Help! Damsel acting weird.

[kcbrad]

Hi,

I have a new fish only with live rock tank that's been up and running for three weeks. I've had my springer's damsel for two weeks. He has been very active, eating like a champ and getting along well with my clown. For two days he's been acting strange. He has his usual territory where he sleeps and it's kind of like a cave. Well, for the past two days he's just been treading water in his cave. He isn't coming out and swimming all around like usual. He also looks like he's gasping...his gills and mouth are moving fast. He always opened his mouth a little bit, but this is faster. He did come out and eat this morning, but after that he's just been hiding in his territory.

My clown is acting totally normal and the water tests I did today were all fine. pH: 8.2, ammonia: 0, nitrite: 0, nitrate: 5. Salinity is 1.024 and temperature is 79 degrees. My water turns over about 12 times an hour.

The only thing that's changed in the tank is that I added 5 snails and 2 hermit crabs yesterday. I don't remember if the damsel was acting strange before that or not.

Any ideas about what may be stressing him would be greatly appreciated. I'm really nervous out about it...poor guy. Thank you!!

 

[fatboyt123]

it might be a good thing as damsels get very mean and usaully everyone takes them out.But thats just what i have seen.

Hope you find out what is wrong

 

[lizardarm]

What size is the aquarium? Also, how old and what brand are the test kits you're using? My first guess was amonia spike, based on the age of the tank, but your kit is showing zero. What type of water movement do you have around the surface of the water? (is the surface being agitated for oxygen exchange). What and how much are you feeding them?

 

[kcbrad]

My tank is 37 gallons and the testing kit is brand new. I had an ammonia spike (the cycle, I think) a couple days ago, but it only spiked up to 0.25. Now it is 0 again. The water movement at the top is good, I think. I have 450ugh and the water turns over a bit over 12 times an hour. For feeding, they get about 1/4 cube of frozen mysis shrimp one or two times a day. I make sure to clean out any big pieces they don't eat, but usually they eat it all and none falls to the bottom.

Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it.

 

[Saltyfish]

Depending on how you cycle your tank you might get one big spike and then several small over the course of a month or two.

Sometimes it is the small spikes you have to worry about. You get a small one that last an hour or two when you do not test and then again you get more after you test. It just means you are not seeing the spikes. Adding too much too fast could get you into trouble. I would say slow down sounds like you have a lot of stuff in there for that size and such little time.

if the fish does die I would leave him in there for a day or two so you can see if you get another spike, besides good food for the others and it will help the tank cycle.

 

[Crack31]

An ammonia spike is usually followed by a nitrite spike.

Small nitrite spikes can be bad for fish

 

[kcbrad]

Okay, here's an update. So today the damsel is out and swimming around like normal. His breathing has also slowed. He appears normal.

However, I think I see sugar like crystals on his body...they are super small and now I'm worried it's ich. I may be just being paranoid because I was looking at him really close this morning, seeing if I could find anything wrong.

Besides the damsel, I have a clownfish, 5 snails, 4 hermits and live rock. I don't see anything on the clown yet.

Should I wait awhile and see what happens; see if it gets worse? If it is ich, what treatment(s) do you recommend?

Thank you.

 

[lizardarm]

Small nitrite spikes can be bad for fish

That was my next guess.
If it is ich, the best treatment is to get the fish out of the tank and into a quarentine tank where you can treat them and leave the display tank fishless for eight to ten weeks which will break the lifecycle of the ich. Otherwise you can remove all the invertebrates from the tank and treat in there. There are copper based treatments on the market that are very effective for ich treatment, but you have to measure carefully and follow the directions.
Here's a good read on ich-
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

 

[leebca]

Learn as much about Marine Ich as you. This is a good reference for that, in an outline format: Marine Ich - Myths and Facts.

Decide on a treatment, by reading both these posts, then acquire the meds and/or equipment you'll need:
Copper Medications - Good, Bad, and Ugly
and
A Fish Hyposalinity Treatment

Setup a QT like this: A Quarantine Procedure. Move all fish to one or more quarantine tanks. The ratio of fish to tank volume is given in that link.

Move fish into QT and treat. Leave main tank without fish for no less than 8 weeks. Invertebrates (crabs, snails, worms, coral, etc.) in main tank can stay there.

Good luck!