Skinny Stomach

[Bad Inferno]

One of my red turq is about 4" not grown very much since I got him from a friend 4 months ago. It looks in good condition and eats moderatly however its stomach is very very skinny, its poo looks normal. Today I tried Proziqantel (?) via putting some black worm in a solution then feeding however the fish did not eat the Black worm preffering tetra bits !!! So I soaked some tetra bits in Prozqantel and it did eat some. What should I do...I asked a couple of shops and they both basically said there is no hope and is very hard to get back from this stage...Its a good looking fish thus I would like to put my doctor hat on and try and cure him.

[DiscusMan]

I would be trying some live food. And maybe feed the food it likes a bit more often. Live food can be obtained from many fish shops so you shouldnt have to much trouble finding it. Either black worms or adult brine shimp works well and are probably the two most common ones.

Raising the tank temp may be an option as well as from reading the metabolism increases thus also increasing the appetite as well. So maybe go up a couple of degree on tank temperature. assuming that you arent already running your tank at say 34 degrees. If you got it at 29 maybe raise it to 31 32. This will also get rid of some parasites that cant handle this temp (above 30 that is) as well so its all good, as long as you aint got a fish in the same tank that cant handle it or plants for that matter., or youll be making soup

If the fish is eating then i wouldnt giveup on it at all. So find something it really wants to eat adn get it into it. The normal looking poo is a good thing and the problem probably lies somewhere else than hex or worms.

Hope you can keep it eating and figure out what is bugging it.

Wayne

[weird]

Either your fish is a model or got something or is completely fine but just is abit skinny. Humans come in all shapes and sizes, some people have got huge bums ... I am sure it happens in the animal kingdom as well. :wink:

[Bad Inferno]

Thanks for your help...I'll try and feed him up