But basically, I have a warmouth sunfish that hasn't eaten anything substantial since October. He has eaten one bloodworm, maybe one krill off the surface, and maybe one krill that I shoved down his throat. After the bloodworm, he had a bit of white stringy poo, so I treated with PraziPro.
He is very skinny (he's lost nearly half his mass), he can barely keep himself upright, and he's very inactive. He spends all day under his log.
Today I finally caught him again and very carefully checked out his throat. Nothing visibly wrong, and I could see all the way down his throat, so I would have seen anything like fungus. Thing is, I put a small bit of shrimp all the way down his throat, up against whatever you call the 'door' over the stomach. It's been almost 10 minutes, and he hasn't swallowed it. His tongue and mouth work enough for him to spit things out, but his throat doesn't seem to work, and apparently his stomach can't open up. Which explains why he won't eat.
He hasn't given up, though. He moves now and then, sometimes floats up to stare around at the room, and he occasionally makes a rush at the longear. He's trying to live, he just isn't eating, and he isn't even trying to eat. He's trying to live, he just can't.
I've just done a big water change and am treating with another round of PraziPro. The warmouth is currently in a small tank, and I'm going to put him into a net that I've hung in the tank like a very large fry net. He'll have space to move and places to hide, but he'll be in the medicated tank and within easy reach.
So here are my questions:
What would cause his stomach door to not work?
Could this still be just parasites, or is there something else?
And, most importantly, is there any hope? I have some clove oil, so I can put him to sleep if there's nothing I can do, but he's the most personable fish I've ever kept and he's still trying to live and I'm not sure I can kill a fish that's still trying to live. He doesn't seem to be in pain, but he's plainly in bad shape, and he hasn't eaten in something approaching three months.
Is he just doomed to starve?
I still have him contained. Is there anything I can do right now? Any way at all I could possibly get his stomach opened up? Anything I can do, theoretically? His mouth opens to about the size of a nickel, so I can see fairly well down his throat. Also, I can hold him easily enough, and I've of course kept him in the water for everything. I just really don't want to handle him and traumatize him even more if I can avoid it.