Fish Stopped Eating

[ParrotFish]

My Fancy Gumdrop Coral Croucher (male) has stopped eating. This is the 3rd night in a row he would not eat. He is also not acting himself. Most night he usually goes and perches between the heater and the glass on the suction cup, but has not been doing that. He will not respond to food, and this fish is like Homer Simpson when it comes to food, so it is very, very odd. Also these fish are only 1" long by about 3/8" wide, so very small. He usually would eat at least 10-20 pieces of mysis a night. He has not eaten since 12/16 and he seemed fine. On 12/17 he was not responding to food (he lives in 2 pieces of a broken clam shell and a rock in the back right corner and whenever I turn off the pumps he thinks its dinner and will pop out of his area) so I went looking for him and he seemed stuck, so I removed one of the clam halves, where then he popped out and was quite startled. 12/18 same thing, did not respond to food, went looking, couldn't see him, removed the clam shell, he was startled, would not eat (this time I kept the clam shell out of his area so I could see him). I got a decent look at him tonight and I think his sides are starting to cave in and his tail fin seems a bit dark, otherwise he looks completely fine, no sign of any wounds. He is still relatively reactive, does not want to be touched and will move. The only things I can think of that have changed/happened; my blenny's clam shell broke so I used a rubberband to keep it together as the reef epoxy stuff failed me. Also on 12/17 and 12/18 I have found big bristleworms (2+ inches long when out of water) out, both of them I caught and put in the sump, the 1st one I think died and was injured before I caught it (I removed as much of it as I could find) then 2nd one seemed in perfect health. 

 

Anything I should do or try? I have had him fish since 6/11/13, no idea on their lifespan, but I do not think he has grown much since I have had him.

 

This is him on 12/17

 

And tonight/12/19

Edited December 20, 2014 by Squishie89

[ParrotFish]

Update: Just checked on him and he has moved out of his area, which is normal for him to do at night (he explores when the lights are all off). Hopefully he is coming back around.

[20LogR]

Have you tried live brine or blackworms? I'm not much help, I have a poor track record getting fish to eat again after they stop for whatever reason.

 

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[YHSublime]

Updates?

[ParrotFish]

Still alive! He did move to another rock where he is exposed, which is a bit odd. I feed the fish at around 9:30 so I will give another update later on. Thanks for the support guys.

[ParrotFish]

It wasn't much, but he ate! He had like 3 pieces, at least one large whole mysis. Hopefully he feels better soon.

[smallreef]

Well that's good! Maybe he just had a cold? Don't know what the fishy equivalent is ....

[ParrotFish]

Almost like the flu! I told my Dad that it feels like when you finally get someone with the flu to keep food down.

[ParrotFish]

Pokey did start eating again slowly. He is back to his usual eating habits is behaving like himself again and is moving around a lot. He posed for me tonight so I thought I would share his adorable face.

[L8 2 RISE]

Good to hear a happy ending! Strange... But glad he got better.

[gmerek2]

Good to hear. It looks like he is giving you the same look my dog gives me after he knocks over the garbage can and eats trash. What a cutie

Edited January 1, 2015 by gmerek2