I am frustrated with my 20 gallon grow out tank!

I recently purchased two yellow labs and everything was
fine until I noticed one stopped eating.

I immediately started treatment with JPC and did 3 treatments
while fasting the fish. One lab died during the first treatment, and
the other fish is still not eating.

I did all the water changes as scheduled and the fish is still not
eating. It is very skittish and afraid of its own shadow.

I don't know if it's bloat, or the fact that the fish is by itself, except
for 1 syno. erept. and 1 BN pleco.

I am thinking of two options. One is to treat it with something different
or two, add another fish or two to encourage the other into eating.

JPC has always worked in the past and the fish in question doesn't appear
bloated or emaciated.

What do you guys think?

BTW, I have offered both flake and NLS pellets, but still not eating.

PB try brine shrimp. When I have gotten new fish or have had a picky eater I have always tried brine shrimp and that usually does the trick.

I wouldn't medicate right now since you have already done treatment with JPC.

You could try putting in some tetras or something to your liking to see if that will bring him out of his shell a little more. When I had yellow labs I always found them to be somewhat more skittish than other fish in the tank.

HTH and I hope someone else chimes in.

BTW what is your water readings for that tank??

Thanks Rena!

The water parameters are fine.

amm= 0
Nitrites= 0

Nitrates= 15 ppm

PH= 7.8

I will try the brine shrimp!

Preacherboy, did you try the brine shrimp?

I think I would go easy on any feeding at first since it's been awhile since it was eating.

If it didn't show any interest in the shrimp, you might consider the second treatment with a different medication.

The time I experienced bloat with one of my fish, I treated with Clout first and when the fish showed little improvement, I used the Parasite Clear which took care of the problem. I don't know if it was the combination of one medication after the other or if one medication was what was needed for my particular case.

I know that others have had some successful using aquarium salt. Did you add any of that or any epsom salt?

Are your eupterus and pleco doing okay?

Thanks for the replies!

I was out of town all day today, so I haven't been
able to get to the LFS yet, but I will try tomorrow!

I haven't been able to get to the grocery store yet
either for the epsom salt, but again, I hope to be able
to take care of that too!

The catfish and the pleco are doing very well!

I will keep you posted and thanks again!

This is kind of tricky. Yellow labs can be so timid that they don't always do well as singles or small groups of 2 or so. But, with you having them in a tank by themselves, that really shouldn't apply.

Any white stringy feces?

Do you have any fresh garlic laying around? If so, you might try finely mincing it and offering a piece or two of it to him/her. Garlic seems to hold an appeal to finicky eaters.

Did it ever eat any of the NLS? (I'm asking because I have had problems with feeding that in the past to fish who were not used to it....Nothing wrong with the food, just the abrupt change in food!)

I would add the epsom salt at 1 cup per 100G. And Aura may be onto something regarding the meds. I have treated with Clout in the past without any results, and turned around and treated with JPC with great success.

Sure she isn't holding???

Kim

Thanks for all the replies!

But unfortunately, both of my yellow labs are deceased!

When I first bought them, everything was fine and I was able to
feed them a quality flake food.

But they were both extremely timid and skittish and you would
have to put the food in and completely leave the room and be
out of sight in order for them to eat.

There was no white stringing feces, they just abruptly stopped
eating. First one died soon after I began the treatment of JPC and
then this morning the other lab died; about 5 days after the three
treatments of JPC.

Now I'm worried about putting any new fish into the tank for fear of
passing on some illness to the new fish. My catfish and pleco are still
doing great!

The tank is clean, the water parameters are better than ever, and I
want to put some new fish in this tank soon!

What should I do about this tank?

I bet there was something wrong with them when you got them.

If you've treated with JPC, I would just run it for about a week with the cat and pleco in it, and do daily water changes on it. Make sure you are running new carbon in your filtration, and vacuum the substrate well.

You should be fine adding new fish if you do that. As long as there were no outward visible signs of fungus or anything like that, I wouldn't worry too much.

Kim

Thanks, Kim!

That's what I thought about in hindsight that
the fish were ill when I bought them. It's a shame,
too, because they were very nice looking labs.

I will wait awhile and do my w/c and add something
new to the growout tank soon!