Red Melon not eating

[axl]

Hi,
i have 1 discus that isnt eating everytime i put food into the tank he goes and hides. The other 9 discus are all fine and eating i have tried worming them with Big L and prazi and it dosnet make him want to eat. He isnt showing any signs of being sick and he has got full colour. Should i put him into a hospital tnak and treat with metro??? or just monitor for a while. He is swimming around fine when there is no food around. Any idears???
Ph 6.9
0 ammonia
12 Nitrate
Cheers Axl

[Big Daddy1]

I have one right now that doesn't like to eat with the lights on and me standing by the tank. I turn the lights off and walk away, he eats right up. It's low light too.

Anyone picking on it, pecking order?
Live brine??
Temp?
How long not eating?
What substance do you provide?

There's a billion reasons. You have a lot of posts too.

[axl]

The temp of the tank is 29 degrees and where i live i cant get live brine, i normally feed bloodworms, beef heart, colour bits, flakes and not interested in any of them. Havent been eating for 2 weeks now and he isnt getting picked on from what i can see.

[Big Daddy1]

Maybe one or two are dominant, 29 should have metabolism up, the medicine might have stressed him out a bit.

I think meds might have stressed it.

Is it smaller or younger than most others?

I'm at a loss for what to do but I wouldn't isolate it medicate it without knowing what is wrong, maybe a dominant fish but not it, isolate that is. I would also consider moving things around in the tank slightly and maybe lowering the temp to 82 to give its metabolism a break. I actually keep mine at 82 for the norm. That way when problems might arrise, I can bump it up two degrees.

Merrilyn might have some better advice. I hate it when fish won't eat and you can't put your finger on it.

[axl]

Yeah it is very frustating when they go from being pigs to not eating at all, he is slighlty younger than most of the fish but is problaly the 3 biggest in the tank. I went home for lunch beofre and he was hiding again. i will be intrested to here what other people think is wrong

Cheers Axl

[ILLUSN]

is it passing normal stools? i'd stick it in a bare bottom tank for observation, try offering some live brine shrimp or frozen blood worms with the lights off to see if that makes it eat.

if it has normal stools i wouldn't be using metro, if you can spare the space maybe get a few guppys from a lfs and try offering the guppy fry as food, my stubborn fish always went nuts for them, they find them even tastier than live blackworms.

[axl]

a week ago i put him in a bare bottom tank and are on the 3rd day of treatment of metro, he went all pale so i decided to do a course of metro. His colour has picked up but he is still not eating and i have put 2 guppies in there as well and no change. I need help on this 1. He is moving around the tank fine and i cant find and stools.

[axl]

I just read in adrew soh book that my fish has got a chroinc bacteria endo-infection. the whole system shuts down and the discus is dehydrated and he suggests puting it down. I dont think i could do this.

[Merrilyn]

It's really tough when they don't eat Axl. I had a wild caught fish that starved itself to death over a course of two months. It's heartbreaking to watch, and sometimes there's just nothing you can do.

I don't agree with putting the fish down at this early stage, because I know some of them can be turned around and they begin feeding well again.

First thing, do another treatment of levamisole, while offering live brine shrimp as a food.

A week after the levamisole, start a treatment of tetracycline which is a broad spectrum antibiotic.

Keep offering live food and keep your fingers firmly crossed.

Good luck. I hope it goes well. Keep us posted.

[axl]

Thanks for the advice Merrilyn, i will do what you have advised but the problem is i cant get live brine shrimp in horsham its only a small town and i by all my fish needs online. Any other suggestions.
Cheers Axl

[Merrilyn]

See if you can find some mozzie wrigglers. They still breed, even in the colder months. Have a look in anything that might hold water, old car tyres, tin cans, bird bath, puddles, anything.

If you can't find any in some standing water around home, set up a bucket of dechlorinated water with some lettuce leaves in the bottom and leave it outside in the sun. Hopefully some mozzies will find it, and decide it's a nice place to lay eggs.

Alternatively, offer small amounts of his previous favourite foods.

[Nitecongt]

i've had luck growing wrigglers in a bucket of water thats holding drift wood (to remove discolouration). they (wrigglers) seem to love the dirty brown water