Cardinal tetra skinny and spits out all food

[nerdyaquarist]

Hi everyone. I got a new batch of cardinal tetras about a month and a half ago for my heavily planted 29 gallon. They were quarantined for 3 weeks with salt and 2 prazipro dosages and they seemed healthy enough to move to my community tank. 

Well, ever since I moved them there have been one or two tetras out of all of them that stayed small, never fully colored up, and don’t have the belly that the others do. Every time I feed, one in particular goes for the food (always the last one to go for it) and immediately spits it out. It does that for the entire feeding time. They are definitely skinnier than the other guys, but not enough to have a sunken stomach.
I do think they ate frozen blood worms the few times I’ve given them but pretty much nothing else. 
I have tried feeding Fancy Guppy Hikari micro pellets, small vibra bites (I think they’re too big for them), and crushed micro bug bites on rotation. All this on top of the occasional frozen blood worms. 

I have resorted to slightly over feeding in case maybe they haven’t had a chance to fully “get into” eating time but it just makes their mates fatter lol. 

I have tried to net them multiple times to move to a QT for observation and possibly a parasite treatment, but it’s been absolutely impossible to do so I’ve given up. Any thoughts on what’s going on? What else can I try? Is this just normal and will they eventually get used to the dry food? Thanks for reading!

 

[ccurtis]

I don't think its a food problem. I had the same problem with a few of my cardinal tetras when I got my last batch. I figured they probably had something parasitic going on. I treated with fritz expel p and it seemed to do the trick. I followed the instructions on the box. I did lose one of the 3 that were doing this though when I started to treat, so if you choose to go this route, just a heads up on that. I think maybe the parasites that one had may have already done to much damage before I started treatment. 

Good luck

 

[nerdyaquarist]

On 2/16/2023 at 3:47 PM, ccurtis said:

I don't think its a food problem. I had the same problem with a few of my cardinal tetras when I got my last batch. I figured they probably had something parasitic going on. I treated with fritz expel p and it seemed to do the trick. I followed the instructions on the box. I did lose one of the 3 that were doing this though when I started to treat, so if you choose to go this route, just a heads up on that. I think maybe the parasites that one had may have already done to much damage before I started treatment. 

Good luck

 

Is Expel-P plant and invert safe? It’s been impossible to net the fish so I’m wondering if it’s possible to dose the whole tank instead.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I used Expel-P a few weeks ago and had no issue with the tons of snails in the tank and the giant PSO

[nerdyaquarist]

On 2/16/2023 at 3:55 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I used Expel-P a few weeks ago and had no issue with the tons of snails in the tank and the giant PSO

Thanks! So to confirm, even if their stomach isn’t exactly sunken in, it still could be parasitic? 

[Theplatymaster]

screenshot from the coop website:

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I can’t say for sure what is going on with your fish. I used Expel-P because one of my angelfish actively had Camallanus Red Worms. 

[PlaneFishGuy]

I have glowlight tetras and they spit food all the time and have been going strong for several years - seems to just be part of their normal nature. Good luck getting them treated. 

[ccurtis]

Expel P is plant and invert safe per the manufacturer and the co-op description. I can’t say for sure what’s going on with yours. Mine were doing what you described and it helped. They did not have sunk’n bellies, but they were not colored up like the others, spit the food, and seemed less active. After treatment, they are doing better and acting like the others minus the one I lost. 

[Colu]

Spitting food out and sunken belly can be wasting disease it can take four treatment of Expel p once a week for 4 weeks you need to black out the tank for 24hr during treatment  as levamisole is a light sensitive medication @nerdyaquarist

[nerdyaquarist]

Thank you everyone for your help. Here I've been waiting to have enough money scrapped together to get Expel-P and I ended up finding it in my fish cabinet, completely forgotten! So I don't have a moment to waste now.

Question, I've seen many people mention that levamisole only paralyzes worms, not kill them, and so you have to do a serious gravel vac after dosing the medication. My tank is heavily planted so this is not possible. Is this even true? I don't want to just paralyze the worms for them to infect everyone again. 

[Colu]

On 2/24/2023 at 3:24 AM, nerdyaquarist said:

Thank you everyone for your help. Here I've been waiting to have enough money scrapped together to get Expel-P and I ended up finding it in my fish cabinet, completely forgotten! So I don't have a moment to waste now.

Question, I've seen many people mention that levamisole only paralyzes worms, not kill them, and so you have to do a serious gravel vac after dosing the medication. My tank is heavily planted so this is not possible. Is this even true? I don't want to just paralyze the worms for them to infect everyone again. 

It does paralyze the worms allowing your fish to pass them   repeated treatment will also kill some of the  worms I would gravel vac were you can start treating straight away