Another rescue, this time one spot FoxFace.

[Bent]

So, I took a trip to my "LFS". The one that is about 45min from my house, the same one where I rescued the green mandarin from.

Almost the same circumstance happened. Except this time, in a tank labeled "do not sale" was probably the skinniest fish I had ever seen. It was a one spot FoxFace that was about as thick as a sheet of paper. Other than being starved to death, he looked ok. His fins aren't frayed and I don't see any signs of infection.

I asked what they were doing for him, and the answer was essentially "not much". He asked if I wanted to take him, and I said sure why not. My QT is empty. So I took him home.

I asked if he was eating at all, and the guy said no and he had been there about a week or so. So I'm thinking he might have an internal problem.

So I put him in QT with some seaweed and started him on prazi-pro. I figured that would be easier on him than a formalin dip.

I'm feeding him some metro laced pellets as well. We will see what happens. So far he hasn't touched any food yet, but it's only been a day or so.

Updates when they happen.

[Bent]

Well update, that didn't take long.

I got a call from the owner of the LFS, I thought at first maybe the employee was in trouble for giving me yet another fish. But the guy was really cool and made me a unique offer.

He told me that from now on, when the store got in fish that appeared ill, he would call and see if I wanted to take it. He said that after the fish was healthy, if I wanted to keep it I was welcome to it, but if I wanted to give it back to the store he would buy the animal from me at standard wholesale price.

I thought, sure why not, sounds like a great deal to me.

[Sk8r]

Win-win for everybody including the fish.

[Bent]

Win-win for everybody including the fish.

That's exactly what he said.

[CarrieB]

How incredibly rational. And surprising.


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[nereefpat]

Foster foxfaces. I love it. I'm sure it's in good hands. Good luck.

[GimpyFin]

That's awesome to hear. Kudos. :thumbsup:

[Bent]

How incredibly rational. And surprising.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's exactly what I thought. It was so rational I was thinking "what's wrong here?"

[heathlindner25]

Make him chip in on the meds, and kudos for being the fish doctor for him

[Grkgod36]

Good luck with him. I absolutely love my fox face , he's got a very cool personality

[marleesan]

How's the fish doing?

[ColoReefer970]

This story sounds remarkably familiar...it's been about a year since I saved my foxy...got her paper thin cuz someone had dumped her on the local guy that barely does salt...almost looks normal now...one tough fish..

These guys must be another dory eh? People get em all small and cute and then they spend a couple years at 8 inches in a 40 and we end up like this...I can't find the before picture...it's not fun to look at anyway...

Go team

[OrionN]

Update please. Did you get him to eat and doing well?

[Bent]

Sorry,

He is doing great so far. I'm having a hard time getting him to eat seaweed sheets. He will pick at it when it's been in the tank for a day or so, but as far as gobbling it up, no. He does go crazy for the hex shield NLS pellets which is good. It seems like he will eat everything except his veggies. Go figure.

I started his second prazi dose on the 27th. I think I may formalin dip him as well just to make sure all of his internal problems are taken care of.

So far so good.

[OrionN]

Put his veggie in there, in time he will eat them. When new, they don't eat nori with gusto, but this will change I am sure.
A long as he is eating, he is out of the wood.

[Bent]

Put his veggie in there, in time he will eat them. When new, they don't eat nori with gusto, but this will change I am sure.
A long as he is eating, he is out of the wood.

Yep he's eating everything I put in there except for the seaweed sheets. I just leave them in there and change them out.

He hasn't gained a lot of weight yet, but I imagine it will take a few months.

I'm also trying not to feed him a heck of a lot of food for at least the first month and start slowly increasing the amount. I'm not sure if animals can have refeeding syndrome like people, but with as paper thin as this guy is I imagine the same thing would occur if I fed him a normal amount too quickly.

I'm hoping between the metronidazole, the prazi and formalin I can ensure that any internal parasites are taken care of, increase feedings slowly over the next few weeks, and I'll TTM him when I feel like he's strong enough to handle it.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with him. I'm getting pretty attached to him and I'm not sure I'll want to sell him back to the LFS. But at the same time I'm not sure about a one spot and a Kole together in a 75g.

[OrionN]

The re-feeding problem is with just the first feeding, first day. Now I would just feed him as much as he will eat. When my fish learn to eat the sea week, they first eat it after it soak and come apart and start to fly around the tank. Now all the new addition learn form other fish in the tank.
I would not change it out just leave until it come apart. Once all gooe or essentially gone I would put in new nori. I fold the nori 3 times so I have a 8 sheet thick. Keep it from breaking apart too quickly.

[eastlake]

If its eating pellets with gusto you could try some omega one super veggie pellets. Its really high in various algaes and that way the foxface can get a little more veggies. Glad to hear you've got it eating, foxfaces are my favorite of the salty critters.

[Bent]

Veggie pellets! Genious.

Buy.

[BlackTip]

It is wonderful that you taking care of those fishies. Good karma for you man. I'd love to do something like that one day.

My Foxface eats any and everything all day long. He is a fatso...

[johnike]

Good deal, Ben!!

[jd371]

Outstanding sir! I love when a fish makes a recovery. I have 2 wrasses in qt and was treating for Flukes, but during the treatment one of them broke out with Velvet and started going downhill fast. I scrambled and removed the Prazi from the tank and started copper and raised it to the therapeutic level faster than I like to, but it all worked out and he's doing fine now.