Urgent Clown Trigger Dying!

For about three days now he's been lying on his side in the "triggered" position.
Not eating and breathing heavily.
I'm afraid he's dying. He wouldn't even take shrimp nor urchins.
What should I do?
Should I leave him to die or is there something I can do to save him?
All the others in the tank; niger, picasso, bird wrasse and panther grouper are doing fine!
Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
ph-8.2
SG-1.025
Nitrate-0

 

Usually when fish stop eating it's not a good sign, but not necessarily. Have you tried garlic extract in the food?

 

Yep. I've even dumped garlic extreme in the water at 1drop per 10 gals

 

Yeah...if you don't see anything visible it might be an internal parasite or some type of bacterial infection. But if it's internal, I think the only way you can treat is with medicated food....and since he won't eat...

 

a trigger that won't eat, that's not very common. He might have ich in his gills which makes hard from him to breath.

 

I know right!!!

That was my first assumption. Although I think it's internal parasites because of sever emaciation. Sunken in head and belly.

Is it too late for treatment of internal parasites?

 

My gf is a doctor so she's about to write up an anti-bacterial medication prescription. I'm off to the pharmacy, it is wise to treat the entire tank? Or should I put him in Qt?
I don't want to stress him out by introducing him to a new system.

 

Qt is the way to go. you can watch him better and it is more controlled and wont get picked on. i know there are anti-bacterial stuff at lfs and petsco that you can put in the Qt. be careful moving him if he is locked in the rock work tho. if he is breathing hard it can very well be a gill issue as stated ^above^.
GL

 

I would say QT him. I have had clown triggers and they usually wont refuse food so i would suspect something is wrong as well. How big is he? He may be able to ride it out without food if he is a good size

 

He's small, about 3 inches.
When I first got him, we was a bit emaciated, I tried feeding a lot to see if he would put back on some weight. Even fed shrimp which he loved. He's currently and has always been in an isolated portion of the tank. I have em all separated until I do my predator tank build.
No rock work in his section.
My gf suggested that I use Albendazole (Zentel). I'll go get that today and put him in a QT with the same water.
If I treat once a day, how often and how much water changes should I do in a 5gal QT?