Langy

hi all,

asking for advice about what i should do with one of my black phantom tetras who isn't eating. he's getting very skinny now and im afraid he probably doesn't have a lot of time left.

all the other fish in my tank eat happily except for this one, who hides near the filter intake most of the time. when its feeding time all the fish go mad for food but he just sits there. i make sure i put a fair amount of food in so he could get some but it doesn't seem to do anything.

food will pass by him and he won't go for it, so its not that he can't get to it. he just doesn't want to eat. any ideas about what i could do to make sure he will eat. like moving him to another tank on his own and feeding him??

please help, i would hate to lose him, he's the prettiest one i have (he has massive fins compared to the others).

cheers guys!!

ABCDemily

He may be being bullied by the other fish, so I'd try isolating him a see if he feeds. Generally a school fish like a tetra needs to be in groups of six or more to dissapate aggression between fish of the same species. Your tank is overstocked, so this isn't an option. I'd either remove the rummy noses and bristlenose (may be small for a pleco, but fat too large for a ten gallon)

Then hopefully he will stop being bullied, if the tank has fewer inhabitants.

The one inch per gallon rule, which works on small fish would give you

7.5 from neons, 4 from rummys, 9 from the phantoms, 4 from kuhli, and eight from the bristle.

This gives you 32.5 inches! I'd get rid of the loach, bristlenose and the rummy noses, then the fish will be slightly more comfortable.

Good luck!

Langy

yer i was thinking that might be the case, but i havn't seen an sign of bullying on him yet. the other fish just seem to avoid him.

i thought i had done pretty well with all the tetras, as the neons school with the rummy's and the rummy's school with the phantoms. so you think isolation might work? i have a very small tank which i could move him into temporarily to fatten him up. and then reintroduce him again once he's bigger? any thoughts?

yer your spot on about it being slightly overstocked. okay a lot overstocked. i'd estimate the fish at being more like 5inch for neons, 4 inch for rummy's,4.5inch for the phantoms, 2inches for the khuli and 2 inches for the bristlenose. so that adds up to be 17.5inches. sure the BN will grow more but im going to move him when he gets to big. all the other fish have stopped growing apart from the phantoms, (havn't had them long don't know how old they are.)

thanks for the help.

ABCDemily

I mean fully grown adult sizes when I added up lol
The isolation idea is good, drop in some garlic juice, it stimulates the fishies appetite

aquarist48

Good morning. Are your readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate where they should be? Not only can you add a few drops of garlic juice to the water but you can also drop some on the food. As stated by ABC it acts as a food enhancer. Best of luck. I hope he's going to be ok.
Ken

Langy

thanks guys. garlic juice aye? sounds like a plan. do i have to buy a solution or can i simply squeeze some juice out of a clove of garlic and add it to the tank?
thank-you for all the help.
cheers!

aquarist48

Morning. You can squeeze the juice from the garlic clove or you can buy minced garlic from the grocery store that comes in a jar, and just use that juice. Either way would be fine
Ken

jdhef

There is also a product called Garlic Gaurd. I haven't seen it in any stores near me, but I ordered it from Drs Foster and Smith. (There is a link at the top of this page).

I would suspect though that with you being so overstocked, that there is a good chance that you are having water quality problems which could explain the loss of appitite.

Langy

i added some garlic juice last night to the water and some food. they didn't really go crazy for it like i had hoped. i ended up just feeding them normally and i saw that the skinny phantom was actually chasing one of the others. this is confusing because i thought that he would be the targeted one, not the bullier. weird.

yeh my tanks due for a clean and WC, so maybe i'll do it early. see if it helps.
thanks again for the suggestions.

Cheers!