Lawnmower Blenny been sick for 2+ months

[Crashjack]

During my bout with dinos, my Lawnmower Blenny went from being so fat he couldn't lay perfectly flat, to a skinny shell of his former self. This started with my dino problem, though I have also had to treat the tank for intestinal parasites. At its worst, the LMB would go missing for days at a time without even coming out for feedings. He got better and started coming out and started back eating what I feed the tank and eating a little microalgae off the glass. However, he remained skinny. I decided to try another round of Metro/Focus laced food and did so for 3 weeks. There was really no change. To fight the dinos, which appear to be finally gone, I elevated my phosphate/nitrate levels, which had been at 0. This also caused a hair algae problem, and my LMB that used to love hair algae, won't touch it. I also added a legitimate UV sterilizer (Pentair 40w), which has significantly reduced the microalgae on the glass so there is less of that, though the tank is 72"x24"x19", so there is a good bit of glass.

My hypothesis is that the dinos toxins caused liver or kidney damage and that the LMB might be a lost cause. Honestly, I thought he was dead and gone 6 weeks ago, but he has continued to live. He gets excited now when I feed the tank, but he only takes a couple pieces of food and moves on. He doesn't care much about dried seaweed (never did), and my wrasses rip into it like sharks. He does pick at the glass some, but in his heyday, he was eating about 75% of the time and only laid down long enough to catch his breath so he could go back to eating. I've included some pictures but am really at a loss of what if anything I can do.

 

[HotRocks]

#reefsquad

 

[JoshH]

@melypr1985 @hybridazn @4FordFamily @Humblefish any thoughts???

 

[hybridazn]

I would try some prazipro to see if it helps any. It's a good sign that he is still eating, even if it's just a little.

 

[Crashjack]

I would try some prazipro to see if it helps any. It's a good sign that he is still eating, even if it's just a little.

I’m a little confused. My understanding is that metro/focus laced food is the best treatment for intestinal parasites. I’ve have also had fish come out of QT with bona fide intestinal parasites even though I ran them through 2 rounds of GC. Are you suggesting liquid prazi in the DT for internal parasites or do you think the problem might be something else?

 

[HotRocks]

I’m a little confused. My understanding is that metro/focus laced food is the best treatment for intestinal parasites. I’ve have also had fish come out of QT with bona fide intestinal parasites even though I ran them through 2 rounds of GC. Are you suggesting liquid prazi in the DT for internal parasites or do you think the problem might be something else?

You can food soak with focus/GC which contains praziquantel. Or Parzipro as well.

Its a possibility if a fish were to ingest enough water that is dosed with Prazi it could also remove intestinal worms/parasites. This is less likely to be effective, but is a possibility.

 

[Humblefish]

I’m a little confused. My understanding is that metro/focus laced food is the best treatment for intestinal parasites. I’ve have also had fish come out of QT with bona fide intestinal parasites even though I ran them through 2 rounds of GC. Are you suggesting liquid prazi in the DT for internal parasites or do you think the problem might be something else?

Feeding metro and/or prazi laced food is the best treatment for intestinal parasites. However, it can sometimes take 2-3 weeks of continuous feeding to clear them and there are also metro/prazi resistant worms to consider (same as with skin & gill flukes). I am currently experimenting with fenbendazole for treating resistant worms.

Just dosing the water with Prazipro or General Cure sometimes works for intestinal worms, sometimes not. It all depends on how much of the medication is absorbed by the fish internally.

 

[Crashjack]

Feeding metro and/or prazi laced food is the best treatment for intestinal parasites. However, it can sometimes take 2-3 weeks of continuous feeding to clear them and there are also metro/prazi resistant worms to consider (same as with skin & gill flukes). I am currently experimenting with fenbendazole for treating resistant worms.

Just dosing the water with Prazipro or General Cure sometimes works for intestinal worms, sometimes not. It all depends on how much of the medication is absorbed by the fish internally.

That's what I was thinking. I fed metro/focus laced food, feeding two times per day, for 20 days (just ended 4 days ago). I stopped because I was seeing no real results with my LMB, and the last few days of treatment the other fish started feeding less aggressively and would even spit some pieces out. My fear was that the fish were getting sick due to the medication and with no other fish showing signs, it just didn't make sense (other fish appear to be feeding more normally since I stopped the laced food). Also, the LMB's problem started with the onslaught of dinos. During that my firefish died, and one of my yellow watchman gobies started going through phases where it stayed near the surface and would even lay on my gyre pump near the top of the tank. It would do this for anywhere from a few hours to two days. After that, it would act normal. It finally disappeared, and 6 or 7 weeks after the funeral, it appeared in the refugium section of my sump white as a ghost and smaller (I don't just mean skinnier). After putting back in the main tank, it had a couple of these episodes but they didn't last long... note, this was after I started seeing some success with my dino battle. It has been about two weeks since I've seen any dinos, and the YWG has had no episodes during that time. In fact, it and the other YWG are bolder and are feeding more aggressively than they ever have.

Might this be liver or kidney damage? My other hypothesis is that all of the nuisance algae fed on the toxins to the point that the algae is also toxic, and that is why the blenny doesn't want to eat it. Thoughts?

 

[4FordFamily]

Wow I don’t really know what else to add other than you might be on to something with the dinos. It does have the ringer of internal parasites but if I recall dinos are bad news and the odds that it ingested some are pretty high.

 

[melypr1985]

I don't have anything real constructive to add at this point either. I agree with soaking the food with prazi. I also agree that it's a good sign that he's still eating some. You may try other veggie sources for him to see if he takes a liking to one of them.

 

[Crashjack]

Wow I don’t really know what else to add other than you might be on to something with the dinos. It does have the ringer of internal parasites but if I recall dinos are bad news and the odds that it ingested some are pretty high.

Yeah, I forgot to mention the most disheartening thing that happened... after a month of quarantine, the pintail fairy wrasse I added immediately stressed when I put it in the acclimation box and never recovered. It died about an hour later.

I don't have anything real constructive to add at this point either. I agree with soaking the food with prazi. I also agree that it's a good sign that he's still eating some. You may try other veggie sources for him to see if he takes a liking to one of them.

Would prazi just be something different to try since metro didn’t do the trick? I hate to use GC since I feel like the fish were starting to have adverse effects to the metro/focus laced food. If I lace food with liquid prazi, how would I prepare?

 

[Humblefish]

Dinos do release toxins into the water, so running carbon during an outbreak is highly recommended. The toxins seem to mostly disable (and kill) snails, but there have been some anecdotal accounts of losing fish during the initial outbreak.

 

[Crashjack]

Dinos do release toxins into the water, so running carbon during an outbreak is highly recommended. The toxins seem to mostly disable (and kill) snails, but there have been some anecdotal accounts of losing fish during the initial outbreak.

Yeah, I started using Rox carbon, changing every two weeks. The goby was likely affected because it sifts sand and probably ingested dinos. I don’t know about the LMB, the firefish, and the pintail.

 

[Crashjack]

Ok... I am an internal parasite magnet. Yesterday, I released my C. Lineatus wrasse into an acclimation box and my longnose hawk into the tank. Today, I see the dreaded white poop coming from my Lineatus, and these fish had a week of metro/focus laced food, followed by a round of GC, more medicated food, then the second round of GC. In fact, I got worried that they were getting too much metro. My question is, is it ok to feed the tank medicated food 9 days after I ended the last round? My thought was that this time, I would feed GC/focus for a week and then metro/focus the second week. This would also give me a chance to use GC laced food to see if it makes a difference with my LMB. Thoughts?