Plump up a fish

Sorry I feel like I've made a lot of threads lol

Anyway, my longnose butterfly has gotten thin in the last couple weeks. I can see his ribs, and I know that shouldnt be. He eats really well but doesn't seem to gain weight. I've been feeding him a really varied diet for a week and a half now to try and reverse it and he hasn't gotten plumper. Do I have to give it more time? Or is something wrong?

Lately I've been feeding every day to plump him up too, but I rotate rods food, marine cuisine, emerald entree, frozen mussels, mysis shrimp

 

Was the fish ever QT'd or treated for internal parasites?

If not, it's possible a hidden internal parasite is consuming the fish faster than it's consuming food.

 

I agree with evolved...might be endoparasites.

How often and how much are you feeding the fish? Many browsing species such as BFs require smaller, multiple feedings daily to keep their weight on.

Have you only had the fish for a week and a half? If so, that's not even CLOSE to the amount of time it will take to build its muscle mass back up.

 

He was in qt and treated with prazipro. His poo is brown too. Normally when a fish had internal parasites they were lethargic and not eating with white poop, but he acts normal. I feed once a day, sometimes every other.

He's been with me for a month, he was plump when I got him. But since then he's just declined, he's not getting worse now though.

I will try to feed a few times a day, hopefully he will put on weight.

Initially I thought He was getting thin from only eating mysis , I started feeding a ton more variety just a week and a half ago

 

Lightbulb...........

 

Gotcha, however mysis isn't a high protein food, so a diet of mysis alone isn't the best if you can help it.

You might try shaved salmon flesh (use one of those little microplanes, and shave it while it's frozen). This food worked really well for fattening up skinny OSFFs, and all of our preds love salmon. It's a bit oily, so make sure you have good surface turbulence/surface skimming.

 

Thanks! So the mysis diet was why? I don't feed him only mysis now. He gets mussels, rods, marine cuisine, emerald entree, and only sometimes mysis now. Do you think this diet will over time fatten him up?

 

Mysis is rather low in protein (generally 10% and change, minimum), so it's not a great muscle-builder on its own.

 

Ah, well I screwed up there. I assume fish can lose mass faster than they can gain it. So how long do fish take to get fat usually?

 

What are some other foods high in protein?