# Green Terror, starving itself to death



## aggriffin3 (Aug 15, 2009)

I have a 2" juvenile GT that just refuses to eat. I feed him all sorts of things, and unfortunetly he is in with either Blue Acaras that are 3" and above or my hospital/grow out tank with a 2" Yellow and 3" Rusty, which is the only other tank I have available. He won't eat in either. Seems to be intimidated by the other fish, and when he does get a piece, seems to eat it slow, and sometimes spits it out, only to be eaten by one of the other fish.

I have no place to put the two Africans, as both are unsellable or untradeable, and I don't want this GT to die either. Any thoughts on how to get this guy to eat before it's too late. 
His BM is clear as he does not get to eat anything of substance. The water parameters are good, (0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 6.5 PH) I just checked, so it just comes down to not being agressive enough to compete for food, and is starting to wither.

Thanks in advance


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## GTWilly (Nov 17, 2010)

what are you feeding exactly? And how long has he not been eating? Long stringy poop? Swollen stomach and/or anus? From what you are saying, sounds like possible parasite, or maybe constipation. First thing i would do, switch to peas. Take frozen peas, thaw in warm water, remove the skins (just kinda squeeze em and they pop out) and crush them in the water, enough to have a few scraps left on the bottom after everyone is fed. It may take a couple days in order for the fish to get use to eating them, dont give up, stop all other feeding, watch and see if the terror eats them. A little roughage will help push things along. If you didn't notice stringy poop before you may shortly after the peas. Determine at that point if fish has a parasite or not. After a few days of peas if appetite improves, switch back to regular feeding and use peas every few days as a "treat"


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

one way to know for sure if the fish is sick is try feeding it blodworms no fish resist that and if they do chances are its parasites.


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

also whats your ammonia readings? i find it odd not to have any nirates in an established tank. how long has it been up and running?


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## aggriffin3 (Aug 15, 2009)

I did a nitrate reading last night, and now that I look at the color, its more towards the 5 So not 0, but not more than 5. Don't know or have ever done an ammonia reading, but I have never lost a fish in this tank. 
Could the fish be stressed out being the smallest fish in the tank? The Blue Acara's eat very fast, so its next to impossible to get food to him without them getting involved. 
I noticed the non eating after I took the GT out of the Blue Acara tank 3 weeks ago. I put the juvie in another tank, and it seemed to slow down on the eating then. I bought a 5.5" GT for that tank, and new there was no way to keep him in there, so I moved him into a 20 gallon grow out/hospital tank with two Africans in there. One 3" Rusty, and the other 2.5" Lab. Well, I saw that wasnt going to work out, not eating, and being harassed by the 3" Rusty, so I moved him back in the original Blue Acara tank to get him back into a familiar eating routine. It is so much smaller than the smallest of the BA's that it must feel stressed. 
Hope that helps. I can only see a tank of its own to bring him out of it, or trading him in to the LFS for free, or LFS cash.

Thanks

Art


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

a fish no matter how scare it is will not starve itself to death. hw long has he not been eating? as suggested before it could parasite


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## aggriffin3 (Aug 15, 2009)

I am going to say close to 3 weeks that I have actually seen him eat anything. I have seen a couple times take food in the mouth, then spit it out. 
I don't want to see this fish die, so I am either going to take it to the LFS this week, or find a way to feed this fish by itself.

Art


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

have you notice any white stringy fecal matters? try blood worm if he still dont eat those then yea you might have a problem


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## neutrino (May 4, 2007)

How long have you had him? Some fish will not eat for a while in a new tank and some can be slow, even stubborn, about accepting a different food from what they're used to.

I won't say I know the answer for a fish I haven't seen, but I wouldn't discount stress as possibly the problem. Fish have a tight energy budget and, to put it simply, stress in fish consumes a lot of their energy and can affect digestion for this and other physiological reasons. And, yes, some fish will stop eating or even starve themselves when they are bullied, stressed, unhappy in their tank, or even if they don't like what you're feeding them. IME you can be too quick to conclude a fish is sick and break out the meds when the better course may be to identify and address the source of stress.

To give you just _one _example that this can be true: I had a group of frontosa several years ago that I wanted to get on NLS Thera-A. They hated it. Typically you would not feed them for several days, then only feed the food you want them to eat and they will accept it when they're hungry enough. Not these. After several weeks of me refusing to feed them anything else and them refusing to eat it they went into hiding behind some rocks in the tank and refused to come out for another couple of weeks. I decided I no longer cared whether they ate the Thera-A or not and went back to their regular food. _That day_ they came out and ate normally and acted normally after that. It's amazing how stubborn some fish can be. I've had other cases where I moved a fish that was intimidated, stressed, or bullied-- and not eating-- to a different tank, or moved other fish out of its tank and it was perceptibly happier and started eating normally.

As far as the effects of stress, below are a couple of references. What can often happen is a fish is stressed, _then _gets sick, but the fishkeeper doesn't notice the signs of stress that led to it getting sick. You can save a lot of fish by understanding and identifying signs of stress or situations that cause stress and remedying that before the fish ends up sick.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/7/short
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/9/fish2


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## SEAN420 (Nov 24, 2011)

i have a 3 inch male i just grabbed this past weekend.. he isnt eating my spectrum cichlid formula.. but he will eat a cpl blood worms n ghost shrimp... seems he likes live food... If i make everyone else suffer n not give blood worms or shrimp.. will he eat eventually!?!?!?!!!!


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## SEAN420 (Nov 24, 2011)

i feel hes not eating bcuz i had a female gt b4 and she used to chase my male acara allllll over... i didnt have a gt for a cpl weeks and my acara blew up in size.. and i guess he saw a GT n said F this... and yeah, hes not full out chasing him all the time.. but when he sees him he goes after him. im going to try n get a bigger tank this weekend. but i might be having to find the acara another home as *** been waiting a lil while to find a green terror male...


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

SEAN420 said:


> i have a 3 inch male i just grabbed this past weekend.. he isnt eating my spectrum cichlid formula.. but he will eat a cpl blood worms n ghost shrimp... seems he likes live food... If i make everyone else suffer n not give blood worms or shrimp.. will he eat eventually!?!?!?!!!!


starve him for a few days and he should start eating


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## SEAN420 (Nov 24, 2011)

guess that means the whole tank is going to starve


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## jd lover (Mar 11, 2011)

they will be fine trust me a few days wont harm them


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## aggriffin3 (Aug 15, 2009)

Well, he is eating again, and although he doesnt have the color back in him yet, at least the poop has substance to it. (Not Clear)

I put a couple of dithers in with him, and I think he will start to get better and get back to a healthy state based on eating and temporary companionship.

Thanks

Art


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