Leporinus dying?

[TonyRs5]

I have a good size leporinus, probably about 1 year old, 7 to 8 inches that I believe is dying.  For the last week or so he has been hiding in his castle, vertical, not eating and breathing fast.  I chased him out and did not see any outward signs of trauma or disease, he is the king of the tank.  I tried melafix and some salt, my guess is some type of internal parasite as every other fish in the tanks is healthy including 2 other smaller leporinus.  Has anyone had a similar experience and/or suggestions?  He is not eating just to clarify, and he has a very healthy appetite typically.

Thanks!

[T. Payne]

First thing to do is test your water. In addition, melafix is practically useless in my experience.

[TonyRs5]

Thanks, water is within normal parameters and there are about 20 other fish doing well, there has been no change since using the melafix, my only other idea was some type of general cure or parasite treatment.  

[Colu]

Melafix is just a mild antiseptic treatment I wouldn't recommend it a little more information would be helpful what are your water parameters  ammonia nitrite nitrate etc have you added anything new to the tank recently any spitting food out flashing listlessness hanging near the surface and can you post a picture of the sick fish it will help with a diagnosis 

Edited January 8 by Colu

[TonyRs5]

Thanks for the link, I will try to get him out of his hiding place to snap a pic, prior to his getting sick nothing new was added withing probably 2 weeks, it came out of nowhere, he just started hiding and not eating.  Since then, I have not lost any fish so I can only assume that it is isolated, at least at this point.  

[Colu]

On 1/8/2023 at 10:30 PM, TonyRs5 said:

Thanks for the link, I will try to get him out of his hiding place to snap a pic, prior to his getting sick nothing new was added withing probably 2 weeks, it came out of nowhere, he just started hiding and not eating.  Since then, I have not lost any fish so I can only assume that it is isolated, at least at this point.  

If it were parasites that could have been from adding new fish a couple of months ago not necessarily in last two weeks 

[TonyRs5]

Came out for first time in a week for a few minutes.

[Colu]

the fact it's not eating and hiding I think it would be worth treating for internal parasites I would treat with a combination of Expel p and paracleanse  week 1 Expel p water change then do a  course of paracleanse week 2 Expel p water change week 3 Expel p water change paracleanse week 4 Expel p week 5 paracleanse the combination of Expel p and paracleanse will treat most types of commonly encountered parasites @TonyRs5

 

 

[TonyRs5]

Thanks!