blue damsel help!

[RJ]

My blue damsel has been the rock of my tank. It has overcome all, through cycling, through the educational curve.. always come out on top. Now, over the past day, lost it sheen, turn a sort grey on the lower half and started to struggle to swim staight. It looked awful last night and I expected to be fishing it out this morning, but there was a remarkable improvement, although far from healthy.

 

I did purchase a new anemone, and even wondered if it got too close..

 

I tested the water, all tested ok, and even did a 20% change (althought the timing of stressing out the fish was not excellent, he was still ok)

 

He is still swimming sideways (although a little more erect), and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas regarding the anemone, or if he just is suffering from something else. The first sign I noted was a greyish tone and not the bright color he usually is.

 

20 gal high

2 clown

1 bubble anemone

2 blue damsel (swimming off kilter)

1 small pather puffer

tank started-Mar 2002 (he was one of the first fish)

 

 

Any input welcome!

 

RJ

[LiQuiD]

Check the temp. I had something similar happen once, fish looked bleached out, realized heater went down and water was at 72*. They did not swim sideways though. Look very close, is it grey colored or does it have small whitish grey dots. Not ich but maybe what is known as velvet.

[LiQuiD]

I was also thinking, did you get the anenome from a reliable lfs? Also, did you use a net to put it in the tank or did you dump the water from the bag right into the tank. If you ever kept a large fish only tank, you would know that you should quarentine your fish for a good amount of time before adding it to the main tank because local fish stores almost always have tons of parasites in the water. You may have added some bad things to your tank with the new purchase.

 

If you have a refugium, I would suggest detaching it from the main tank and turning it into a temperary hospital tank (this is if you determine that it is ich or velvet or similar parasitic problem. Dose the tank with a good cure, those reef safe cures are not as good as a good ol' copper based cure (reason for the hospital tank) give it about 3 week (lifespan of most parasites without a host) then put the fish back in the main, do a large water change (very large over a couple days) on the hospital tank to get rid of medication and re-attach to the main system. This is a lot for a damsel, but I know what you mean, I still have my yellow tailed cycler in the main and have grown quite attached to him.

[aquanaut]

I most definately think it has something to do with the temp. I had a yellow-tail damsel and he was doing fine until...

 

I noticed my heater was turned off (I freaked) the water was down to 72 and he started looking haggered afterwards. He kept one pectoral fin up against his belly. the next day he was looking better and the temp was a little bit closer to normal.; I thought everything was ok. Not!!! the next day he was swimming belly up both pectorals were on his belly and he was gasping for breath. The only thing I felt comfortable with was putting him out of his misery. I hate losing fish no matter how cheap they are. I was and am still bummed about it.

 

This happened only 3 days ago. The only thing I can figure is the drastic temp change. My levels and the other 3 fish were all fine.