Istlanum diagnosis/treatment help

spazmattik

spazmattik

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Hey everyone. So I bought a istlanum (red) from rapps a little over a week ago (9 days). The only thing I fed him was new life spectrum. 2nd day of having him he started pooping white. :( I thought at first it might have been constipation so I added epsom salt and tried not feeding him a few days. Still pooping white so I tried dosing with metro. (ive done some 50% water changes as well as daily changes (about 20%) I am now on to prazipro because I noticed some head shaking and from doing some searches I read it could possibly be gill flukes? I started using the prazi yesterday so I can't be sure if its effective or not yet.. Any thoughts or opinions on this? Also as you can tell from the picture he is in a divided tank. If there is another sick fish in the tank could an illness happen so quickly? Another thing I am noticing is his belly looks to be somewhat puffy so that worries me because he has not eaten since the 2nd day. I don't want to lose this little guy :(
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

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sick1z.jpg
 
blkmjk

blkmjk

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Ok what size tank is he in now? These fish are hardy so I wouldn't be to worried but you treated with metro already? How long? I think the internal parasites are definitely the hardest to treat by far. Just need to pull him and put him in a hospital tank stick with a treatment until it clears up. You could also try Epsom salt. All of the advice above is assuming that your water quality is ok. Good luck. I just got a group of these guys from Dan beautiful fish.

Drew

NO GOOD DEED SHALL GO UNPUNISHED!
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
Right now he is in a small section of a.55 but he is barely pushing 3 inches so not a big deal for now. I will get my water tested as well as a hospital tank tonight. So far the full symptoms are white poop, some head shaking, acts of chewing when there is no food, and sluggishness. To me the abdomen looks somewhat swollen. I can put up a video later.. given the symptoms, any ideas?

I treated with metro maybe 3 times before I ran out so I may have to buy some more... on hand I have prazipro and paraguard as well as the epsom salts.. if I do treat the tank with epsom, How often should I add more and what percentage of water changes should I do? I'm not very experienced at treating anything other than ich :/ thank you for your response.
 
JasonC

JasonC

Members
once you get more metro, you may want to try mixing it into some food... from what I understand, metro is more effective when ingested.
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
Right now it seems he is semi-interested in food.. he will dart over to it but won't eat it.. force feeding might be a pain given his size. Anything in particular that's good to mix it with? I have frozen blood worms, brine shrimp and glassworms.
 
Andrew

Andrew

Members
Start with epsom salts, 1 teaspoon per ten gallons. If he's eating, try some frozen bloodworms laced with metro. Thaw and rinse the worms. Put them in a small dish in the fridge and sprinkle some metro over the worms. Let it sit for an hour or two and then feed. If he's not eating, treat the tank with metro as it suggests on the package.
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
Thanks for the suggestions. Should I not do water changes during this period or should I do them and re'add the epsom salt or what?
 
blkmjk

blkmjk

Members
If you do a water change you will need to redose the tank with the appropriate medicine/salt for the amount of water you have removed.

Drew

NO GOOD DEED SHALL GO UNPUNISHED!
 
spazmattik

spazmattik

Members
So I think monday or tuesday I managed to get my istlanum to eat some frozen bloodworms I soaked in metro.. yesterday I got him to eat 2 nls pellets so I put in some more medicated food since I seemed to be making progress. He ate some more! Hes slowly getting more active and this morning I saw a nice long brown doody ! I have never been so excited about poop. Hahaha. :) we are moving tomorrow so he will be going in a smaller tank I am acquiring so if I need to continue treatment it will be easier.
 
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