starving butterfly

[JohnnyOneBeat]

I recently bought a yellow long nose butterfly from my LFS. Its been three weeks and he hasn't eaten a thing. He ate frozen brine shrimp at the store. I've tried frozen brine shrimp, mysid shrimp, marine cuisine, seaweed sheets, flake food, and halved shell calms. I should mention that I am treating it for marine ich with malachite green. I'm out of ideas and scared that my b/fs starving. Please Help.

John

 

[steve-s]

Malachite green is not a very effective treatment for C. irritans but will sometimes get lucky It could also be the cause of your fish's lack of appetite. Formaldehyde and copper treatments do have the habit of supressing the fish's appetite. In some cases the cure can be worse than the problem being treated. One reason hyposalinity in a seperate quarantine is preferable. It does not have these kinds of negative effects from the treatment itself. Has the treatment been successful and when will you be able to remove the med?

You could try soaking the foods in a drop or two of garlic extract. This will often spark a feeding response in the fish.

BTW, I deleted the duplicate thread... 8)

Cheers
Steve

 

[brndfrb]

Try feeding live brine shrimp and see if that works,.

 

[JohnnyOneBeat]

I used malachite green because it is recommended in the book "The Contientious Marine Aquarist" by Robert M. Fenner, It seems to have worked the morning after i added the first dose the spots were gone. I have one more dosing on monday then i'll take it out tuesday. This med cannot be the cause of not feeding because i have only been medicating for three days and the fish hasn't been eating for three weeks. I already ordered garlic gaurd and it should arrive this week. I guess i'll cross my fingers and hope it works. How long should i wait before introducing the fish into my display tank?

Thanks for your help,
john

 

[steve-s]

Once the treatment is done and the fish has been parasite free for about 3 weeks, it can be acclimated to the display. If you do it too soon you could easily transfer the parasite to the display tank. I would keep trying a few different live, frozen and flake items until you find something that does spark the butterfly's interest.

Cheers
Steve

 

[JohnnyOneBeat]

thank you for all your help. He finally eat a mussel last night after I added garlic extreme.

thanks for your posts,
John

 

[Xenos]

I have had Excellent luck with VitaChem We had a full size french angel that wouldn't eat and we soaked her food in vitachem and put vitachem in the aquarium and BOOM she was eating again. She had quit eating for ten days. So I sing the praise of vitachem and I use it at home and it works everytime.

 

[Terry B]

JohnnyOneBeat,
You can read a series of articles about ich that should open your eyes. Malachite green is some nasty stuff and poisoning from it may stop the fish from eating. You can read the 5 part series at www.advancedaquarist.com
Terry B