NANFA-- Wasting o-spot.

Todd Crail (farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com)
Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:44:42 -0500

Greetings...

I've got an orangespot sunfish that is in the worst way. I don't know what
the deal is... He's always chowed down since I've had him, but dorsally, he
looks like an emaciated saltwater Tang, he has flare ups of ich and fungus,
his eyes bulge sorta exopthalamusy (is that a word? :) now and then, with
minimal opacity.

He's just a mess.

I'd usually say it was system stress and try and troubleshoot it and correct
it... But there ain't nobody else in there with a single problem. Among
those enlisted are redside dace, blacknose dace, blackstripe topminnows,
tadpole madtoms etc that would buy the farm on whim and seem to be very
succeptable to ectoparasitic "blooms" when system stress is present. So
I'm pretty convinced it's just him.

This time he's flared up with the external parasties two days _after_ the
waterchange. I don't know if he prefered whatever the nitrates were at
before the waterchange, but they're undetectable now. I wouldn't be
suprised if I went down and saw him floating on any given day... But he's
looked this bad before and somehow pulled back out of it. Never gained any
weight back tho. Just gone through this ebb and tide of "looks like crap"
to "looks hopeful".

Put 'em down and cut 'em open and take a looky? Put him in a quarantine and
metronidazole the crap out of him? Hey that was kinda punny... ;)

I'm getting nervy about intestinal parasites, though I've seen no evidence
of them. No bloating or anal irritation, no discharge or clear "feces".
But his wasting and imunosuppression seem to be right on.

I didn't want to waste him if there were other options. Or if that was the
best option, I guess get some suggestions to do it.

I hate nuking fish I've had for awhile :(

Todd

It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com
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