Fire Fish is eating a little and became skinny

[Jey Christopher]

I got a Fire Fish a week back. it seemed to do great at the beginning. But it started eating less last 4 days. Looking Skinny Now but active as ever, i was feeding Hikari Seaweed rich food, since it was accepting it. after it started to become skinny, i ordered Hikari Omnivore pellets. This change , is it because of any internal parasites or lack of nutrients the fish picks up from feeding ?

 

[BeejReef]

Hey Jey..

I would repost your question in the fish disease section https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

Add a few pictures of the fish if you have them and include your water parameters.
The background you gave is excellent. Also tell if you have quarantined or treated the fish with any medications.

Hope he makes a nice recovery.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

I got a Fire Fish a week back. it seemed to do great at the beginning. But it started eating less last 4 days. Looking Skinny Now but active as ever, i was feeding Hikari Seaweed rich food, since it was accepting it. after it started to become skinny, i ordered Hikari Omnivore pellets. This change , is it because of any internal parasites or lack of nutrients the fish picks up from feeding ?

Was the food you were feeding strictly a seaweed pellet?

My firefish enjoy a mixture of new life spectrum pellets and meaty foods like mysis and rods. They will also go after larger pieces of coral foods. Have had a trio of purples for just over a year now

 

[Jey Christopher]

At this point , yes. Just that seaweed stuff. I have got a Carnivore pellets now. My question is , will the fish be able to recover from this ?

 

[Jey Christopher]

Hey Jey..

I would repost your question in the fish disease section https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

Add a few pictures of the fish if you have them and include your water parameters.
The background you gave is excellent. Also tell if you have quarantined or treated the fish with any medications.

Hope he makes a nice recovery.

Attached a Pic.
I just have Nitrate kit, And Nitrates are pretty low between 0 - 5 in Api test kit scale. So far i have not done anything, since i was not sure about what is going on. Even that hurts, catching it from the tank adds to it. Hoping Right Diet improves its health.

 

[BeejReef]

He does look skinnier. You can see more of his internal structures. Same happened to me before I lost a pajama cardinal.

In my case, I believe it was an intestinal parasite. However, there's really not enough information to make a good guess about your firefish. It could be sick, or it could not be eating because of water quality issues, or it could be diet. Is it alone in the tank, or is there competition for food?

Have you tested for ammonia, just to be safe?

Whatever brand of test kit you prefer, you'll need more than nitrate. Ammonia, Nitrate, Phosphate, Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, and PH are pretty standard. Alk, Calc, and Mag less important if just doing fish.

#4FordFamily, #Humblefish, #Brew12, #ngoodermuth

 

[Jey Christopher]

This is just Fish only Tank, got two established tankmates, clowns. I use API. just got Nitrate kit.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Hopefully he will fatten up with a more rounded diet

 

[Jey Christopher]

Hopefully he will fatten up with a more rounded diet

Thanks Mate !!

 

[Jey Christopher]

2 days of focussed feeding, New Carnivore diet pellets. I can see it is improving

 

[AngryMike2016]

That's great to hear! Firefish are my favorite fish. Handsome little fellow you have there.

 

[Jey Christopher]

That's great to hear! Firefish are my favorite fish. Handsome little fellow you have there.

They are really hardy mate, Such a peaceful fish, Colorful, do well in small tanks, Ha, what else you need

 

[AngryMike2016]

They are really hardy mate, Such a peaceful fish, Colorful, do well in small tanks, Ha, what else you need

I'd love it if it were easily safe to keep large schools of them.

 

[Jey Christopher]

You can have a lot if you have a much much larger tank, but i doubt about school

 

[AngryMike2016]

<gets 2000 gallon tank>
<acquires 100 firefish>

 

[AZMSGT]

Get some frozen baby mysis shrimp and if you can get some live brine shrimp. They eat that stuff up.

 

[Jey Christopher]

Get some frozen baby mysis shrimp and if you can get some live brine shrimp. They eat that stuff up.

Actually i dint tell that story in first place. I fed them with newly hatched brine shrimp, after that only it started losing weight, dint eat well. I stopped feed that. i don't wanna take any risk at this stage. let it recover for now

 

[BeejReef]

Great work!

 

[NitroJoe]

<gets 2000 gallon tank>
<acquires 100 firefish>

I actually know of a gent who put a dozen fire fish in the same tank (largish tank like a 55) with reef. They actually school. A trick that can work like I did with cichlids where over load the area (without overcrowding) and they seem to give up on establishing territories. The trick would be how to acclimate them. Truly a cool tank. They all align in the same direction. A sight to behold.

 

[Nemo&Friends]

this is a carnivorous fish. He needs meat. I feed mine Hickari brime shrimp and mysis and even LRS fish frenzy. They stay in a macro algae tank and never even look at any of the algae. They get flakes occasionally.