Treating sunken belly...

[Cindy H.]

....in a new EBA. I've had him for a week and a half, and he hasn't eaten. Between yesterday and today has finally decided to pick at blood worms - won't eat pellets or flake right now. I'm using Garlic Guard, and MetroPlex and Focus.

When he grabs the bloodworms, he pretty much sucks the blood out, and spits the 'casing' (for lack of a better term). I've never seen a fish spit any part of a bloodworm before.

My question: Is he still getting what he needs from the medicine? I've never had to treat a fish for anything before..

(Because of this, I've named him Vampire).

 

[Andy Sager]

Not all fish will eat pellets or flakes. Sometimes you have to go frozen or live. The issue is why the sunken belly? Is it from starvation, internal parasite, TB? The metroplex can handle the internal parasite part but not the others. You want to follow the directions on the metroplex to do a complete treatment before giving on it and trying something else. The good news is that the fish trying to eat. It will get some nutrition from what it is swallowing but will not be getting the benefits of the chiton the shells of the bugs have. You can try giving the fish some gut loaded brine shrimp to help keep the fish "regular" to help avoid constipation. AS long as the fish is trying to eat, that's a good sign.