CBB Troubles:Attention Instar

[Nano_Steve]

hey all,

i wanted to see if anyone can think of anything else i should try to help out my CBB. here's the scoop on whats happened in the past few days.

in college station the fish was doing great! i got him to eat frozen foods and he seemed extremely happy. i moved monday and i had to try and trick him into a plastic bag. that didnt work so i was forced to net him, keeping him in the water i was able to put him into the bag then but it ripped a piece of his lower rear fin. he was in the bag for around 6 hours while i moved everything back to austin. i kept the same water and everything.

he has been in the same corner for the past 5 days and will not eat. he had some small specks of fungus on one side that have disappeared last night but he is still not eating. he seems pretty lethargic and not very adventurous around the tank. all the other fish are perfectly fine and have already adapted well to the move. i tried lacing his food with some garlic but no luck. im very cautious to try a fresh water dip seeing as how these fish are sensitive to water fluctuations.

if anyone has anything that they can think of that would help please please please let me know, i really dont want to lose him, he's the best fish ive ever had(full of personality and really gorgeous)

thanks in advance, steve

[GaryP]

Steve,

According to what Larry has told me and my own experience from getting a CBB a few weeks ago, they tend to mope after being moved. Mine seemed to be doing a lot of picking on my LR but not eating when I fed the tank. He also exhibited the same kind of behavior that you described. Of course I can't really monitor how much he eats when he grazes on the LR. I finally got him to actively feed by getting some live mussels from HEB. Just what I need, one more fish food.

Hope that helps,
Gary

[SueT]

Hi Steve, you saw my copperrband when you were over. This fish has been with me for 3.5 years now. It went through one of the roughest times I've seen fish go through. I have no idea what started it but mine completely quit eating. It started hiding and I thought the fish was a goner. It also became extremely thin during this. Finally it began to come back out but then it had the most horrendous sore on it's side which had one of equal size on the opposite body side. I was soaking food in Zoecan in hopes some of the vitamins would get to the fish.

About 10 days later it just started to eat again. It took a long time to get this fish back to it's perfect self. I actually believe if the fish was not in the good health before hand I'd have a dead fish. Hopefully, yours will get reoriented and start to eat and make a comeback for you. The only food this fish craves is PE brand mysis shrimp. Try whatever you can think of to just get the fish eating as after that it'll all be good. These fish are one of the most incredible and sometimes seem delicate and then some seem like you can't hurt them for anything.

[Nano_Steve]

thanks gary and sue for the advice. i did a 50% water change this morning(actually had my mom and friend do it for me since i had to leave yesterday) and they said that now one of his sides is completely covered in some sort of ick looking disease. he is noticeably skinny and still will not come very far out of his corner.

im now starting to worry that whatever is on him will transfer to my other fish. i will try the mussel idea since it worked for me when i first got him but im skeptical since when i first got him he was very active in the tank and swam around quite a bit but now he is not.

thanks again and if yall have any other thoughts please let me know, id rather not have to introduce my beautiful cbb to the porcelain gates of fish heaven.

thanks, steve

[Instar]

Steve, The CBB is extremely tough providing you have had it eating. The mess on his side is likely from scraping in the net and bag. I would not worry at all about his ripped tail. If he was healthy, thats not a problem even if ripped all the way to the base. He'll pout for a while after being moved. Best foods are live black mussel, live mosquito larva from a little container set out back, and what he first started feeding on in the beginning. You may have to start all over with the whole routine. I had a little one get torn to shreds by a larger one when it defeated the divider in their tank. He couldn't even swim when I pulled him from a hole between two rocks by his tail. In a few days he was over it. A cleaner shrimp will help to clean his scraped side up. I always use a cleaner shrimp in the beginning. Once he is feeding, I'd use the SF Bay Brand Angel Butterfly formula as it has some shredded mussel in it. Good for the vitamins. Make sure whatever frozen foods you give him every morning and evening are not that junk encased in the gel agar. Also, things like formula one are not the best in the beginning and maybe not at all if they don't swallow it. If all this fails, try rubbing blood worms into a pourous coral skeleton so that when you put it into the water it looks as if the worms are hanging out of the rock a little. RAllards went for that method. Moving a tank is rough. It releases lots of bacteria and toxins from the sirred up sand. You really have to wash the sand or do multiple water changes after it all settles. They are tough, but, the water has to be pretty good. The cleaner shrimp, carefully and slowly acclimated will do wonders so long as the water is cleaned up. Just moving, you may have to run some carbon on the tank. I hope you are successful.

[Nano_Steve]

larry,

thanks for the advice. i asked my mom to set out a couple of mussels in the tank in my apartment for me until i am able to return home on wednesday. she said that when she went back in to look after about an hour after the water change all of the ick looking stuff was gone!!! so maybe there is still hope. ill keep everyone posted and again thanks so much for the help, i really really appreciate it!

-steve

[Instar]

I really hate to mention this, but, your mom knows to split them open and rinse them, right? Live ones, not ones that have died and opened on their own.

[Nano_Steve]

she does indeed :) just called her a second ago to double check, so it should be all good. hopefully the cbb will snap out of whatever it is that he's in and will start to eat. like i said, he did this whenever i first got him but he didnt just stay in one spot like he has been doing, so we'll see.

-steve

[Nano_Steve]

well unfortunately my tank karetaker(me ma) told me that my cbb was dead this morning. he was being eaten by my flower anemone when she found him so now i have a dead fish in the freezer. this is so not cool, i just hate it when my fish die.

-steve

[Instar]

Sorry to hear that Steve. Since he was eating for you, if its weight was up to par, this is probably related to the move and the turnover the tank goes through when moved. It can also be from a bad snout injury during netting that didn't heal. A ripped tail and torn up side really wouldn't do one in if its been eating and healthy.

[Nano_Steve]

well it hadnt eaten at all since i moved the tank. my flower anemone WAS EATING my cbb! :O me ma had to take the tongs and pull the fish out of the anemone! :( but like u say and ive been told before, i did everything i could have. it just still sux yknow.

take kare all, steve