if he is weak and gets stuck on the powerhead.
He will be less stressed when he is in QT by himself.

Always use Selcon and pureed garlic mixed in every second batch of frozen.

Great suggestion. Watching him today, he stays in the rocks simply because he gets pushed around in the flow. This guy isn't well....

Had to leave the dog at the vet too. He will be ok....pick up later tonight....

oh boy
Your plate is full
Good luck with everything

Coralgurl,

Sorry your fish is having a hard time. Sounds like she's kind of weak right now. I would not move her and add more stress unless there is aggro in the tank like a fish picking on her. Maybe move the flow higher to keep her from getting pushed around so much. Sounds like parasitic worms. This has happened to my blue powder tang in the past. Three feedings a day sounds like an awful lot. Why so much?

I would just soak all food for 10-15 minutes in intestinal worm medication. There's a bunch of them on the market. Sounds like you've already used them. One person told me it takes three weeks to get rid of them completely but don't think you need that long. More like 1-2 weeks.

johnny

Noone is picking on him. I've dosed the tank with Prazipro and keeping an eye on things. Last time I treated it took a couple of dosings to rid them of the worms. Problem I found is the tangs pooped them out, then went behind each other and ate them. I would try to scoop the worms out, but not always successful.

I've been overfeeding just trying to get him to fatten up. Now that I am back at work, its down to 2 - morning and evening. He's right in there for feeding with everyone, chases the food down.

I haven't had a chance to get out to get the additional Brute can or set up the QT tank. As he's eating everything I put in the tank, hopefully with treatment, he'll fatten back up. My sailfin was quite sick as well before and she now looks awesome again!

I've now completed 2 doses of Prazipro in my tank and did not relocate my trigger to a qt. He is already doing much better, is stronger and not getting stuck to the powerheads at feeding time. I "think" he looks to be thickening up a bit, but that will take time I'm sure. He's much more active again so I think he's made a positive turn.

On that note, my yellow tang crapped out a lot of worms too last night. As he's doing this, he turns and eats them.....freakin gross!! How am I supposed to rid the tank of these things if the fish just gobble them up again???? I thought he had a nice fat belly, but after that poop (it was a big one), his stomach area almost looked "pinched".

I'm going to complete a third treatment next week.

Worms can re-infect very easily especially if there eating their own waste. Try to treat every day for 4-5 consecutive days if possible. Feeding twice a day will make this difficult. Unless your feeding frys Feeding twice a day will make this less effective unless your treating both feedings.

Johnny

Instructions for Prazipro state every 5-7 days, but not more than every 3-5 days, therefore not a daily treatment - the way I'm reading this anyway. I don't mix with their food, I pour straight into the tank. I've got zero filtration going on right now - makes the skimmer go nuts anyway. I follow this dosing for the next while, but then I wonder if the worms become immune to the treatment.

Its only the tangs that will eat the worms, the other fish may bite, but then spit them out.

On another note and not sure if this is related, but I was watching my blue tang last night and she seemed to be having seizures. She'd shake for 10-15 seconds, then swim like nothing happened, then do it again. It was the oddest thing I've seen...any thoughts?

The instructions are not the clearest I've seen.

This is what I can make of it. Please make sure of the following:

-There should be no skimmer, filters, or UV sterilizers usage as well as no carbon usage during the treatment (5 days) as it will pull the medication out of the water. I would also take any other media out of the tank (such as purigen) and turn pumps off if present to reactors.
-This is a slower kind of treatment where you leave it in the tank for the week basically
-Change water BEFORE treatment, not after. They have neglected to clarify when the new water should go in. It should go in BEFORE you add the medication as to make sure the dosage is not messed with in your tank.
-This treatment seems to be sensitive to chlorine, chloramine, and ammonia. Make sure to use a water conditioner in your tank to pull these things out. They probably affect the medication.

Wish you and your friend all the best.

Johnny

My blue throat trigger died yesterday. I thought he had made a turn for the better, out swimming, eating, but 2 days ago, he stopped coming out to eat. My daughter found him floating around the tank yesterday morning.

All other fish are doing well, but I still can't get rid of the worms. I've treated 4 times now with Prazipro, yellow tang still seems full of them. Not sure what to do.

Not sure how good your relationship with your vet is, but if you can get some piperezine, combined with Maracyn 2, or Levamisole if you can get it.

Charles

Could you give some info on this? Is it a stronger med to get rid of the worms?

Both are much stronger, yes, and has some larval effectiveness as well.

Charles

I've called both vets I use and neither carry those recommendations. I've also called the Calgary Avion and Exotic Pets and would have to bring a fish and stool sample in.

I'm still calling around, hopefully come up with something, at a reasonable cost. Vet visit would not be cheap.

Your vet will not give you a Rx for one or both?

Charles

No the one didn't even know what they were, I didn't ask the other and the Exotic Animal wouldn't write an RX without seeing what they were prescribing for.

I've called Pisces and they recommended something else, starts with meta something. I'll head there this afternoon.

a metaldehyde?

Charles

Sounds right.

I just googled that and its a pesticide for snails & slugs, or camp fire fuel. I was mobile when I called and unable to write the information down.

Hope this has been working out for you ... any updates you want to share? :)

Charles

I will post what I picked up a bit later as I'm out of town atm. I did get "stuff" from Pisces, it's a 2 part med that you add to the fish food and treat for 5 days.

They seem to be ok though.

I called Shoppers Drug Mart and they don't carry those meds. I am dosing the fish food again with the other stuff, that I keep forgetting to post....last night I'm watching them and my sailfin has this 4 inch long, flat thing hanging out its bum. I've copied a thread I started last year as it shows a bit of what this thing looks like. its about 5 mm wide, flat and there was 4" hanging out. I watched for quite a while and didn't see it drop or whether it went back inside. It also had 2 of the skinny worms as well.

The sailfin is not as skinny as it was and actually looks good. It eats like a champ, frozen and nori sheets. Is not weak as it swims face first into the powerheads to pick the algae.

I am ready to call it quits here. I don't have $500 to catch a fish and take it to the vet or to have the vet come to my house which is a min 2 hour call. I can't watch my fish 24/7 to watch them poop and catch these stupid worms so they won't eat them.

My tank has not been well taken care of, I know that, so the fish have not been living in the best conditions, I know that too. I've just changed out 40 gls of water on the weekend, got my skimmer going again, filter socks, need to still change out the carbon/gfo, but not having major algae issues. So ya, this is on me. I've had a busy year, but there's no excuses. If someone wants them who can take better care and get them healthy again, I'll sell off. I really don't know what to do.

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...=102329&page=2

They are both used for livestock. Any chance you have some connections with local farmers? They can usually get a lot of these medications from a vet just by calling and asking.

There are some other, more labour intensive options you can use to supplement the medical compounds that may help. One thing you can try adding is to mix bentonite clay with gelatin, raw seaweed (kelp) and the food you normally feed the fish. This has some limited effectiveness by itself but combined with the medication can increase the efficacy of the treatment. The gelatin keeps the clay bound until digested by the fish, and as it passes through the digestive system it helps the fish expel the parasites and also acts to reduce the chances of the parasite attaching.

http://www.allnaturalpetcare.com/DIY...gredients.html

Be careful of some the items mentioned as the difference between a therapeutic dose and a toxic one can be close for some species.

Hope some of this helps.

Charles

I will get my mom to check with her vet, they are on an acreage and have a great relationship with her, I never even thought to go that route. She has 2 she works with and if they can't help, her neighbours will have connections as well. This helps immensely, I will keep updating. This is so frustrating!

This is what Pisces recommended

Metronidazole and Focus, both from Seachem. Mix in with their food, feed daily.

Of what is available to you at the moment they are probably the best choices. Another option is to continue the Prazipro while feeding those as well.

Charles

I will give another dose of prazipro. I wanted to do another water change as im sure the water quality is poor. I can get it done tomorrow eve, do you see any value or should I just go ahead and dose now?

Well, mom's vet said to take a worm sample to the Calgary Avian and Exotic Pet Clinic to test. CAEPT still won't issue meds without seeing fish, said its illegal, even with a sample to release an rx. Its either take the fish there, or have them come to my house. A picture helps, but they need to see the head of the worm under microscope.

I am going to increase the dosage of the prazipro and metronidazole (packaging says this medication cannot be overdosed). Prazipro will dosed every 2-3 days and I'll mix it with their food.

Never a bad idea to do a water change.

Charles

I finally received some levamisole meds this week and am going to treat my tank today as I'm home and can monitor. As my fish seem to finally fatten up I thought the last treatment I did with the seachem meds had finally gotten rid of the worms. Been watching my fish and hadn't seen any signs in quite a while, until last night, my blue tang had them hanging out its rear.

So I need some help with the dose. I have a 180 display and an 87 gl sump. I would guess I have approx 120 lbs of rock between the 2, plus my skimmer and dual reactor. I've got 7.5 grams of meds.

Can someone help with how much I should use, I've looked on line and can't seem to find the calculations for the powder form for sw.

Thanks

Bump....Anyone? I didn't treat today as I got called out for an emergency at work.

I'm sure you already came across this but just in case

http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/Camallanu...Procedure.html

Finally got this treatment done. Had to buy a scale, lovely $50 one for $10 of meds...anyway.... I mixed 2.5g of levamolsoli to 1 cup of tank water, then slowly added to the dt. I didn't turn off the return pump, but did turn off the skimmer and gfo reactor. I covered the tank to block the lights and then monitored the fish. As of 930 am, I haven't seen the melanerous wrasse, but everyone else is fine including corals. I have water ready for a change, but as I'm treating for intestinal worms, not flatworms, I may leave the wc for a day. I have enough of the meds to do 2 more treatments. Need to feed and see if the worms start dropping, with lights out, fish went to bed last night.

Hopefully this is the end of this. It's been a year long battle with a few deaths along the way.....

I'm pretty sure I got screwed on this. I've used the entire 7.5 gram pack. I didn't see any adverse reactions from corals or the fish when I added, and they still have the stupid f&$)@ing worms, at least the blue tang still does. Going to order from somewhere else and try again.