What the heck is going on here???

[OwnerofSaix]

You should go pick up a liquid ammonia tester to make sure that that isn't what's stressing him out. I'm concerned about those raggedy fins...

[Indyfishy]

I'll try to pick one up this weekend, even though I'm fairly certain this isn't water quality related. I've changed his water twice since this all started a week ago, and he's getting another 50-75% change tomorrow. He has some tears in his anal fin from dive-bombing into the gravel when i tried to net him to do his 100% water change, other than that his fins just look... thin. And not as vibrant as they were. It just looks like a malnutrition thing.

[OwnerofSaix]

Aww poor thing. :( Well Saix has been being a difficult eater lately, so I soaked his bloodworms in some garlic juice and that worked beautifully. But it sounds like your fish's mouth hurts or something, so I don't know. I hope he'll be ok.

[Indyfishy]

Thank you =) I'm glad your Saix found something he can eat!! I hope I can figure this out before its too late, its very scary/frustrating.

[Arashi Takamine]

Hmm...I know this sounds odd but maybe try crushing the pellets or flakes before feeding him?

[Indyfishy]

I do crush his flakes everytime I feed him, if I don't he only eats parts of the big pieces and then the little pieces fall to the bottom of the tank and make the water murky. I'll try to feed him again, fingers crossed he eats something!!

[Indyfishy]

No luck, he just can't get it down. After trying so hard, he's agitated now and he's acting like he's trying to cough something up. I think I'm going to quarantine him and put some stresscoat in.

[Indyfishy]

Alright so he's in a mason jar that's about 1/2ish gallons with stresscoat, and he'll be getting 100% water changes everyday while he's in it. He doesn't like it one bit, but it will be much easier to clean the uneaten food out of the jar than the tank. It keeps falling to the bottom faster than i can pick it up =/ I wish i could get this figured out. I'm not entirely convinced that it's something stuck in his throat, but it looks like it might be. At the very least, it has to be some irritation of the mouth/gills. I'm hoping the stresscoat will help solve some of this. I'll try to get some tannins in there too, i'll have to go raid my neighbor's oak tree tomorrow =P

[Sivan]

Is Finely still bloated? What do his gills look like? He may have a bacterial infection or possibly an internal parasite.

[Indyfishy]

He's still looking a bit "chubby" but he's not as big as he was. His gills look normal from what I can see. The only thing I have as far as anti-bacterials is Maracyn II. I'll watch him today and if he doesn't get any better I may dose him with some of that. I won't be able to go pick up anything else until probably monday, I have company staying at my house this entire weekend. Parasites would make alot of sense, they could potentially be blocking his intestines. I wish I could get him to eat something so I could feed him those Jungle anti-parasite pellets.