URGENT HELP NEEDED

I have four baby angels who have stopped eating. Initially they were all eating. The smallest blue koi paraiba wouldn't eat for 4 weeks, starting eating only bbs for a week, but has now stopped again. The larger blue silver gold marble ghost and the quarter smokey blue koi and smokey blue koi paraiba have now stopped eating. They are all in a qt tank. I have tried bbs, frozen bbs, bloodworm, flakes, cichlid sticks and tetra prima. There's no flashing, yawning or signs of external parasites. Their bellies are sunken though. The water params are all good. I'm at a loss. There are also two small Bristlenose plecs in the tank who are unaffected.

I also out this thread on TAFII. They suggested worms or even Hex and I should treat with Levamisole or Flubendazole. Now I'm really worried. I need help urgently if their diagnosis is correct. Any ideas?

Hi Helen,
Firstly don't panic, it's amazing just how long angels can go without food and still survive!
I have 3 young red backs who went exactly the same way. I treated initially with Octozin but this didn't seem to make any appreciable difference. I then treated with Kusuri wormer plus (which is Flubendazole). Initially this too seemed to have little effect, but after about a week or so I notice that one was feeding and putting on weight, the other two followed a week or so after. The improvement has been marked and even the weakest of the three (which I really expected to lose) is now looking fat, healthy, and growing.
So my advice would be to try flubendazole. If you can't lay your hands on any wormer plus, NT labs make a product called Flukasol which has flubendazole as the active ingredient.

All the best with them.

Thanks Rob. I've ordered enough Kusuri to treat 2000l. I will treat all my tanks as a precaution, I don't want to go through this again. I don't know when the Kusuri will arrive from Plymouth Discus. I'm hoping they can hang on until It does.

I've stopped trying to feed them as it's pointless and just pollutes the water. Terrapins on Angelfish.net suggested turning the temp up to 92 and adding extra aeration, but I'm a little wary about doing this.

Fingers crossed I get the Kusuri in time.

I dosed the tank with Kusuri yesterday in the hope my sick angels just had worms. Unfortunately the smallest blue koi and blue kois' condition worsened. I spoke to Chris at Plymouth Discus and he recommended using Octozin or Esha Hexamita due to the white/clear feces and emaciated appearance. I've now ordered Esha Hexamita. Unfortunately its too late for the little blue koi and blue koi paraiba. I came home from work to find them dead. I'm very sad as I had grown very attached. I'm pinning my hopes on the Esha working for the remaining 2 sick angels.

Really sorry to hear that Helen, hope the others pull through.

I am so sorry to hear this Helen, when all is looking better pm me

Thanks both for the kind words. It's so difficult making a diagnosis when they are sick. I'll just have to chalk it up to experience. At least if the Esha works I'll know what's wrong and be ready to deal with it in future.

I just threw some bbs in the tank and they showed some interest. The smokey blue koi paraiba ate a few, but the blue silver gold marble ghost is eating like he's never had food before. Perhaps this is the turning point back to good health.

That sounds very encouraging!

My sick blue silver gold marble ghost and smokey blue koi paraiba are on the mend. The former is eating normally and the latter a small amount. Gone is the sunken belly and they are both taking an interest in their environment. Happy days!

Nice one, glad they are on the mend

Thanks Lisa. If it wasn't for this and other forums I wouldn't have had a clue what was wrong. Thanks to you all for your help. I just hope they are back to full health soon. I gave the last dose of the course today. Any idea how long before I can do a wc? There's no indication of this on the dosing instructions.

Give it a day and do a massive water change, keep an eye on your filter as this type of medication can kill filter bacteria.
Lisa

Okay, I'll do a 50% wc tomorrow, but the instructions say to replace the proportion of meds removed during wcs. It also says it won't affect filters?

Hi Helen,

Glad to hear that the rest of your fish are now doing OK. Bought initially for my discus, I have found ESHA to work well on various unknown symptoms in the past when I've been stuck for a solution.

I have also found garlic to help with restoring appetite at times if it happens again. You can get frozen garlic brine shrimp in large and small size shrimps which I've used.

regards,

Trevor

TrevorGreenfield wrote:Hi Helen,

Glad to hear that the rest of your fish are now doing OK. Bought initially for my discus, I have found ESHA to work well on various unknown symptoms in the past when I've been stuck for a solution.

I have also found garlic to help with restoring appetite at times if it happens again. You can get frozen garlic brine shrimp in large and small size shrimps which I've used.

regards,

Trevor

Thanks Trevor. I've heard about the health benefits for fish when using garlic, but never tried it. I will give it a go. How often should they be fed this?

Hi Helen,

I fed them each day until I saw them starting to feed. I had other fish in with them that prevented uneaten food from lying around in the tank. I think that although the other fish compete for the food and can put fussy eaters off, other fish eating can encourage the non-eaters as well. As you've found getting fish to eat isn't an exact science, it's often a case of try everything till something works. I've had lots of times when Discus have decided not to eat and nothing I tried would bring them round to it.

regards,

Trevor