Ceylon("Lucky") won't eat..

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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saffib
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Ceylon("Lucky") won't eat..

Post by saffib »

:? ...and he's looking sooo thin! I've tried everything I can think of apart from force-feeding the poor guy. He's never been terribly interested in food anyway, but his firm favourite has always been prawns. Now he might take one bite (two maximum) and then he acts like he can't even see the food! I have tried snails, prawns, cockles(frozen thawed), even resorted to frozen thawed bloodworms, white worms and brine shrimp!..there are 6 ghost shrimp survivors living in the tank. I have tried garlic...nothing!
This might sound silly, but I thought it might have been psychological, because the last time I really remember him eating more than a couple of bites, Mickey (seemingly accidentally, but not aggressively) bit him on the nose. I tried to sort of round him up last night, because with all this trying to temp ceylon, Mickey is as big as a house!
I want to leave netting/force-feeding to a last resort, because he's a 5", very strong/wild fish and gets very stressed... the minute he sees a net, he starts jumping!

Funny this is, for the first time EVER, he has a white belly!...can this be a bad sign, too?

Please help. I'd hate to lose this fight now! :cry:
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

We need you to answer the Qs in the top sticky, so we can weed out other problems.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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saffib
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Post by saffib »

Of course, sorry...have to get an up-to-date reading after work... I'll get back with that!
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saffib
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Post by saffib »

pH:8.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Temp: 78

:cry: He's gone!
I went crazy last night trying to feed him anything I could, and eventually rushing out to buy another syringe because I couldn't find mine. I blended some food and caught him (he was so weak and skinny that it wasn't hard for once!) tried to force-feed him and he just kept spitting it at me and spittign water at me! I tried for ages and he just wasn't interested. He was purposefully not eating...
I only ever cried so much when my dog died... Did I stress him out too much trying to forcefeed him? Could he have been stressed out too much/permanently damaged by the poor water quality whilst I had to change filters over? He got so skinny so suddenly as well... was just trying to entice him with no hurry for around a week and a half and all of a sudden it became urgent! Not quite so "Lucky" to be with me then I guess... Mickey's fine and chubby and happy and white bellied, though...that's what I don't get!
:cry: sorry Ceylon.
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Feathers&Fins
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Post by Feathers&Fins »

Sorry to hear he didn't make it. :(
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ChesapeakeSwellfish
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Post by ChesapeakeSwellfish »

Saffib - sorry for your loss. I think the fact that Mickey is fine is evidence that the Ceylon's rapid decline had nothing to do with your care. It looks like he was on his was out when you forcefed him - I don't think that's what killed him.

I remember that you got him from terrible conditions and I said he was "lucky" that you found him. Its more possible that you extended his life by quite a bit and that he would have died much earlier had you not rescued him.
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lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

I agree CSF. You tried Saffib, that's all you can do. Too bad he didn't find you sooner.
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Pufferpunk
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Post by Pufferpunk »

So sorry...
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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saffib
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Post by saffib »

:cry: Thankyou so much...was so worried that you'd agree and tell me what I did wrong... I did try my best, but can't help feeling bad. Poor guy went through a lot and then, when all seeemed to be going right, he turned anorexic!
I miss him!
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Gomez
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Post by Gomez »

Eating disorders affect us all please make a donation to the puffer forum so we can develop a cure for this epidemic! lol :lol:
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Hilly
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Post by Hilly »

Sorry to hear about your Puffer.
Hilly
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