Worsening Eating Issues

[Nymsley]

There are similar threads about eating but not quite the same and I didn't want to hijack.

I have a small male A. cacatuoides who has always eaten less than the other cacs that I received with him. He is in a tank with rasboras and receives thawed and live foods. (Hasn't accepted pellets.) I suspect that his limited appetite might be one of the reasons why he is still small. He would take a couple pieces of worm but would reach a point where he would spit it out a few times before eating it. (The others would never show signs of slowing down.)

Now it seems that he can't swallow the food. He repeatedly spits out and sucks in the food. (Sometimes the food just exists through his gills.) During the last feeding, he just gave up on the bloodworm and left it on the substrate.

Is there anything I can do to encourage his appetite?
If there is something obstructing his throat, how can I check for that and how can I remove it?

 

[Nymsley]

Between the original post and today, he managed to eat some worms. He was hiding for all of the time when he was not eating.

I just came home today and found him lying on the substrate, his body, fins, and eyes were all dark. He had "normal colors" during the other times he cames out. No external signs of disease, just a sunken belly.

Hes still alive but minus the spunk.

 

[bigbird]

hi these are always difficult to diagnose, as we have so little to go on. Does his jaw move , maybe it is lock jaw, sometimes it could be a parasite, it is just diffiuclt to say. I usually find, if an apisto already gets to such a bad state, that the diagnosis is already to late for treatment. I always suggest to place any suspected sick apisto in a quarantine tank straight away. I always have one small sponge filter in the original tank, so I just take the original tank water into a small 26gallon and use the sponge filter and a heater. Simple and no change of water paremeters. Anyway, monitor your cac and maybe he will survive. Also I find blood worm are not an ideal source as they usually make apistos bloat and are hard to digest. Use brine shrimp or mysis shrimp instead. Frozen they are also good, but be sureto defrost before hand. Also as he is the subdominant male, he might get a bashing from the others and thus also may be injure. My suggestion, seperate him and quarantine him and maybe just maybe he will turn up good. Keep us posted. cheers jk

 

[Bilbo]

For me it sounds like columnaris although that usually acts pretty quick.

I would have him isolated first anyway and keep a close eye on the remaining fish.

Maracyn and Maracyn II in combination work against this or some other antibiotic. PP will also stop the infection but often, as bigbird has said, by the time you get really worried its to late to save them.

Keep us updated and good luck.

 

[Nymsley]

Sorry, I wasn't being clear. He has a separate tank from the other apistos since Nov/Dec when they reached sexual maturity.

His jaw does move, normal as far as I can tell.

Their frozen food is thawed in a small cup of old tank water.

Hes taken back to hiding again.

 

[bigbird]

how about a pic ?

cheers jk

 

[Nymsley]

Thanks bigbird and Bilbo for the replies.

The fish, his name was Gino, passed away. :frown:

 

[Bilbo]

Sorry to hear that. I still think a pic would be a great idea because it might be something you need to worry about for the rest.

I have an outbreak of fin rot on a Bitaeniata so isolated him out to treat without thinking of the rest. Now a few days later all of them have to pulled out for treatment because I wasnt careful enough, even though I knew better.

 

[Nymsley]

You're right about the pic. I have a pic via cell phone which looked okay on the tiny phone screen but it pretty terrible on a computer screen. I'll post the pic anyways. (I realized the tail looks clamped but its due to the angle.)