I've had my goliath since he was around 5" (january of 2016). And it took me two months to get this guy on pellets (https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/my-gatf-is-finally-on-pellets.671259/) And since then he's been on pellets until June 23rd of this year. Thats when I decided that the pellets are too small for my beast and switched back to tilapia. Until that point he hadn't eaten anything but pellets. That first day he ate a nice chunk of tilapia and that was it, he didn't bother eating more.
A few weeks passed and he didn't eat. Tried to feed pellets as well but he didn't want them either. His stomach however was getting bigger (its very apparent with my ATF, if they don't eat for a day I can clearly make out by their stomach's size).
So that was strange... The tilapia I got was from my local Lucky's (farm raised cut fillets). And I thought it was either parasites or that he isn't used to eating tilapia until now so his stomach is throwing a tantrum. I decided to do what almost always works, upped the temp to 88 degrees and added salt after a waterchange. The bloating didn't go down, in fact he kept getting bigger. And this was without eating anything btw. Okay now that the salt + temp didn't work I did another water change and this time I added salt, epsom salt (to ease his bowels) and prazi pro. And boom, the night I was sitting and watching this guy and he just regurgitated a bunch of white stringy stuff and pooped. His stomach was back to being normal instantly. I was ecstatic!
Top: bloated stomach, bottom: after the epsom salt treatment.
And the next day I tried feeding pellets, he didn't eat. I thought to myself that it must be because he is still recovering from all that trauma.
Few weeks go by, still not eating and his stomach is starting to swell up again and this time I read through almost every bloat post on MFK and found a thread in the disease & treatment section regarding using metro+ to treat parasites. There are multiple ways of doing this, and if the fish is eating the best way is to soak the food in metro and then feed it to the fish. But my guy wasn't eating and the other way is to inject metro + dissolved in water directly into the fish via its mouth.... Yeah I don't have the guts to to that with my 17" GATF.... So I just let nature take its course.
Few weeks go by and again his stomach got super big. And this time he just puked it all out by himself... And the next day he ate! He ate 4 massivore pellets
. But he spat them out soon after.
A good friend of mine (@funwow) suggested I just feed 1 metro + soaked pellet to him and see what happens. So I tried it the next day and he ate it! And this time he didn't spit it back out. Did the same the day after that (Sunday) and again he ate the one pellet. And since then he stopped eating. His stomach is getting bigger again. Here's a pic of him that I just took:
I've had him for a couple of years now and his stomach doesn't look this big when he's gone without food for so long. It will almost certainly get bigger over the next few days.
Few points to note:
- He pukes out white stringy stuff (which is most likely parasites)
- Whatever he's having doesn't seem to affect any other fish, they would have similar symptoms if it were contagious
- Tank-mates: 5 spotted gars (12" - 16"), 3 bichirs (10" - 14"), 1 tigrinus (14") and 5 red hook silver dollars.
- Tank: 6' long 30" deep and 30" tall
- Filtration: 4 marine pure media cubes, a lot of ceramic sticks, a lot of filter pads and lava rock in a sump that's 3' long by 20" deep and 20" tall.
- Water parameters have always been good (10-30ppm nitrates, others at 0).
- He probably got the parasites from the silver dollars (they're the newest, got them back in may from a lfs)
- Other than the bloated stomach and refusing to eat food his behavior is completely normal. No lethargic and always trying to kill the silver dollars (he'll succeed one of these days)
My fear is that the parasites (or bacteria) in his stomach have now become resistant to metro + and now I'll have to try and use something else. If his situation doesn't improve I'll probably set up a 180 and QT him (not looking forward to doing that, moving this guy won't be easy).
One thing I've learned from this experience is that: ALWAYS Feed pellets + fish so that they're used to anything.
A few weeks passed and he didn't eat. Tried to feed pellets as well but he didn't want them either. His stomach however was getting bigger (its very apparent with my ATF, if they don't eat for a day I can clearly make out by their stomach's size).
So that was strange... The tilapia I got was from my local Lucky's (farm raised cut fillets). And I thought it was either parasites or that he isn't used to eating tilapia until now so his stomach is throwing a tantrum. I decided to do what almost always works, upped the temp to 88 degrees and added salt after a waterchange. The bloating didn't go down, in fact he kept getting bigger. And this was without eating anything btw. Okay now that the salt + temp didn't work I did another water change and this time I added salt, epsom salt (to ease his bowels) and prazi pro. And boom, the night I was sitting and watching this guy and he just regurgitated a bunch of white stringy stuff and pooped. His stomach was back to being normal instantly. I was ecstatic!
Top: bloated stomach, bottom: after the epsom salt treatment.
And the next day I tried feeding pellets, he didn't eat. I thought to myself that it must be because he is still recovering from all that trauma.
Few weeks go by, still not eating and his stomach is starting to swell up again and this time I read through almost every bloat post on MFK and found a thread in the disease & treatment section regarding using metro+ to treat parasites. There are multiple ways of doing this, and if the fish is eating the best way is to soak the food in metro and then feed it to the fish. But my guy wasn't eating and the other way is to inject metro + dissolved in water directly into the fish via its mouth.... Yeah I don't have the guts to to that with my 17" GATF.... So I just let nature take its course.
Few weeks go by and again his stomach got super big. And this time he just puked it all out by himself... And the next day he ate! He ate 4 massivore pellets
. But he spat them out soon after.A good friend of mine (@funwow) suggested I just feed 1 metro + soaked pellet to him and see what happens. So I tried it the next day and he ate it! And this time he didn't spit it back out. Did the same the day after that (Sunday) and again he ate the one pellet. And since then he stopped eating. His stomach is getting bigger again
. Here's a pic of him that I just took:I've had him for a couple of years now and his stomach doesn't look this big when he's gone without food for so long. It will almost certainly get bigger over the next few days
.Few points to note:
- He pukes out white stringy stuff (which is most likely parasites)
- Whatever he's having doesn't seem to affect any other fish, they would have similar symptoms if it were contagious
- Tank-mates: 5 spotted gars (12" - 16"), 3 bichirs (10" - 14"), 1 tigrinus (14") and 5 red hook silver dollars.
- Tank: 6' long 30" deep and 30" tall
- Filtration: 4 marine pure media cubes, a lot of ceramic sticks, a lot of filter pads and lava rock in a sump that's 3' long by 20" deep and 20" tall.
- Water parameters have always been good (10-30ppm nitrates, others at 0).
- He probably got the parasites from the silver dollars (they're the newest, got them back in may from a lfs)
- Other than the bloated stomach and refusing to eat food his behavior is completely normal. No lethargic and always trying to kill the silver dollars (he'll succeed one of these days)
My fear is that the parasites (or bacteria) in his stomach have now become resistant to metro + and now I'll have to try and use something else. If his situation doesn't improve I'll probably set up a 180 and QT him (not looking forward to doing that, moving this guy won't be easy).
One thing I've learned from this experience is that: ALWAYS Feed pellets + fish so that they're used to anything.
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