Sick filefish?

[Baby Ray]

Sorry I can only get my light to stay fully white for a couple seconds. I have him in this holding container

 

[Baby Ray]

Double post. And it seems like the video won’t work

 

[Baby Ray]

Here is an imagine I got with fully white lights.

I put him in this container to protect him from the flow.

He seems to be trying to bite onto the container to stabilize himself which is normal behavior

 

[Baby Ray]

He will occasionally go sideways in the container like this and then eventually muster the will power to right himself

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Here is an imagine I got with fully white lights.

I put him in this container to protect him from the flow.

He seems to be trying to bite onto the container to stabilize himself which is normal behavior

Yep - weird how these little filefish use their mouths to hold themselves steady.

All I could see was that it is really thin. I suspect there is some chronic issue that caused this, slow enough progression that you didn’t notice it at first.

 

[Baby Ray]

Quite literally last week I noticed how plump he was.

Before I put him in the tank I had a flat form issues but he was always snacking on them.

Still some in the tank and I’ve seen him take frozen food as well so it was a lack of food or pickiness

 

[Baby Ray]

I guess that all I can do is keep monitoring.

I hate not being able to take action to fix an issue. These little guys have so much personality.

Makes me sad watching him suffer.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I guess that all I can do is keep monitoring.

I hate not being able to take action to fix an issue. These little guys have so much personality.

Makes me sad watching him suffer.

Sorry, I just don’t see any treatable/actionable items here…..

 

[Fish Fan]

From my experience with this platform it could be hours, if not days before I get any sort of response from someone who can actually help and frankly I dont even know if he’ll make it that long.

I'm sorry, I'm not as knowledgable as the other Fish Medic guys, but I'm usually better about seeing these threads sooner

If in the future, for you or anyone who needs help, there's a sub-forum for fish disease where all the Fish Medic team is subscribed. Posting here is likely the quickest way to get their attention

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-disease-treatment-and-diagnosis.771/

I hope your file fish improves; good luck!

 

[Baby Ray]

He’s basically only lying on his side now and sporadic breathing so it’s basically certain he won’t make it.

These little Pygmy white spotted filefish really have so much personality. It hurts a lot to see him like this.

 

[winxp_man]

External parasites:

Yawning often
Swimming in current
Flashing/scraping on sand or rocks
Breathing heavy
Not eating
Dark red gills or pale gills
Fins tucked in while staying afloat
Hiding in the dark parts of the tank

At times other tank mates will show issues if there are any in the tank the sick fish is in
Also fish will show many of these symptoms together at the same time. This is a lot for a fish most external parasites.

I have had many experiences with fish not eating. This is a super hard one to deal with. One reason is the fish is not eating and one method to get it fixed from internal issues is to be able to get antibiotics possibly in the food so the parasites can possibly be killed by meds. I had some clowns I had to feed with a very small tube, and it worked. For some it was too late. If caught in time you can possibly help the fish.

If a fish does not eat for a week most have enough body weight to be okay, but after they really get thin, the body ends up eating its own liver being it’s using the fat reserves to survive. Sadly when this takes place there is no come back from it 99% of the time.

What I do from time to time is try to collect feces to look at under my microscope for parasites. And if you don’t have a microscope this step will not be of any use. Internal parasites can do a number on fish and at times hard to get it figured out before it’s too late.

One can try antibiotics in a the QT tank, but where these meds need to get to can at times not make much of a difference.

What I wrote here is not what some want to hear or read. But it is a reality we face in the reef world as do others even in FW world.

 

[OceanJack]

He’s basically only lying on his side now and sporadic breathing so it’s basically certain he won’t make it.

These little Pygmy white spotted filefish really have so much personality. It hurts a lot to see him like this.

My filefish just took a turn for the worse tonight as well. Did yours make it? I added Prazipro to my tank since I suspected flukes, now it's spinning after the second day. I think the parasites caused a swim bladder infection

 

[Baby Ray]

He’s basically only lying on his side now and sporadic breathing so it’s basically certain he won’t make it.

These little Pygmy white spotted filefish really have so much personality. It hurts a lot to see him like this.

My filefish just took a turn for the worse tonight as well. Did yours make it? I added Prazipro to my tank since I suspected flukes, now it's spinning after the second day. I think the parasites caused a swim bladder infection

It unfortunately didn’t make it

Hopefully your guy turns things around

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My filefish just took a turn for the worse tonight as well. Did yours make it? I added Prazipro to my tank since I suspected flukes, now it's spinning after the second day. I think the parasites caused a swim bladder infection

Nematodes have been implicated in causing “spinning” of fish, when the worms migrate from the digestive system into the nervous system. Prazi doesn’t control nematodes though.