Severum Quit Eating?

[bobross]

Hello everyone,

I want to let everyone know a little bit about my setup and the stages its been in instead of straight up asking a question. I feel this should cut down some of the questions people may/may not ask me about the problem I'm having. Okay, here we gooo......

Also, I'm not looking for any sort of stocking(or overstocking comments), fyi.

For the past two years, I've had this 55 u.s. gallon tank up and running. It's stock consists of a pair of blue acaras, two blood parrots, common pleco and my favorite fish ever, my severum, Allen. Allen was the reason I purchased my 55 since I didn't realize how big he would get until after I did some research. Which, coincidentally, lead me to becoming a member on this forum.

I run an Xp2 and a tetratec (marineland?) knockoff external alongside two hob's. Total turnover rate(with media) is estimated around 750 gph. I've been an advocate to weekly 20 gallon water changes and have never added any sort of chemicals to the tank. Stats for the most part have been stable.

About two months ago, I had to move and setup a temporary fish tank in the form of a 45 gallon plastic container. Two weeks ago, I brought my 55 to my new house and set it up. A week ago, I brought my fish, all four filters and my main heaters and set that up also. Within in hour of setup, my parrots were digging pits and the acaras were begging for food.


Allen on the otherhand, just hasn't been himself. He was the last fish added to the tank, but I don't see much importance in that since there is no bullying going on. He won't come to the surface for his food anymore either, hence the topic question. With the exception of two wax worms, he won't take any of the foods that he used to. I feed the tank a variety including, cichlid gold, cichlid staple, cichlid sticks, mysis shrimp, tubiflex & blood worms, krill, etc. None of it works. Whenever the food gets near him, he ignores it. He goes for the cichlid sticks, but spits them out.

It's been a week he hasn't really ate anything. I realize it could possibly that he is getting use to his new home again. His behavior is the same as it always was outside of the eating thing. He still hangs outs and stares at me & cruises around the tank when the lights are on. Does anyone have any suggestions for what else it could be?

During the month that the fish were in the container, he didn't eat a whole then either. He would eat, but only every couple of days. I hope I'm not being paranoid and that he snaps out of it, but only time will tell. I guess.

I appreciate any responses and for having to read through this,

You all have a good day


BobRoss

 

[snowflake311]

Do you see him poop at all? Do you see him looking for food at the bottom? Maybe he is eatingfood that falls?

Are you acaras spawning? If so they might be stressing your severum out so he does not eat. My acara ot dig if they are spawning. If your water is all good and you did not add any new fish I would have to guess that he is getting picked on and is feeling stressed being in the new home with fish that might be picking on him.

It could take longer then a week for a fish to settle in so just keep trying watch him and look for poo.

 

[bobross]

Actually, no, I haven't seen him poop. It's like he's not even interested in food. He might go for a cichlid stick, but then spits it out. It seems like he's pouting. He wants nothing to do with food other than the two wax worms I got him to eat three days ago.

The acaras aren't spawing either. I probably should have mentioned this in the first post. I've one acara for about a year and the second one, I got it a couple of days before I put all my fish in. I say it because it's still a juvenile and I'm not sure if it's male or female yet. It's only about an inch and half long. Cute little thing.

My severum is the biggest fish in the tank. There hasn't been any bullying from anyone, that's why this is so weird. All of the other fish are acting normal. The new acara acts as though she/he has been there since day one. Allen has been showing his normal severum colors, too. He isn't blacked out or showing black stripes indicating he's stressed. At least ime, thats what he has done in the past. Normal coloration, just he doesn't eat. Its bizarre and sad at the same time.

Water stats have been fine this whole time(two weeks now?), so I have no idea what the heck is going on with him. I hate to see him wither away by not eating.

The only thing that I've done different with the 55 is add him last this time. When I first setup the tank 2 years ago, he was in first, and the rest of the fish were added over the next couple of months. So who knows if that plays a part in this or not.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will check back on this once I get home from work.


BobRoss

 

[Davo86]

Hi, Do you know the current water stats?
The tank could well be going through a mini cycle or be experiencing a small spike due to the moving of the setup

 

[bobross]

Ph - 7.5
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0


Everything is fine as I'm concerned. I've been doing 10 gallon water changes every other day to prevent that from happening as a precaution. I've moved tanks in this fashion before so I was a little familiar with what to expect. Like I said, every fish in the tank has been acting completely normal except for the severum. I tried again today and same thing. Spit out the cichlid sticks and ignore the sinking pellets that I threw in to. The only things I haven't tried that he loves is beef heart & frozen blood worms. Regular blood worms didn't appeal to him, either I just have to go get some tomorrow and see if that works. Otherwise, I have no idea what to do.

I highly doubt that the staff at my lfs will know what to suggest either. My friend suggested maybe rubbing the food with garlic or even that garlic spray you can buy. I'm willing to try that to if the frozen foods don't work. I'm a little skeptical about those but it's worth a shot.

This is getting sadder each day. I swear I can see him getting skinnier, but maybe I'm just paranoid.
Thanks again,


BobRoss

 

[bobross]

edited because I noticed something. On each side of him, directly above and a little bit behind his fins, it looks like his scales are a bit raised. nothing major, just a little bit. I have no idea what that's about but it caught my eye. The raised scales are on each side in the same spot. His behavior is as normal as ever other than the not eating thing, so hopefully the beef heart & frozen blood worms work. Does anyone else have any ideas???

 

[snowflake311]

I think he might be getting bullied but you just are not seeing it. Severums like some plants in their diet too I feed my new little guy veggie flakes with Spirulina Algea in it. He has loved them since day one. But I have only had him for 2 weeks. He is in the qt tank because he had ich when I got him along with a secondry infection. But I'm treating him and he still eats these flakes.

So try some veggies. My ebjd hates to eat in front of me but will eat later when I'm not looking. Maybe your severum is doing that just feeling shy??

He is just still adjusting to the move and the new fish. It can take longer then a weEk for a fish to adjust.

Just keep the tank clean like you are Doing and try some veggie
s. Watch for any bullying.

 

[bobross]

The strange thing about that is that spirulina flakes are a normal part of his diet also. I had listed only part of the foods that I feed the tank. Spirulina flakes, daphnia, grasshoppers, peas & lettuce(blanched), pieces of oranges, crickets, were also fed to this tank. I've tried varying the diet as much I could within financial means. Normally my sev would eat anything I threw at him until lately.

On the plus side, he did start eating some frozen bloodworms today. Finally got some bloodworms and frozen beef heart today and he seemed to chase those around, which is a plus. He still won't eat anything else though. So it's got it's pros and cons, I guess. I was thinking about changing the layout of the tank but am holding off on the idea since the tank is new to him anyways. I don't see any bullying going on and I've been practically glued to that tank since it's been initially setup at our new place.

There has always been squabbles between him and the two parrots, considering they are a pair and spawn every month, like clockwork. If I had another good sized tank, I would pull the parrot and put them in there own tank. Only because I'm getting tired of setting the tank back to my liking all the time. The same reason I don't like them digging, it's the same reason I like watching them, go figure.

Anyways, I will try to update this thread a little bit now and then until my sev is back to normal, in case anyone is interested. If not, thanks for taking time to check out my little dilemma.

I will try to upload some pics of the tank once I get around to tracking down my charge cable since I can't find my other battery.


BobRoss

 

[snowflake311]

Good to hear he is eating a little bit for you. Yeah I bet the parrot pair if getting to him.

 

[Tolak]

Sounds like an internal protozoan problem, common with NW cichlids. Stress is a common cause, you have that between the move, and the slightly aggressive parrots. Internal protozoans are a common part of the digestive flora of many fish, especially NW cichlids. They pose no problem with healthy fish. If the fish gets stressed it's immune response drops, the protozoans reproduce more quickly than the suppressed immune function can keep up with. This is when they become a problem, loss of appetite, hiding towards the back or corners of the tank, and stringy white feces are common symptoms.

What to do? Get a 10 gallon tank, heater, and sponge or box filter, box is probably better if you have to take a little media from a cycled filter. You will be setting up a med tank for the fish. Metronidazole is the medication you need, often sold as Hex-A-Mit, Seachem makes an excellent product, Metroplex. Get the tank up to 85F, 40mg/gallon metro, with a daily 50% water change & remed. If the fish is eating sprinkle a little metro on the food, you mentioned beefheart & bloodworms. Make it look like a powdered doughnut, this is an eyeball thing, but it gives you the general idea. Feed this only once daily, continue for 10-14 days.

I have used this numerous times on angels, an oscar, and a few apistos. Angels can take much more heat, they get treated at 90F. Metro was originally designed for humans, the closer to 98.6 the better, but few fish can handle this temperature. Make sure there is plenty of aeration at warmer temps, as warmer water holds less O2.

This is a common problem when breeding NW cichlids, when the fish pair & spawn they stress each other and usually other tankmates.

 

[bobross]

Some top notch sounding advice there Thanks Tolak!!

Not a whole lot has changed with the sev since I last posted this. He goes completely crazy for bloodworms now, but will totally ignore anything else that gets dropped in there. The only fish that is remotely interested in the beef heart is the juvi acara. This whole move seems to have change their appetites slightly. They were in that setup for almost two years, then went into a 45g tote, and now back to the 55. (I know, I know, the stocking is terrible.)

This is some crap timing if this is indeed an infection, which I presume is probably going on, knowing my luck in combination with that informative advice. I've seen the severum poop and it doesn't look white or stringy. I guess it looks a 'normal' color of brown, just runny? I don't know any other way to politely describe it.

I'm strapped for cash for a couple of weeks here so I'll have to look up the cost of those meds and see what I can do, honestly. When you mean 40mg/gallon metro, I'm making sure what you mean. 40 mg of medication per gallon of water in the tank, right? Then remed after a daily 50% water change? I think I'm understanding that if I read it right.

Lucky I got extra heaters, filters and an extra 10g sitting in storage right now. Bare bottom I'm assuming would be the easiest, convenient route for it?

I'm gonna check on those meds as soon as I get done posting here and see what it will run me.


If all the moving about from tank to tote to tank is a major part of this stress, won't moving him out of this tank, medicating him for 2 weeks, and then moving him back in strees him out too? I just picture this scenario in my head of having him all healed up and ready to go back in the main tank, only to get him all stessed out and it happens all over again. That sounds ridiculous just reading that question>


I'm well aware that my stocking choice is poor. Not the fish selecition itself, but the amount of fish I have in the tank they're in. I've become so attached to the fish I've had that instead of looking for a bigger home for them, whether at house or someone elses.

I've tried doing more water changes and upping the filtration to compensate for the extra bioload. Again, i realize that is probably the wrong thing to do also since territory and space to claim is part of why this is happening. I definitely don't have the room for something bigger for them all to co-exist in if the territory issue remains what it is.

So I start thinking of these what-if ??s for what to do down the road. I guess I can handle parting my acara's to a buddy since he's got a spare 55 sitting around with nothing in it. And my LFS might take them for trade, too. But I can't get rid of the sev and I can't get rid of the parrots, since my gf would probably not talk to me for awhile if I did.

So, if any of this long rant makes any sense to anyone else, I guess help me make some sense of what to do once I get this problem with my sev sorted.

Thanks again for the advice Tolak, as usual, i enjoy reading your stuff even though I don't post on here as much I would like to.

I'll do what I can to keep this little problem updated. I gotta go price out some meds ... ...




... for my fish.


BobRoss

 

[Tolak]

40mg per gallon of tank water, 400mg for a 10 gallon tank. Remed after a daily 50% water change. Bare bottom does work best.

Big Al's has Metro , $6 for 5g, + $9 shipping. This would give you twelve 400mg doses, if you can get it for cheaper than $14 locally by all means do so. I've been getting in wild caught fish lately, metro is part of the worming procedure I follow, 50g from National Fish Pharmacy sets me back $35.

Consider setting up a divider if a separate tank isn't an option. A short move from tank to tank is bound to be less stressful than being in a breeding situation with no means of escape. A couple weeks of stress free R&R with some meds to take care of the protizoans might be all the fish needs to bulk up a bit, and may be able to hold its own without the divider, but I would get one just in case. Sounds like you are on a budget, they are easy enough to build; http/www.gcca.net/howto/tank_divider.htm I've separated angel pairs with just the eggcrate, cutting it slightly larger & wedging it in.

 

[bobross]

Well, I stumbled onto some 5g metro on ebay last night after posting thiis for the same price as bigals. Hopefully it should be here within a week. I didn't even think of checking Big Al's until after I read your post after work today. I didn't get around to my storage unit today, so the hospital tank will have to wait til tomorrow or the next day.

Since the 55 is the only tank I have at my new house right now, I'm leaning towards getting that spare 10 and setting that up as a hospital tank vs. totally messing with the 55.

This last weekend when I picked up that frozen food, I also picked up a new bottle of melafix. I grabbed it since it was the only med I saw that I sort of recognized. Is there any harm in dosing that in the meantime while that metro gets here?
It's the only med I have so I thought it didn't hurt to try it, for now anyways.

I will update this if I see any changes in the severum. To me, his behavior doesn't seem out of the ordinary. Just the eating is the only concern. There is no hiding, except during a water change, which was typical of any of the fish. No pale coloration or really colors either. Just his normal severum coloration.

Thanks again Tolak, I will check back on this later once I got a some free time in the next few days and hopefully things have changed for the better.


BobRoss