Bolivian Ram Journal

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/17/2023 at 9:11 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

It is Soilent Green!

You'll have to get some bottom scratcher during those magical holiday sales.

Good to see him getting the veggies and that specific version going well. Awesome news.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I raised the light so now it’s here

 

And here are some photos of Spike.

He has a favorite “hut” or “lean-to” consisting of a single catappa leaf.

 

[Guppysnail]

Spike is looking better overall. Encouraging. 
 

None of my kids care for community plus either. I wonder what ingredient makes it undesirable?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

How Snoopy troubleshoots a bloodworm block 😆

Also, Spike has a nice healthy appetite this morning.

 

[Guppysnail]

I guess ramming the bloodworm block into the wall is fitting for a ram. 🤣. I love that. My kids are still settling in and young. I only see little snippets of antics so far. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Live white worm feeding! Thank you for the cultures @Guppysnail!

Snoopy @ 0:10

Spike @ 3:44

Here’s a shorter video < 1 min

 

Edited November 25, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

They get crazy excited for live worms. I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them. 
Spike looked like they were thinking…this is really chewy … 🌟 GUMMY WORMS ☀️

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

You guys, I am worried about little Spike. He’s not putting on weight and may even be skinnier. He ate a live worm yesterday and rejected the rest and went into hiding. He rejected other foods today and is looking more inactive. I have various med foods, I just want to make sure I use the correct one. Many times I have to remove excess food because he doesn’t want to try it. 😞

He has good days and bad days with eating.  Today is a bad day.

i have been following the ACO paracleanse 7 day soak, and right now they are finishing up the 2 week rest in between. I’m supposed to do another 7 day soak to kill eggs that may have hatched or something? I wonder should I move forward with that or maybe I can still do that in conjunction with the medicated food.

Oh also there is level 1 salt in the tank.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea
Salt

[Pokey]

I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with Spike and I hope he pulls through!

i was wondering, how is the one that your friend took? Is it having problems too? Maybe he is dealing with something that happened to him at the fish store.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Re: wasting disease

I believe levamisole is the best course. First off, if Spike’s been through most of a course of preventative Paracleanse previously (5 days out of the 7 days the embers had) and still has the issue, probably is different type of parasite. Expel-P is what I will start with, given he doesn’t want to eat half the time. I will try to offer the laced flake also though just to try. Expel-P was recommended on @Colu commonly posted disease thread and also in another post by @Odd Duck when @xXInkedPhoenixX was treating her rescue bettas. Also @Odd Duck had mentioned it is gentler on the fish, so, win win.  The flake contains garlic for palatability. Thanks @Guppysnail for sharing med foods. 🥰

LFS opens up in about an hour and carries the Fritz line. Was hoping today would be a pajama day, but we gotta do what we gotta do for our scaly children.

On 11/26/2023 at 10:25 AM, Pokey said:

I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with Spike and I hope he pulls through!

i was wondering, how is the one that your friend took? Is it having problems too? Maybe he is dealing with something that happened to him at the fish store.

I shared the issue with her and a photo of Spike’s belly. She said hers had been eating well, but when she gets back from a trip (returns Tuesday) she is going to have a closer look at her female. If her ram has same symptoms we can share meds.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Colu]

On 11/26/2023 at 3:25 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Re: wasting disease

I believe levamisole is the best course. First off, if Spike’s been through most of a course of preventative Paracleanse previously (5 days out of the 7 days the embers had) and still has the issue, probably is different type of parasite. Expel-P is what I will start with, given he doesn’t want to eat half the time. I will try to offer the laced flake also though just to try. Expel-P was recommended on @Colu commonly posted disease thread and also in another post by @Odd Duck when @xXInkedPhoenixX was treating her rescue bettas. Also @Odd Duck had mentioned it is gentler on the fish, so, win win.  The flake contains garlic for palatability. Thanks @Guppysnail for sharing med foods. 🥰

LFS opens up in about an hour and carries the Fritz line. Was hoping today would be a pajama day, but we gotta do what we gotta do for our scaly children.

I shared the issue with her and a photo of Spike’s belly. She said hers had been eating well, but when she gets back from a trip (returns Tuesday) she is going to have a closer look at her female. If her ram has same symptoms we can share meds.

Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy spitting food out 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:07 AM, Colu said:

Any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy spitting food out 

No, bottom dwells. Disinterest in food half the time. Periodically likes to hide in shady areas but does explore too. I only put the light on for wellness checks. Does sift sand too, a common ram behavior for foraging. Often will sift near food but not eat the food.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Guppysnail]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:24 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Often will sift near food but not eat the food.

Try using hikari first bites or fry food. The fine powder coats the sand. This way Spike is at least ingesting some nutrition every time they sift sand. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/26/2023 at 6:36 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

i have been following the ACO paracleanse 7 day soak, and right now they are finishing up the 2 week rest in between. I’m supposed to do another 7 day soak to kill eggs that may have hatched or something? I wonder should I move forward with that or maybe I can still do that in conjunction with the medicated food.

Quote

Directions on the Package:
One complete course of treatment will take 5 days. Treat for the full course of treatment even if visible signs of infection or illness disappear.
— Day One: Add contents of one packet per 10 gallons of water to be treated.
— Day Three: Add contents of one packet per 10 gallons of water to be treated.
— Day Five: Perform a 25% water change.

Active infection, so don't use the soak method for this!  Follow the directions on the package.  Cory did a recent video explaining and clarifying methods for this.  Essentially, not enough meds can do more harm than good and cause the things to become resistant to meds over time.  (it's not that situation at all)  Not having a strong enough dose can also just not do anything.

I would consider doing the above treatment for ~4 weeks (treat, rest for 2 weeks, treat again).  The main thing is really, really trying to get spike to eat and fingers crossed we can figure it out.
 

 

On 11/26/2023 at 8:52 AM, Guppysnail said:

Try using hikari first bites or fry food. The fine powder coats the sand. This way Spike is at least ingesting some nutrition every time they sift sand. 

Try some repashy too if you haven't! I would think the soilent green would be a good one or bottom scratcher.  Both have some bugs in their mix.

[Colu]

I would consider doing@Odd Ducktreatment protocol for parasitic infections that will treat most commonly encountered parasites 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/26/2023 at 12:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Active infection, so don't use the soak method for this!

Yep, agreed. I did the soak beginning on 11/7 (preventative). It ended 11/14, water change 25% with siphoning and added carbon.

2 week rest period.

On 11/26/2023 at 2:01 PM, Colu said:

I would consider doing@Odd Ducktreatment protocol for parasitic infections that will treat most commonly encountered parasites 

Thanks @Colu, I did a water change and siphoned and the Expel-P is in and I blacked out the tank. I have Prazi Pro on hand as well. I don’t know if the Prazi step is necessary though because they already had praziquantel 11/7-11/14 (paracleanse)

On 11/26/2023 at 12:44 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Try some repashy too if you haven't!

The powder I did try. I can’t tell where it goes or if it gets consumed. He will periodically eat the prepared stuff too, other days he won’t touch it. Idk

LFS was out of fry food; I might powder up some flake.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/26/2023 at 11:32 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Thanks @Colu, I did a water change and siphoned and the Expel-P is in and I blacked out the tank. I have Prazi Pro on hand as well. I don’t know if the Prazi step is necessary though because they already had praziquantel 11/7-11/14 (paracleanse)

Because is was a soak and not per the directions on the box, yeah.... I would do a full treatment and this would be your first one.

Prazipro being similar to paracleanse.

On 11/26/2023 at 11:32 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

He will periodically eat the prepared stuff too, other days he won’t touch it. Idk

The good thing is it will be in his zone of feeding and he can eat it when whenever he feels comfortable to. It'll stay in the water for 48ish hours sometimes.

Edited November 26, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Spike showed stress when I checked on him last night so I did the 50% water change early.

He had 7 hours of expel-P yesterday. This afternoon I dosed the PraziPro. He doesn’t seem to mind the Prazi.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Spike is on a hunger strike I guess. Rejected live worms and levamisole garlic food yesterday. I made it snow in the tank today with frozen brine shrimp. Spike had no interest, even when a brine shrimp floated down onto his head. He just swam away. I sucked most of it back out. Every time this happens I add prepared Repashy and then go to work, hoping he eats some of it while I’m gone. I had also added powdered Repashy to the tank so he’d get nutrients while sand sifting, but I haven’t seen him sift the last 2 days.

I did see him flash against the sand once this morning.

The tetras in his tank are having a banquet fit for a king.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[nabokovfan87]

On 11/28/2023 at 11:15 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Every time this happens I add prepared Repashy and then go to work, hoping he eats some of it while I’m gone. I had also added powdered Repashy to the tank so he’d get nutrients while sand sifting, but I haven’t seen him sift the last 2 days.

I don't know what the disease would be, but maybe he's got something in his mouth that is irritating him. 😞

I would think if that's the case bacterial is the way to treat it, but getting the worms stuff done first is important too!

Feel better little spike.

[Lennie]

@Odd Duck and @Colu might help better, but I would also consider antibiotics other than metronidazole I guess.

No levamisole and prazi worked for my red lizard's skinny issue. In fact it was not even growing even when I got them all in the same size. I think feeding the tank with sera baktotabs worked for me. It is an antibiotic food (nifurpirinol). Now she is a healthy adult. But yours is not accepting food well. So I'm not sure what would be an appropriate way of trying antibiotics, if you should, and which one would be appropriate. 

This was what mine looked like. Very skinny:

While others looked like:

Size and weight comparison even when I got them all exactly at same size as juveniles:

[Guppysnail]

On 11/28/2023 at 3:57 PM, Lennie said:

No levamisole and prazi worked for my red lizard's skinny issue

I have had this same experience several times. I had recovery using kanaplax both in water and food simultaneously for 3 solid weeks.  
 

I have not had anti parasitics work for me unless I see the worms coming out of the fish or using a microscope on the poo. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Spike antisocial 

[Odd Duck]

If Spike isn’t improving significantly by the time you’ve done the full deworming, then try Maracyn-2 in the water if he isn’t eating, in food if he will eat.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 11/29/2023 at 12:38 PM, Odd Duck said:

If Spike isn’t improving significantly by the time you’ve done the full deworming, then try Maracyn-2 in the water if he isn’t eating, in food if he will eat.

So see if he will eat after the 5 week course has been completed? Seems like a long time without food, but maybe that’s ok for a fish. 

Spike was out front & center today. I offered levamisole-garlic food. He didn’t eat it in front of me but may have eaten some while I was getting ready for work. Then again it could have been eaten by the tetras. Left fresh Repashy in there during the day. Removed remainder at night. 

Edited November 30, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea