I have a problem with some of my fish loosing weight in my 125 gallon tank.

I was feeding them once a day until I noticed that they were starting to loose
weight, so I started to feed them twice a day for the last 3 weeks;
But nothing has improved with the weight loss.

I feed them pellet food, flake food, and once a week I feed them frozen brine shrimp as a treat.

All the fish in this aquarium eat like pigs, even those who are loosing weight.

At this point, that are starting to loose coloration as well.

My 7 inch Red Empress has lost a lot of his beautiful coloration, and now my
Lithobate is starting to dull and loose weight.

I do w/c every week, about 40%.

I really hate to use medicine in my tanks, but at this point, this may be my only
option.

What do you guys and gals think I should use or do?

Worms maybe? If you think they have tape worms, try some Prazi-Pro. I hear it works good on them. I just did a treatment of it on young discus and had no problems.

Thanks, Lisa!

That was what I was leaning towards, but I wanted to get some
expert opinions on the problem.

I will go out this evening and start the treatment and I will let
everyone know, who's interested, how it turns out!

Oh, and if you end up with a cloudy looking mess on the bottom, don't worry. It's normal. It's just the medication coming out of suspension and it doesn't hurt anything. Just follow the directions on the bottle. If they have worms, you should see them pass them by 12-18 hours after the first treatment. Those should be siphoned up. Any water replace should be dosed as well (for however much you replace). It's also possible it's not tapeworms, but the fact you're feeding more and nothing is getting fatter seems to point to this.

Are they really emaciated, Mark?

If the PraziPro doesn't help matters, it may be what they refer to as "skinny" or "wasting" disease, or fish tuberculosis. If it's that, there isn't much you can do, I would run the whole gamut on treating for internal parasites in hopes that something would work.

Praziquantel is a good start. You might also pick up some Thera A and try feeding that to them for awhile. (New Life Spectrum)

Well I did a 50% water change Monday evening and started the treatment
with the Prazi-Pro.

So far, no change and I haven't seen any evidence of the infected fish
passing any worms. That's not to say they haven't, I just haven't seen it.

If its fish TB, is it contagious to other fish in the tank?

It appears to be hitting my haps and peacocks, but my Msobos are fine.

This is very frustrating because these are some of the best specimens I've
seen anywhere and I'm not just saying that because they are mine. Besides,
I didn't raise them, but I bought them from Birdman last fall. His stock was
incredible!

I will go and buy some medicated fish food today and continue on with the treatment.

I will probably do another round of treatment starting tomorrow evening.

Thanks for your help, ladies!

Fish TB tends to spread throughout a tank. But...I've never dealt with it in my tanks. It has been my experience that diseases and illnesses sometimes seem to affect some species worse than others, although there is no logic behind that...Just personal observation...Anytime I've ever had anything serious in my tanks, it seems to move through one species at a time.

Keep doing what you're doing, and hope for the best. I'm sure you know this, but squeeze in all the water changes that you can manage.

Preacherboy, do the affected fish have "sunken" or "concave" stomachs?

A few years ago I bought three fish that all started showing that symptom soon after I introduced them to my tank. I thought they just weren't getting enough to eat, but they continued to very slowly get skinnier and skinnier. It took over a year, but they eventually all died, despite every treatment I tried. dumb dumb

I do think what my fish had spreads, but very slowly.

I hope you get this figured out and get rid of it!!

At the very worst, you're getting rid of any possible gill flukes if they didn't have worms. I sure hope it's not myco (fish TB). There is no cure, and other fish are infected by contact with infected fish and may or may not show signs of it.

Preacherboy, are your fish showing any signs of improvement?

Unfortunately, Aura, they aren't!

I'm having some really bad luck right now!

Not only is my 125 gallon tank affected, but I've lost a couple
of fish to bloat in my 75 gallon tank; both Saulosi!

After treating the 125 with Prazi Pro, I changed 50% of the water and
started a full treatment with Jungle Parasite Clear and also added a second
treatment of Prazi Pro at the same time. This was done yesterday so I don't
know what is going to happen just yet!

Now I know I'm not supposed to mix medicines, but at this point, I've got nothing
to loose!

I also started a full treatment of Jungle Parasite Clear on the 75 tank.
This is the first time I've ever seen one of fish actually "bloated" after contracting
"bloat". Most of the time, they just waste away after they stop eating.

I've only had to deal with bloat twice in the last 1 1/2 years, but this is getting weird.

About 3 months ago, I purchased the same brand of food I had been using, same
diameter, but in order to save money, I bought the food in a larger quantity.
Before this, I had never had any problems with the food or with disease, but I'm
just wondering if there is something wrong with the food.

Sorry about the long post, but could it be possible that the food I bought was contaminated?

Going out later today to buy some medicated food!

Sorry to hear there's no improvement...yet. It's so darned frustrating when nothing works!

I don't know how likely it would be that the food was contaminated, but it wouldn't be high on my list. Is there any chance that it could have spread from one tank to the other (equipment or hands cross contaminating) or do you think it's two different things going on?

I understand trying different medications to find something that will finally work, but be careful not to overdose. I'm not sure what is in the Prazi Pro, but the Parasite Clear has praziquantel as an active ingredient, and if Prazi Pro is the same stuff, you might be getting too much.

Good luck -- I hope you can get this under control.

My plan is to do three full treatments of Jungle Parasite Clear;
Feed Thera A for a couple of weeks after treatment;
Not going to feed them until the treatment process is concluded.

If the fish don't respond to the three full treatments and medicated food, then
I guess I may have to accept the possibility of fish TB.

From what I have read, I'm just not sure.

Fish TB: loss of coloration
But anorexia.

Some of the infected fish have lost some coloration, but anorexic is not one
of the problems because their appetite is ferocious!

Wish me luck!

pb, any improvement in your fish?

Update:

Finished three rounds of treatment with Jungle Parasite Clear and two
full doses of Prazi Pro with all the w/c I could squeeze in.

Their appearance seems to be just a tiny bit better. Only time will tell.

One good thing that happened during the treatment process was that my
female lithobate is now holding. First time since I got her about 8 months ago.

I switched them to NLS (I'm not a fan of their product, but had some left over)
and I'm feeding them spirulina flakes twice a day. I also feed them frozen brine
shrimp once a week.

I will continue to monitor the situation and thanks for everyone's concerns!