Help! a very distressed fish

[helptoall]

Hi, ive resced this 2 fish a few weeks ago from a neglected tank.before ive rescued them, they were colorful and looked healthy. a few days after , they started to lose color and weight. They eat and acive but keep losing weight. Im keeping the water very clean . parameters are 0,0,5 . thers filteration and the volume of the tank is 120L, they are seperated to 2 diffrent tanks. im also supplemnting them with vitamins and already treated with levamisole , prazi and epsom salt, with no improvment. its slowly getting worse..
Please help.. tank you

 

[Colin_T]

What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH of the water (in numbers)?

Are they eating?
What are you feeding them?
What does their poop look like?

Their colour is pale because the tank is white and doesn't have a background. If the substrate was darker and there was a picture or something on the back and some plastic or real plants, and the tank wasn't as bright, they would feel more comfortable.

 

[kwi]

How bad was the old tank? The sudden change from manky water to good water may have affected them.

 

[helptoall]

o,o,5-10
They eat Sera and JBL carnivore cichlid food. theyr poop is fine, the color of the food.
its not beacuse the substrate.. theres something wrong with them..

 

[kwi]

its not beacuse the substrate..

The pale substrate can stress fish, it's not natural. I think that's why Colin mentioned it.

 

[Colin_T]

Fish lose weight if they are infected with intestinal worms, internal protozoans, gill flukes or lots of external parasites.

Fish with intestinal worms do a stringy white poop. Praziquantel will kill tapeworm. Levamisole will treat thread/ round worms.

Internal protozoan infections cause the fish to lose weight over a period of time, do a stringy white poop, and they don't eat as much. After a couple of weeks they die. However, if their poop is normal, it's unlikely to be that.

Gill flukes cause the fish to breath heavily and more rapidly than normal. Bad infections will cause infected fish to hang around near the surface or a filter outlet to get more oxygen.

The fish don't appear to have external parasites.

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How often are you feeding them?

Perhaps increase the feeding to 3-5 times a day for a few weeks. Maybe add some marine mix (prawn, fish, squid) or something similar to their diet. Meat foods from marine organisms can help fish gain weight quickly.

Prawn/ shrimp is one of the best foods for most fish. Buy some from a bait/ fishing store, or the supermarket. Keep them frozen. Take a prawn out and defrost it. Remove the head, shell and gut (thin black tube in body) and throw these bits away. Use a pair of scissors to cut the remaining prawn tail into small pieces and offer 1 or 2 bits at a time. Feed until the fish are full and remove uneaten food.

 

[helptoall]

ill try feeding more.. i wont deal with any of these poor creeatures.. its horrible