Can anybody help me??? - anorexic fish

little_bitt

little_bitt

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Feb 28, 2006
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Wonderful New York
I have a beautiful yellow lab that won't eat. Every food that I try it bites then spits it back out. What should I do??? The matters are getting worse and I'm afraid it may be to late to save. I have tryed many types of food such as spirulina flake, spirulina pellets, live brineshrimp, live daphnia, NLS, krill pellets, omega one, and cichlid flake frinzy. It will not eat any of these. Any suggestions?? The first picture is of him/her and the second one is it next to its sibling. All the other fish are perfect sized except for this anorexic one. Please help me.

1.JPG 2.JPG
 
It could be a problem that started with water quality or a parasitic infestation, and one fish was just more susceptible than the others, but if you've been doing your regular maintenance and the condition has worsened, that's not a good sign. The fish clearly shows evidence of not having eaten for a while, and once that happens they are difficult if not impossible to bring back.

If you want to try treatment, you would need a hospital tank and possibly a treatment with levamisole to see what would happen. Even then, it might not work.

Good luck in either case.
 
Try soaking some flakes or whatever he was eating before in garlic juice before feeding. This will sometimes enhance their appetite. Just get some minced garlic from the grocery store and start with the juice. If they like the taste, you will eventually be able to feed them the minced garlic as well, and it's supposed to be good for internal parasites. :)
 
my question is..if it is a parasite infestation..should you remove and treat?

it could also be a bacterial infection..(which you could remove the fish and treat)

have you noticed any fecal matter passing? what did it look like?
 
I know this is old but i have a yellow lab that looks just like that and he is very lethargic and doesn't eat much, mostly just lays around on a rock.

It has been like that since i bought it all the others are doing fine. Any other advice?
 
It very well could be a parasitic infection but I would try a few things:

1) My yellow labs ABSOLUTELY love Sera foods (like: http://sera.de/index.php?id=238&L=1 ) and TetraMin Pro ( http://www.amazon.com/TetraMin-Pro-Tropical-Crisps-6-35/dp/B00025Z6VG )

2) What about Ghost shrimp?? I usually put a fair amount of ghost shrimp in and couple it with the above foods so that IF the fish is intimidated by the others .. the ghost shrimp will occupy the more aggresive fish thus allowing the Yellow Lab to feel free to eat!

Try it out!

PS: Also make sure your Nitrates are 40 or below. I have noticed that my fish become very lethargic and not very active when the Nitrates are 80 or above.

Jason
 
i've been trying different foods and so far i've been having good luck with cichlid pellets all the other labs love them, the sick one will eat them too but only small pieces. The sick fish does have normal looking feces which is a little comforting i guess i just need to find something that it will eat. it's been about a month of just trying different things i'm about out of ideas.

They all eat them then spit them out and then eat them then spit them out, it's really odd i've read some other posts that this is how they chew their food if it's too large. They do the same thing with flakes though.

I'll look for some ghost shrimp and try that i didn't know if they would eat live food or not.
 
Jeff22 said:
They all eat them then spit them out and then eat them then spit them out, it's really odd i've read some other posts that this is how they chew their food if it's too large. They do the same thing with flakes though.

I'll look for some ghost shrimp and try that i didn't know if they would eat live food or not.
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I don't think it has much to do with the size of the food they're eating. My mbuna do this with all their food. It's perfectly normal. They also LOVE ghost shrimp, in my experience.
 
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