Can you identify this fish disease?

[dyzio]

I am in the process of slowly setting up a new tank, I've cycled the tank with live rock, checked the water quality, used RO/DI water, everything seemed right, untill I added five green chromis. I noticed the day I purchased the fish that one of them had missing scales, I assumed that this was due to beeing handled wrongly during transport. I thought that it would heal, but the next day it died. I spoke to the people at my local fish store, and they told me that most likely the fish caught some kind of an infection through the missing scales. The other four chromis seemed fine. Now, a week later, I noticed that another chromis is starting to look weird and I was hoping someone could help me identify this problem. I am attaching a photo of how the fish looks, it behaves normally, eats normally, and there is nothing else that is weird about it besides the discoloration it is showing on its body. Please take a look.

Chris

 

[pfish]

These guy will fight each other . Like chickens looking for who's the top cock. the week ones will often die. That scale loss looks like interspecies aggression to me. I had this happen also, nothing you can do except remove the beat up fish to quarantine.

 

[dyzio]

Thanks! I hope you are right, the chromis in the picture just shows discoloration, it doesn't have any injuries or scale loss.

 

[Brenden]

Chromis are NOT fighters. They are very peaceful. Since this is a new tank I am thinking your water parameters are off. Please post your water readings.

 

[returnofsid]

Brenden, Chromis are supposed to be peaceful and usually are...however, if they aren't in a large enough school...they will fight. I had 6 and they all got along great. 1 got caught in my SEIO before I got rid of it..another died mysteriously. Now I'm down to 4 and they definitely show aggression. There's 1 or 2 that are more dominant and pick on the rest. I've seen signs of what your Chromis looks like on the one being picked on the most. To me, it does appear to be scale loss from aggression.

 

[dyzio]

Just checked my water parameters:
Nitrite 0.10 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Ammonia 0 ppm

 

[Brenden]

What is your PH and salinity?

I have had chromis in schools of 2,3,4,5,and 6 and have never seen aggresion to the point of taking off scales etc.

 

[Krish]

I have had chromis in schools of 2,3,4,5,and 6 and have never seen aggresion to the point of taking off scales etc.

Who'd want to fight in a 525gal tank?? They probably only saw each other once a week! My 3 chromis I had in my first setup (90gal) fought a bit, but not too badly. Nothing compared to some other damsels

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Have to agree with brenden, most chromises fight, but these green ones are like sheep. Water conditions are suspect

 

[dyzio]

Thanks for the feedback, it seems like most of you think that this is due to water conditions/fish aggression. I checked the PH and salinity:

PH: 8.1
Salinity: 1.022

Do any of you think that this looks like a disease that you know of?

Chris

 

[returnofsid]

Water parameters all seem good. I know I'm in the minority but I still think it's from aggression. As I said, when my school size dropped to 4, a couple did become a lil' aggressive. So far, the one receiving the brunt of most of the aggression is fine. However, I've wondered about adding a couple more to increase the size of the school. At times, mine looks just like the one in your pic.

 

[pfish]

My Chromis were diffinately aggressive when in a small school and the less dominate ones showed scale loss. Your water parameters are off though, nitrite should be undetectable and nitrate should be close to undetectable, I would also raise your salinity to nsw levels.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

If the fish are sick, better to keep the salinity on the low side. The lower the salinity, the less work on the fish's systems and thus less stress. Water change can't hurt with nutrients high.

 

[shavo]

fish

hi, I have noticed my school of chromis in the last two days have their fins pinched and not as active. I had these types of problems in fresh water when the fish get "pinched fins" it kinda looks like that to me. I also bought some blue reef chromis about 3 months after my tank was set up and they developed a film over their skin and fins were pinched and died in 3 days. how long have you had this fish?
how long has the tank been running?
any other chromis looking affected?

 

[dyzio]

My tank has been running for about a month before I added the fish. The first one that died had a lot of scales missing and died the next day after putting it in the tank. The day it died, it stopped eating and looked like he could not catch any air. I did not notice anything wrong with it's fins thou. The chromis in the picture just showed discoloration, and still has it, but you can only see it when light falls on it at a specific angle. Otherwise, it eats and behaves like the other chromis. I can only see one of them with the discoloration, no problem with fins with any of them.

 

[shavo]

hey dyzio

the picture shows a fish with some discoloration and the fins are tight to the body. they call that "pinched fins" and I haven't had the issue with any salt water fish until the past two days with my blue/green chromis. My tank perameters are perfect nothing is unhealthy and everything eats but i notice my chromis aren't acting the same and their fins a re a little closed like in your picture. I think that shows a sign of illness. I have 7 of them acting this way. they still eat and swim around but all of there fins are slightly closed.

so how long has the tank been up and running? you say the fish were put in 1 month after the tank was set up. how long has the tank been set up? I had problems with my set up 6 months down the line.
also what type of filtration are you running? and skimmer?

if the other fish are good and this fish still eats then i would leave well enough alone he may just be a weaker fish than the rest.

 

[dyzio]

Shavo,
The fins on that specific fish look like the fins on the rest of my chromis in there. I think that the fish was moving or about to move when I took the picture, maybe that is the reason for the fins being closer. Let me clarify for you how long the tank has been working. It was working with live rock and live sand for a month. Had just water in it for a week before that ( about half of the water was from a tank that is running for over a year now and the rest RO/DI ). The tank is a 95 wave with a 20 gal sump. I just use mechanical filtration and a skimmer from Coralife. I'm not knowledgeable enough to give you any advice, but I'm sure that some of the people in this forum might know what you should do about your fish. I'll pay more attention to my fish’s fins to make sure nothing suspicious is going on.

 

[shavo]

cool

well it sounds like you are doing the right stuff to me, half the water from an existing tank and R/O to finish, that sounds like a plan for success to me. funny that this one fish has an issue. I have seven of them acting a little strange. I'll let you know if I find any info or if things just get better.
good luck with your little guy

also when i had problems with my tank i had just mechanical filtration and a skimmer. things are much better and more blanced since i made a fuge. IMO

have a wet/dry? or a canister?

 

[dyzio]

The 95 wave with overflow tank has a sump, so I guess it is wet/dry since the water is exposed to air when it is being filtered by a sponge that I clean out every week ( I took out the bioballs from the sump when I bought it). My other tank, a 40 gallon long tank (48in), has been running for one year and 4 months with just a skimmer, three power heads and 5 gal water changes every two weeks and around 65 lbs of live rock. I added a hang on the back power filter and attached a surface water skimmer to it, but this is just to clear any debris that is floating on the surface.

 

[Brenden]

Update? Is there any redness around the "missing scales"