Skinny GSP?

[littlepuffers]

Hey y'all. So I have a question. My gsp eats normally, is high energy, happy and seemingly heatlhy. He'll eat just like our other gsp, but about a day after eating is back to being skinny like he hasn't eaten. I'm pretty sure he doesn't have worms... His belly does not get concave and he doesn't act sick. He's been like this for quite a while... maybe he's growing?

Does anyone know what this might be, if it's normal, or have you had this happen?

I also had a post quite a while back about our other gsp, who we thought ate a rock. He still seems like a lazy little fishie, but healthy. He is quite moody, though, and easilty turns gray. But he still is fat all the time, like he has something in his belly. He's grumpy when he wakes up and definitely doesn't come up to the front as fast as our other gsp. Overall, though, seems healthy, eats ravenously, and is funny. Hmm...

[marksrush]

It's normal for a GSP's stomach to go back to where it was about 24 hours after you feed them.

If your other one ate a piece of rock, there's not much you can do about it if it's too large for him to pass. Depending on what it's made out of, though, it could slowly be dissolved eventually by his gastric juices.

Turning gray is often a sign of poor water quality or some other kind of stress, so you might want to look into that. As far as the differences in how your two GSPs act, well that's entirely normal as these little fish have unique personalities just like we do.

[littlepuffers]

Yeah, we knew it was normal to go back to normal (we've had them almost a year), but over the past several months, the one's stomach has just been like really flat.

IF the other ate a rock, not sure which it might have been, we had some crushed shell stubstrate to raise the ph, also some of the coated gravel from the fish store, and some other gravel... Otherwise, it's just gotten fat over the past couple months... but i'ts somach never gets flat even after a couple days.. We think it did eat a rock.. Dummy. LOL

The one fish rarely turns gray, and the second fish, the fat lazy one is just really moody. We take good care of the water. LOL They sure are funny fisses.

[marksrush]

Is the skinny one getting as much food as the others? Sometimes they will bully each other at feeding time and one will get shut out. If that's not the case and the skinny one is getting as much food as the other one, and the skinny one's stomach is sunken in or pinched looking, you should consider the possibility that he has internal parasites (IPs) and then treat for it.

[littlepuffers]

Yeah, "Skinny" gets the same amount of food, if not more! But I don't think he has IP's because his stomach is not concave or anything, just super flat in the past few months. Maybe we'll treat for IP's just in case, but we did that last time and no change.

[marksrush]

When you treated him before for IPs, what did you use? Did you follow the instructions on the bottle?

[littlepuffers]

I used the Gel-Tek Ultra Cure PX (for parasites). They LOVE the stuff!

This is what the directions say:

"Hold back all feeding for 1 day before using. Use Gel-Tek as the only product offered to the fish when fed. Add to the aquarium with the dropper tip on the bottle. Hold bottle 2 inches above the water and squeeze. Offer at least 5 drops per fish twice a day. Repeat every 24 hours for 3 days. For nocturnal fish, add drops at night when the lights are off."

We held back feeding for one day before using as the directions say. But we didn't drop the gel blobs into the water because they just didn't catch on to that. What we did was add about 3 drops to a small piece of krill (one for each, with three drops) and fed them in the morning, and same thing at night. The krill soaks the stuff up nicely and is a nice delivery method. Because we weren't sure if they needed more, we actually did it for 5 days, I think. So, we basically fed them 30 drops (EACH) in total. 3 each morning (in krill), 3 each night (in krill), for 5 days.

After feeding them ghost shrimp, one got the IP's. It's belly immediately started to go concave, so we started the treatment and after the 5 days it seemed normal again.

Hope this helps!

[Dadof4]

I used Gel-Tek with great results. I got an insulin syringe from work and injected it into the mussels and garden worms he was eating, worked like a charm! Pharmacy may give you funny looks when you ask for one syringe though....

[edmlfc1]

I used Gel-Tek with great results. I got an insulin syringe from work and injected it into the mussels and garden worms he was eating, worked like a charm! Pharmacy may give you funny looks when you ask for one syringe though....

Yes they do and if you tell them that you are using it to shoot up a worm, then they really look at you funny.
I've had great results with gel-tek also.

[littlepuffers]

Oh, that sounds like a good idea too. We used the krill because it doesn't keep them full too long and therefore can feed them the meds several times a day.

[Dadof4]

I used Gel-Tek with great results. I got an insulin syringe from work and injected it into the mussels and garden worms he was eating, worked like a charm! Pharmacy may give you funny looks when you ask for one syringe though....

Yes they do and if you tell them that you are using it to shoot up a worm, then they really look at you funny.
I've had great results with gel-tek also.

I forgot about that part of it! I think you're good as long as you don't ask for a tiny tourniquet too.....