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Mits

Very sad. LM Blenny on his way out.

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Mits
, 08-06-2011 at 08:07 PM (5036 Views)
Have you ever watched one of your fish slowly waste away and there was nothing you could do about it? That's happening to our lawnmower blenny, who is our system's oldest fish. He is one of only two fish, along with a clown, who has been there through all three tanks over the past 4 or 5 years. He's always been extremely active, constantly eating, and very outgoing. His belly has been full sized his whole life. Last week I looked in the tank and he's suddenly skin and bones, like his stomach just deflated. He's still a bit active and seems to have a full appetite, but is wasting away. I know it's just a matter of time. Is this just aging or the result of some disease? He's a family favorite, it's sad to see him like this.

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Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. snorkeler's Avatar
    Our Rainfordi Goby died like that... and at the time I had a lot of algae for him to eat in the tank so it wasn't lack of food that was making him get thinner ... good luck, I hope your fish recovers and doesn't die now.
  2. SlappyNC1's Avatar
    I just read an article about internal, bacterial parasites that prompted me to write. If that's the fish's affliction, it might be easy enought to treat. If you could catch and quarantine the fish and treat with Seachem Paraguard, you might save him. It's a pain, I know, but any effort is better than watching him waste away and die. I thought it was impossible to cure fish until last year. I received a Desjardini Sailfin Tang that was near death after a shipping accident who then contracted a massive case of fungus. I put it in a bare ten-gallon tank with nothing more than a 4" PVC pipe about six inches in length which he hid in. I dosed Seachem's Paraguard daily. Paraguard is amazing IMHO, as is Polyguard. I used an old hang-on-back box filter for mechanical filtration (but no chemical filtration media such as charcoal). I did 50% water changes every other day and changed the filter pad once a week. Fed him lightly but regularly (luckily he ate). In a little over 30 days, he was completely healed and went back into my display tank. He's healthy to this day. The hardest part was catching him, which took almost all day. The water changes were annoying, but it was worth it to save a beautiful specimen.
  3. melev's Avatar
    That's great Slappy. I've watched a few fish get overly thin over time only to perish and agree that it has to be an internal parasite since all the other fish were fat, healthy and getting plenty of food. One of my friends used medicated food in his reef which helped cure a starved-looking fish, which made a full recovery. It took time, but he didn't have to catch it nor put it in a QT / hospital tank.