Got A Zebra Danio Which Is Losing Weight Fast.. Why?

[pixelpefekt]

I've got a danio which seems to have lost some of it's appetite. For the couple of weeks it eating less and losing weight. I thought it would pass but it's getting slimmer and slimmer. It always goes to the surface when it's food time but it doesn't do a very good job of feeding. It slowly moves aroung picking at bits of food whilst the other fish are much more energetic.

Now that it's much thinner, the other two danios seem to harass it. It spends much of its time hiding away behind the filter. It never used to.

Here's a picture of it.

The other Zebra danios in the tank are doing fine.

Fish in tank - 3 zebra danios / 3 harlequin rasboras / 3 neon tetras / 3 amano shrimp / 1 khuli loach (Yes I know, why 3s - Lost a lot due to white spot a couple of months back. I'm planning on boosting numbers)
Water parameters - 0 Amonia / 0 Nitrite / 5-10 Nitrate


Any idea what it is and how I could save this fish? I was thinking of moving it out to a smaller hospital tank but I don't know if that will only make things worse or not..?

 

[scooterchick]

Yes, if you can move it do it and treat it with sterazin for internal parasites. Any white stringy poo?

 

[LauraFrog]

scooterchick is right, it's almost certainly got internal parasites. Other suitable meds: praziquantel, pyrantel, trichlorforon, levisamole. Treat with whatever you can get, parasites aren't fussy, they will die for any of those.

The other possibility is fish TB. I would suspect it because of the lack of appetite, fish with parasites often continue eating well. It doesn't LOOK like it has TB, so treat for parasites. If that doesn't work it may be TB, which is unfortunately incurable.

 

[5teady_2012]

treat your tank with interpet no9 or anything on the same lines as anti internal bacteria med.

 

[Spishkey]

i sadly lost all but two of my zebra danios to the same symptoms, which was possibly TB. they went thin, hung about in the water slow movement loss of appetite then bumpfh, dead.
i tried anti parasite/bacterial meds but nothing worked.

 

[LauraFrog]

5teady is right actually, by the point they are that skinny and starting to lose appetite there is usually a secondary infection. I should have thought of that. I'd combine anti internal bacteria with praziquantel or similar, that covers all your bases. If it's parasites then the fish will be cured, if it's TB you might get rid of the secondary infection and have the fish stick around for a few more months. Don't treat the whole tank with a bacteria med or you will lose the cycle.

 

[pixelpefekt]

Thanks for all the info.

So, best course of action, put it in another tank, treat it on it's own rather than the whole community tank.

If it's got internal parasites, it is likely that other fish will have the same problem??

 

[littleT]

Hi pixel
I hope your fish doesn't end up having TB(wasting disease) because I had a tank full of zebra danios and they all died except about 5 and I tried everything. I finally decided it was best to destroy the fish so my new fish wouldn't end up with it. I think what brought it in was some tetras not sure though but it was awful. I hate TB.... I took the tank down and started all over. Good luck.

 

[pixelpefekt]

I don't know anything about fish TB. Is it a common problem??

 

[scooterchick]

I don't know anything about fish TB. Is it a common problem??

It seems to be more common than people think. I've also lost practically a whole tank, some neon tetra's were the culprits in my case. Out of the 11 fish I have in my tank, 5 of them survived the worst of it but one of them is showing signs, he's been that way for a while but I have to ready to get him out if he looks near death. The only good thing about TB is it seems to only be contagious when a fish dies and the others start to eat it.

 

[LauraFrog]

TB is really bad, there is absolutely nothing you can do except treat with antibiotics on each blowup and hope that it fades. It's really bad. The problem is that the fish are mass produced for the aquarium trade, and a lot of deaths are considered normal. TB is orally infected (as scooter said) and it means that if you get one or two TB fish and you don't catch it in time to get them out you can have it through the whole tank. It's a dreadful disease. if you dissect a fish that died of TB there are hard lumps of scar tissue all over the liver, spleen and kidney. It's hideous.

 

[WILDER]

How old are the zebra danios as they can get thinner as they get old.
Also there spine will bend.
http/www.aquarticles.com/articles/breedi...bra_Danios.html

 

[WILDER]

A link to fish tb.
http/www.fishyportal.com/cgi-bin/pub/dia...&did=232361