PlanetCatfish.com

hi everyone. i've been lurking around, but i haven't really been posting.

i just aquariured another new catfish, an L128. he's about 4" at the moment. the problem is that i can't get him to eat anything. i gave him romaine lettuce, spirulina disks, krill, and cucumber, but he hasn't touched anything. i was going to try zuchini today, but thought that i'd ask for some advice for something else that he might prefer.

what do others feed their L128's? usually all my fish eat for me fairly quickly, with in a day or two, which is why i'm getting concerned about this guy.

also, he's got a wound on his nose, it happened at the lfs when they were removing him. they had him in a tank with lava rock and he hit his nose on it and tore out a chunk. i have him in a hosipital tank until he heals, as well as to ensure that he's disease free, but i haven't been using any meds. i've got the temp at 80 and doing daily 50% water changes. is there anything else that i should be doing to help him heal?

thanks for any advice!

amy

Amy,
All of the foods you are trying are appropriate for these fish. Sometimes new acquisitions just need a while to get accustomed to their new environment. This seems to be particlarly true with loricariids. I would not really start worrying for a few weeks. I just brought back a bunch of fishes from the Rio Yavari in northern Peru. After 48 hours in captivity the doradids were eating Tetra Bits. The Corydoras waited about 5-6 days before trying anything and the loricariids are just now, two weeks after capture, noticing food. Just give it time and see if his appetite picks up. If the hospital tank is well established, I would actually back off on the water changes. While I am a huge believer in the benefit of frequent large water changes, this fish is being stressed with every water change at this point. He/she needs a few days of peace to settle in. Good luck,
-Shane

thanks for the info.

the hospital tank isn't as well established as i would like, which is partly why i've been doing large water changes in the tank as well.

so should i continue to offer him food on a daily basis, just in case he decides he wants to eat? or should i let him be for now and try to give him some food again in a few days?

Try feeding it again in a few days. It saves you the trouble of removing uneaten food gone bad. The act of removing uneaten food is stressful for the fish and the food itself would foul up the water anyway.

hi why not try feeding it bloodworms. I dont think any fish will refuse bloodworms.. And there right, I think that the fish is just stressed thats why it isnt eating gudluck

update: i could not get him to eat, and i woke to found that he had died over night. i'm not sure what killed him, he looked healthy although his stomach was a little sunken in, but that would make sense since he hadn't eaten in two weeks.

Pooks, I'm sorry to hear that. From what you have said, it seems to me that your L128 may get infected.

Hi pooks,

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Your case is but just another case where the fish appears pretty normal at first and just dies for no apparent reason. I think this is very common in the keeping of L fishes.

I've also noted that often only the fish in question is affected while the others in the same tank are OK.

A few questions come to mind :

1. what is the medication (commercial preparation please, like product name) we should use when a new fish is in Quarantine tank.
2. how can we encourage feeding.
3. what is the correct procedure of saving a fish when it starts to show signs of sunken belly or eyes.

I really, really hope someone can offer their advise on what could be done to save the fish or at least improve the chances of surviving.