Angel loss of appetite with Prazipro?

WayneL333

New member
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has experienced their angel losing their appetite after treating with Prazipro? If so, did it eventually come back? Did you do anything in particular to stimulate their appetite again?

My Bandit had a ravonous appetite ever since I received it but 3 days into it's first Prazi treatment, it stopped eating. I took it out of the Prazi tank yesterday and I'm hoping it'll start eating for me again.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hey Wayne, this is not uncommon in my experience... Prazi does not inhibit feeding to the extent that copper does, but it does sometimes to a lesser extent. It's effective quickly though, so does not require a long treatment... in healthy fish the feeding should come back. I also always QT things at lower temperatures to slow metabolism, which your bandit will also appreciate. I've had my bandits now for over five years! :)

Copps
 
Whew! That's great to know John. Thank you! At what temp do you keep your prazi tank at? I try to keep mine around 74 just because it's a bandit although it's been kind of hard keeping it that low the last few days because it's been over 80 degrees here in LA(yes we have it hard here). With outside temps that high my qt tanks in my garage creep up to like 76-77 degrees. I'd have to run a seperare chiller on the qt tanks to keep them consistently lower.
 
Wayne, was the fish feeding confidently before you treated? Unless there are obvious signs of flukes I always wait to treat... if the fish does have flukes you could see it start squirming and shaking as the Prazi affects the flukes right away... it's a bit alarming at first but gives welcome relief to the fish... I just had it happen last night in a QT!

I'd run the QT as cool as you could... 74 is fine but I'd go lower if you could but no higher... how big is the QT? It's rather easy to evaporatively cool a QT with a small clip on fan.
 
Yes, it was eating very well before treatment. I had it in a 30 gallon tank. It also didn't show any obvious signs of flukes when I first treated it. Truthfully, since it went through 3 full days of treatment, I probably won't treat it again since it initially didn't show any signs. I just want it to start eating again.

Great idea with the fan. It's easier to put a ato on the tank than a chiller.

Thanks for your help John.
 
No sweat Wayne... FYI I always prefer QTing in the smallest tank that will work... it allows you flexibility in treating and changing water... Good luck!

John
 
One last question I have is how long should I wait before I start to really worry that they're not eating??? They seem interested when I put food in the tank and look at yet but have yet to eat it.
 
I've had the same experience with butterfly fish. For what it is worth all of the fish that stopped eating from the prazi started eating again within 3 days of removing the medication.

I usually leave the fish in the prazi 3 days to see if their appetite returns which it always has with large angels, not so much with certain butterfly fish. I understand bandits are pricey so 3 days in meds without eating may not be something you are willing to risk. Chaetodon mesoleucos was the worst because it was eating everything prior to prazi, Didn't eat for 3 days with the meds and then didn't touch anything for 2 days after that. After 5 days without eating it would only eat chopped raw shrimp and wouldn't touch anything else it was eating before the meds.

I've also experienced a case where prazi stressed the fish which caused a small ich outbreak. I was treating prazi first, but that is an entirely different story. I wish you luck and keep us updated!
 
I see fish stop eating with Prazipro if they haven't been treated with it, but fish that have gone trough a round don't seem to stop. I've been leaning towards that being cause if parasites on or in the fish are being killed. My bandits did the same thing and now have been eating like pigs for years
 
Just an update. So after 5 days of not eating, my bandit took it's first few bites today. It wasn't like the pre-medicated ravenous self, but at least it's eating again. I'm hopeful it'll eat more as time passes.
 
Did you remove the meds? I've ramped up to full strenght prazi over the course of 2 or 3 days in the past with sensitive fish. Might be worth a try if you try to medicate again.
 
Well, I didn't remove the meds, but I removed the fish from the medicated QT tank. I'm not going to try to medicate again. It had 3 full days of full strength prazi so I think that's sufficient. It never showed any symptoms of flukes in the first place. I was only doing it in the first place as a preventative measure.
 
One last question I have is how long should I wait before I start to really worry that they're not eating??? They seem interested when I put food in the tank and look at yet but have yet to eat it.

I had a juvenile Chrysurus once that took 3 weeks to eat, and an adult Regal that took 2 1/2 weeks
 
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