[carlc]

Lee and all

I picked up two of these gems this weekend. I have them in QT. I started hypo today since the tank they were in had ich. I didn't see anything on them, no flashing or anything but since they were in a infested tank Hypo it is.

They ate in the store and have been picking at dwarf pygmy formula jammed into a small piece of base rock. I have some ugly sponge growing in my fuge and am going to start offering trimmings of that in the next day or two.

Any other adivice you can give to help this tricky species settle in?

Carl

[leebca]

I think you're doing fine, Carl. Good ideas all.

If they are eating off the rock, then 'trick' them by mixing in other food and then lowering the amount of what they started with. Keep trying now and then, dropping foods into the tank. They hopefully will 'catch on' from where the food comes.

[carlc]

Lee how's your knowledge of intestinal tract parasites? A pretty wild looking "thing" came out in a fecal from one of the multibars. It's like nothing I have ever seen before.
I'll post a pic in the morning.

Carl

[carlc]

Ok here are a couple of pics of this nasty bugger. Not the best but hopefully it will be able to give you an idea. I used a dime for size comparison. Kinda looks like some type of hook worm to me.

[leebca]

Fair photos, considering. Clever idea putting the dime in there.

I've not seen this kind of thing before. There are hundreds of flukes and parasites in the oceans which we don't usually see.

I would doubt the fish is now free of these, and should probably be treated. Have the fish ever been de-wormed? I would try those kinds of medications first, while I research to see if I can identify the group this critter belongs to.

[carlc]

I was going to use prazipro since I have them in hypo. It is labeled as safe for fresh and salt with the same dosage for either. It will have to be done as a bath though since they are not eatting live brine. They are eatting Hikari mysids.

I've seen probably hundreds of types of intestinal bugs dealing with chameleons and gecko's over the last 12 years but nothing that ever looked like this.

Carl

[carlc]

Lee wanted to give you an update on the fish.

They are now eating frozen brine, live brine, and mysismall and large). The QT was dosed with PraziPro 3 days ago. I am going to do a large water change today, 75% and re dose. I have also been feeding them live brine shrimp gut loaded with Prazi Pro and fresh spurlina. I'm gonna continue this for a few days.

You would never know these were the same fish I bought a week ago!!

Carl

[leebca]

You should feel proud and happy to have brought them from survival to thriving. Kudos go to you, Carl.

I meet with Dr. Noga and few other particularly notable experts on fish diseases in August. I'll bring the photos you posted with me to see if they have ever seen this sort of thing. If you have any other photos (even those of lesser quality) please send them to me.

Thanks for the update!

[carlc]

Thanks!

I won't consider them thriving until they have lived in my care for a year or more. Keeping things alive is easy. A long term captive life should be the only goal in my opinion and is the true reward.

I wish I could give you more pics of the "bug". They were the only ones I got that came out descent. I tried to preserve the specimen in isopropyl but after a couple of days it pretty much rotted away. This leads me to believe that it was dead for some time in the intestinal track.

Carl

[leebca]

As promised Carl, I took these photos to some of the most informed veterinarians in ornamental fish health in the USA. No one has seen anything like this.

About the only thing they had to offer was that is wasn't an intestinal parasite at all, but an organism that was accidentally (or intentionally) eaten by the fish and was expelled when the fish rejected it.

It was no parasite that they had ever seen in an ornamental fish.

Sorry I couldn't do any better than the above.

[carlc]

Thanks for keeping me in mind. I guess we'll chalk it up as a passed exoskeleton.

Carl

[carlc]

I guess I never updated.

The male never made it out of QT. He stopped eating and nothing I did was able to get him eating again. This was the one that passed the exoskeleton.

The female on the other hand has now been in the tank for some time. She is a real eye catcher! Here is an ok pic of her. Hard to capture her true colors.

Carl