pink tail trigger feeding

[marcar]

Hi, This my first time posting in RC, I ve been reading allot but now I have a little issue with one of my fish that worries me a little and wonder if any of you would have input that could be of any assistance.

A few months ago we acquired a 4" pink tail trigger for our fowlr tank its a 78gal with a 80 gal sump.. the fish will move to a 180 at the spring as we know it will outgrow this tank.. the pink tail did excellent and was eating fine (brine, scallop, shrimp, krill, trigger formula etc...)for around 1 1/2 month but 3 weeks ago we noticed that she was loosing weight bad and that she was spitting out the food she grabbed so we tried everything we had and she was eating blood worms and silverside pieces like crazy but nothing else anymore so we feed that while still trying some shrimp etc.. she gain all her weight back but 5 days ago stopped eating all together.. she grab food but spit it out.. no other abnormal behavior and she is getting thin again.. all the other fish ( hippo tang, flame angel and a picasso all small sized) are doing great.

I have been told by my lfs to try live food like feeder guppy but also been advise against using fresh water fish to feed marine fish by more experienced fellow reefer so we didn't try that.. any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

Marc

 

[danorth]

Nori, the stuff in the Asian food section at the store. Rip off a quarter sized piece and soak it so it will sink a bit and see if it goes for it. Or even a veggie clip with some.

p.s. Welcome!

 

[marcar]

Thanks for the reply, I should had specified we have nori on a veggie clip regularly and she stopped eating that also.. same strange thing she goes and get some then spit it out.. then goes back at it 2 or 3 more time before giving up.. same with food. I also used garlic to soak her food in..

 

[danorth]

Well honestly, once you've tried all you can, that's it. You win some & you lose some. Sounds like you've done all you can besides taking it to another tank for a vacation.

 

[triggerfreak]

Yeah i would strongly advise against the live feeders, it will bring out there aggression faster.Try a freshwater dip for about 5 to 10 minutes.I had a similar problem ( still do ) with my queen trigger.She will stop eating every few months.She has flukes.The dip will take care of the ones on the fish but not in the tank.With in the last year or so alot of the triggers coming into the stores have been coming in with them.Ai the triggers eyes getting a little cloudy.Mine started eating again about a day after the dip.Hope this helps.Also a real good close up picture of your fish might hepl.

 

[marcar]

I will try the dip and see what happen and if I get good result I will isolate the tank from the basement sump move the LR to the sump and bring the whole tank in hypo salinity for a while if it can help.. I did this in the past to help with ich outbreak with great success... I will have to read more on flukes symptoms and it s life cycle before doing anything and see if it would help.. thanks for the info...

 

[LisaD]

I'm not sure weight loss and loss of appetite is necessarily due to external parasites that you might be able to treat by dipping. You can also add medication to the food to treat for internal parasites. Panacur has low toxicity. There are others you could use like metronidazole or praziquantel. (You'll have to research a little to decide what fits your case.)

There is a good troubleshooting table on the website for National Fish Pharmaceuticals, http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/diseases.html

I also buy meds from them. You can also look on www.calvetsupply.com

BTW, I don't think guppies are so bad, at least not compared to goldfish and fathead minnows. You can gutload and acclimate guppies to salt. Same with ghost shrimp. I would NOT feed bloodworms. IMO they are worse than guppies or ghost shrimp, and can carry disease.

 

[marcar]

Very good to know about the blood worm .. over the last days I brought my system in hyposalinity and to our great joy she started eating silverside vigorously today.. I will try re introduce a variety of food slowly and see what happen.