# Jack dempsey's not eating,, See symptoms in message.. help



## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

hello everyone,,,, have to ask because i'm very worried about my jd's and don't know what to do here and don't want to waste money on something that may not work... but willing to try things....
Here is my scenario: Fish stopped eating about 10 days ago or at least from what i can see, They were doing a lot of twitching and scratching, at least the little female was. Also noticed lots of white, let me be blunt, but white **** coming out of the male, almost like a clear long worm, not the color when a fish normally eats....
The fish still seem pretty active but just show no interest when i put any food in the tank....

I had bad nitrate problems and all other parameters perfect. Water changes have been huge lately to get the nitrates down as i discoverd that was a huge issue. I use prime. filters have been cleaned with tank water: (rena xp3, eheim 2215, Aquaclear 50 with carbon) Tank is 75 gallon. Added some hornwort and using a koralia-1 for surface agitation with a bubble wand. No algae issues with two Large albino plec's.....

Any suggestions on the disease and remedies......
Really appreciate any help
sheldon


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi Sheldon,

sounds like it could be bloat. Bloat starts off with the fish spitting out food, then they stop eating and you may or may not see long stringy white or clear feces. Fish will become lethargic and may gasp. Towards the end the fish may develop a bloated OR sunken belly. Symptoms usually take about a week or so to play out.

So your fish fit the profile, somewhat. I would try treating the entire tank with Jungle Parasite Clear. Do another water change just before dosing and use the Prime at the maximum dosage suggested on the label.

Robin


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## love-my-fish (Nov 26, 2009)

Tks robin for the suggestions...... I received a lot of responses from others forums on this as well and the coincide with what you have said.... I went and purchased the Sea-chem metroplex (metronidazole) and well within an hour.. what a huge difference... the male jack has come back to life.. next day he is hungry..... WOW,,, I gave them 2 pieces of krill and some small cichlid pellets for the little one... they both didn't bother with the pellets.. and ate the krill.. so at least i know they are back to hungry.... going to do a second dose in a day or two to make sure all is good.....

thank-you for responding and your help
sheldon


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

I was going to suggest a Metro treatment and saw that you had already been down that path. Good job.

The SeaChem product is dosed every other day. I generally get good results following through on three doses (dosed every other day, so 6 days worth of treatment). I would not run past three treatments without a break of an equal amount of time though.

Metro is easily removed by carbon, so when your done with the treatment, perform a nice large water change and add some carbon to the system to remove trace levels of medication.

And don't let your nitrates climb outta sight again.


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