Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 22, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 22, 2015 (edited) I need help. I'm totally freaking out. My sunfish still seems unwell. I did 3 rounds of Aqua Prazi, and after that he was still scratching. I did two water changes and was still thinking something was off. He developed what looked like a whitish film around his face as well. After thinking it may be other parasites, I started quinine. He's eating and has a great appetite, but in the last two days of scrutinizing him, I've noticed his stomach looks sort of sunken in. He's losing weight. The whitish film is not going away, and it looks like it's peeling a little. I found out I CAN put salt in with him, but native fish keepers recommend 0.06% (I haven't used any yet). I don't know what's going on. He's not acting that different from normal, but he looks off. Can anyone help? I'm sorry this's not about a goldfish, but this fish is my baby. If anything happens to him I will not be okay. What could cause his stomach to be sunken in like that? I don't think it's worms because I just did all that prazi. Test Results for the Following: * Ammonia Level(Tank) 0 * Nitrite Level(Tank) 0 * Nitrate level(Tank) 10-20 * Ammonia Level(Tap) Comes out of tap at 1.0 - 2.0 ppm, I run through a carbon filter and it goes down to 0.25 ppm, which is when I treat it with my water conditioner. It is at 0 ppm when I put it into the tank. * Nitrite Level(Tap) 0 * Nitrate level(Tap) 0 * Ph Level, Tank (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines) 7.6 * Ph Level, Tap (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines) 7.6 Other Required Info: * Brand of test-kit used and whether strips or drops? API drops * Water temperature? 78 F * Tank size (how many gals.) and how long has it been running? 72 gallon tank w/3 gallon filter * What is the name and "size of the filter"(s)? AquaTop CF400 * How often do you change the water and how much? 30% every 7-10 days on average * How many days ago was the last water change and how much did you change? 3/19, 25 gallons * How many fish in the tank and their size? one 8" fish * What kind of water additives or conditioners? Ultimate Water conditioner * What do you feed your fish and how often? thawed frozen blood worms, glass worms, brine shrimp, krill, live crickets, live wax worms, live earth worms * Any new fish added to the tank? No * Any medications added to the tank? quinine * List entire medication/treatment history for fish and tank. Please include salt, Prazi, PP, etc and the approximate time and duration of treatment. Treated with 3 rounds of Aqua Prazi, followed by one week of no medication, followed by quinine which has been in for 3 days * Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt," bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? there appears to be a whitish film on the head which sort of looks like it's peeling -- that has been there for 10 days or so. Belly looks sunken in a bit. Looks like he is losing weight. * Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, etc.? Fish still has great appetite, swimming around and behaving almost like normal. Stopped scratching and flicking after quinine added to water which was a problem throughout the prazi treatment and when prazi was removed. Edited March 22, 2015 by goldfishgirl82 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted March 23, 2015 Admin Share Posted March 23, 2015 Photos and a Video please hun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Cdionne77 Posted March 23, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 Crystal do you have pics... And I sm so sorry you are going through this. Sending good vibes your way!! Hang in there and breathe a mod will be by soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 23, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 It's hard for me to get photos that show it because my camera is not very good. The blurriness doesn't show the problem. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, here's a photo I found on google of a cichlid with a similar looking stomach issue. This fish's problem is more pronounced than my fish's stomach looks, but it's the direction I fear he is heading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 23, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 (edited) Okay, I managed to get a couple photos. Hopefully they help. The first two are of his belly issue took just now. The last one sort of shows the discoloration of his head (I took this when things first started days ago). There are three little white markings in the photo. Those aren't there anymore. They were there when I had the prazi in. He has had one similar one pop up since I put in the quinine but it is in the front of his head and it has since sluffed off or something. Sorry it's blurry, he moves when I take photos, hates the camera. Edited March 23, 2015 by goldfishgirl82 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Lis. Posted March 23, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 He's beautiful! I hope he feels better soon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 23, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 Thanks Lis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 23, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 23, 2015 Call me crazy or paranoid, but I've decided to take my boy to a fish vet. I found one in the area and he will do a skin scrape and fecal test to tell me for sure what's happening. The sucky part is I have to take him across town in a bucket which will be a trauma for both of us. I guess it's good I didn't end up spending my birthday money on the new fish tank after all. My buddy needs me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jenzaar Posted March 24, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 24, 2015 Fingers and fins crossed. I really hope this is solved quickly! He's a great looking fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Chai Posted March 24, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 24, 2015 I'm really happy to hear you have a local fish vet! I don't think I have one anywhere near me, though the university has a great bio department that may be of help if needed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 24, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 24, 2015 There is a girl who used to come in to the fish store I used to work at who had told me she took her goldfish to a vet when he had wen issues, so I knew there was one in the area, just never looked before. Thankfully he was easy to find on Google since I lost the card where my acquaintance had written down the name . That is one nice thing about this area, there seem to be more specialists for both people and animals that I would be hard pressed to find back home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 24, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 24, 2015 Fingers and fins crossed. I really hope this is solved quickly! He's a great looking fish. Thanks! When he's well he's even more handsome! And I think he knows it too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 26, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 26, 2015 Vet appointment went well. He doesn't have any parasites. The vet said it was either that he did not have them or my 3 rounds of Prazi killed them. He thinks the weight loss and skinniness is potentially from not getting enough vitamins and his food not having enough nutritional value. So, thankfully it's nothing terrible like I was worried about, it's something I can treat with a change of diet. He wants me to work on getting him to eat cichlid pellets, and when I feed him bugs, make sure they are bugs that are eating natural vegetation and things with vitamins rather than processed things. Overall things went well, but unfortunately the whole experience was a trauma for both me and the fish. When we got home and I put him back in his tank his eyes were cloudy... probably from his water losing some oxygen on the trip home even with the air pump and stone. Also, he was a bit traumatized by the whole thing and went immediately into hiding. It took six hours to coax him out, and I was panicking that I made things worse by taking him in the first place. I don't think he realized he was back home at first, but once he started swimming around his tank he perked up and is now getting back to normal. I put a couple pellets in and he has tested them. Keeps spitting them out, but seems interested. One good thing too... they weighed him, so at least now I'll be able to tell if he's really losing weight or not. I can do it again and see if he puts it back on or keeps losing. Hopefully things will get better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Chai Posted March 29, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 29, 2015 I hope it's uphill from here. He's such a handsome fish.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fish Of Gold Posted March 29, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 29, 2015 Glad things went well in spite of it being a bit stressful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 29, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 29, 2015 Unfortunately he is so stubborn and will not eat pellets, even though I've offered nothing else for five days in a row now. I'm worried that he's going to starve himself. So, I went to the store today and am going to make him a special gel food with the crushed pellets and all the other food that he used to eat plus some spinach and other vitiminy veggies. Maybe this will make it more palatable to him The things we do for our babies, I swear. I did try some emerald delight frozen cubes and he ate those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 29, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 29, 2015 Oh, and the skin issues seem to be going away a bit now. I'm thinking maybe it was initially caused by the flukes, but also he might have been more sensitive to the Prazi than other fish and it caused his slime coat to go nuts. Now that all meds are out of his water he seems to be doing better. I hope the skinniness will reverse as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Chai Posted March 29, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 29, 2015 Yep gel food might have to be trialed.. My fish, even the pickiest of them, really like hikari frozen Mysis Shrimp.. Not the jumbo ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Fish Of Gold Posted March 30, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 30, 2015 (edited) Unfortunately he is so stubborn and will not eat pellets, even though I've offered nothing else for five days in a row now. I'm worried that he's going to starve himself. So, I went to the store today and am going to make him a special gel food with the crushed pellets and all the other food that he used to eat plus some spinach and other vitiminy veggies. Maybe this will make it more palatable to him The things we do for our babies, I swear. I did try some emerald delight frozen cubes and he ate those. Maybe you can buy some Garlic Guard. It is an appetite stimulant for fish. You soak the pellets in it and it will taste like garlic which most fish love. http://www.amazon.com/Seachem-ASM173-Garlic-Guard-500-Ml/dp/B000256DV8 Edited March 30, 2015 by Fish Of Gold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 30, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 30, 2015 I just spent two hours crushing NLS pellets for the gel food. OMG that was tedious! I also got some green seaweed to put in there -- which I'd been wanting to get for a long time for my goldies as well . So it'll have the meaty things he likes (blood worms, krill) plus spinach and seaweed, and then will have the pellets and some garlic... with a wee bit of daphnia which he won't eat because I suspect it's too small for him to find. On the days I don't give him gel food I have glass worms and mysis which he likes a lot, and his crickets and earth worms which I will start gut-loading with healthy things. Unfortunately he is so stubborn and will not eat pellets, even though I've offered nothing else for five days in a row now. I'm worried that he's going to starve himself. So, I went to the store today and am going to make him a special gel food with the crushed pellets and all the other food that he used to eat plus some spinach and other vitiminy veggies. Maybe this will make it more palatable to him The things we do for our babies, I swear. I did try some emerald delight frozen cubes and he ate those. Maybe you can buy some Garlic Guard. It is an appetite stimulant for fish. You soak the pellets in it and it will taste like garlic which most fish love. http://www.amazon.com/Seachem-ASM173-Garlic-Guard-500-Ml/dp/B000256DV8 That usually works for him, but it wasn't on those pellets for some reason. It did get him to taste them, but then he spit them out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member GoldenSpoiledRotten Posted March 30, 2015 Regular Member Share Posted March 30, 2015 Have you thought about using Repashy Meat Pie or Community Plus for him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member goldfishgirl82 Posted March 30, 2015 Author Regular Member Share Posted March 30, 2015 I had not, but I will look into it. It may be easier than trying to do my own gel foods. The one I made last night has had a bit of success... but it didn't gel super well. He ate some though so that is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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