Hi everybody. I'll keep the backstory as short and sweet as possible. The fish in question is a male Pyle's Fairy. I believe him to be of the Vanuatu variety based on coloration, if his location of origin matters.
1.) Fish was at the LFS for four weeks, eating well and besides being pale, looking good for all of it.
2.) Fish was brought home, FW dipped, then introduced into the DT.
3.) He did the normal fairy thing of being shy for the first few days...until it lasted two weeks and just got stranger and stranger.
4.) I wanted to QT and get the fish eating well again, then he jumped into the overflow and made catching him easy.
5.) After watching him in QT for a couple of days, he didn't really eat and showed signs of gill flukes, so I did another FW dip.
6.) For the first 24 hours, he looked like he was not going to make it, then suddenly looked fine again.
7.) Now, he looks healthier and swims around with purpose, but he is thinning and I can barely get him to eat more than two or three live brine in a day. The second dip and intro into QT were about two weeks ago and during the time, he's only eaten two pieces of prepared food that I've been able to see.
So, the fish seems healthy in general, but isn't eating. Obviously, that gets us absolutely nowhere. I already soak my food in garlic and Vita-chem. The frozen is a mix of copepods, mysis, and SF Bay's Angel and Butterfly formula, and the live is your generic live brine shrimp. I have gut-loaded them and treated them with Vita-chem. I have also tried Formula 2 flakes and pellets, as well as Formula 1 pellets. The only thing I haven't tried is a nori sheet, which I think I will now because the previous male Pyle's I had ate it quite well.
I'm tempted to reintroduce him to the display to see if he improves. Maybe he'll manage to eat pods, be more relaxed, or just pick up on the monkey-see, monkey-do thing. I have two concerns with that and they are that all four fish in the tank currently are properly aggressive feeders and two, if he dies, it means moving tons of rock to get him out because my CUC isn't efficient with dead fish.
The tank is a generic 65 RR AGA. It has ~87 lbs of LR and 75 lbs of LS in the display, more in the refugium. I have a Tunze 9010 skimmer, 150w MH pendant, Eheim 1262 for a return, and a Koralia 2 and 4 for flow in the tank.
What are your thoughts? What would you do if you were in this situation? If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at me. As much of a book as this post is, I still left out a few minor things to keep it down-to-size.
Thanks so much!
1.) Fish was at the LFS for four weeks, eating well and besides being pale, looking good for all of it.
2.) Fish was brought home, FW dipped, then introduced into the DT.
3.) He did the normal fairy thing of being shy for the first few days...until it lasted two weeks and just got stranger and stranger.
4.) I wanted to QT and get the fish eating well again, then he jumped into the overflow and made catching him easy.
5.) After watching him in QT for a couple of days, he didn't really eat and showed signs of gill flukes, so I did another FW dip.
6.) For the first 24 hours, he looked like he was not going to make it, then suddenly looked fine again.
7.) Now, he looks healthier and swims around with purpose, but he is thinning and I can barely get him to eat more than two or three live brine in a day. The second dip and intro into QT were about two weeks ago and during the time, he's only eaten two pieces of prepared food that I've been able to see.
So, the fish seems healthy in general, but isn't eating. Obviously, that gets us absolutely nowhere. I already soak my food in garlic and Vita-chem. The frozen is a mix of copepods, mysis, and SF Bay's Angel and Butterfly formula, and the live is your generic live brine shrimp. I have gut-loaded them and treated them with Vita-chem. I have also tried Formula 2 flakes and pellets, as well as Formula 1 pellets. The only thing I haven't tried is a nori sheet, which I think I will now because the previous male Pyle's I had ate it quite well.
I'm tempted to reintroduce him to the display to see if he improves. Maybe he'll manage to eat pods, be more relaxed, or just pick up on the monkey-see, monkey-do thing. I have two concerns with that and they are that all four fish in the tank currently are properly aggressive feeders and two, if he dies, it means moving tons of rock to get him out because my CUC isn't efficient with dead fish.
The tank is a generic 65 RR AGA. It has ~87 lbs of LR and 75 lbs of LS in the display, more in the refugium. I have a Tunze 9010 skimmer, 150w MH pendant, Eheim 1262 for a return, and a Koralia 2 and 4 for flow in the tank.
What are your thoughts? What would you do if you were in this situation? If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them at me. As much of a book as this post is, I still left out a few minor things to keep it down-to-size.
Thanks so much!