Bursa Trigger Looking Sick! (Help)

[jasony]

hey guys.. .my bursa trigger for the past couple of days is not acting like its normal self.. normally it freely swims around, but for the past 2 days it has stayed hidden laying down (or up) underneath a rock....
details:
my tank had 4 blue damsels, a foxface and 2 perculas (150 fowlr)
3 days ago a hermit killed one of my blue damsels and ate most of it... i suspect that the bursa trigger also nibbled on the dead damsel as well...
could this be why the bursa is now acting "sick"/strange.....
i tested water levels and ph, alkalinity and salinity are fine.. did not check trates/trites as i dont currently have a test kit.. will get one today...
is the dead damsel posible to blame? is there anything i should do for/about the trigger?
could the trigger be fine and just acting strange for 2 days?
jay

 

[promisetbg]

He could have been stung by the foxface, any marks on him? You need to consider this fish will most likely become a terror & kill any fish kept with him if he makes it. I doubt the hermit killed a healthy fish, there may have been something that killed him as well. Any outward signs of disease? Raised scales, spots, blotches..? Can you post a pic?

 

[jasony]

thanks for the info/possibility..
will post a pic later... he has been getting along with the foxface all this time but i guess it is a pssibility..
day 3.. bursa is still inside of a piece of LR but seems kind of stuck in there in a weird contortion.. its dorsal fin is raised preventing it from "backing out"
or so it seems...
any ideas.. should i remove him from my tank?
all other fish seem fine..
anyone else go thru somethin like this?

 

[jasony]

bursa trigger has died.. all water parameters were checked and WNL
bursa ended up stuck inside of piece of LR.. i had to cut and drill the rock apart to get him out.. he died a few hours later
i still suspect either a foxface sting or eating the dead damsel to be a culprit....

 

[promisetbg]

Sorry for your loss. How long did you have him & what were you feeding him? He could have had some type of pathogen or parasite.

 

[jasony]

had the bursa for about 1 month.. was feeding him clam and shrimp (frozen) as well as brine every other day.

 

[promisetbg]

Brine shrimp has no nutritional value, unless it is newly hatched baby brine shrimp, or live gutloaded adults. Frozen Piscine brand mysis shrimp is a much healthier staple for your fish. Chances are he had something else happening. Did he appear to be losing weight even though he was eating? This would imply he was cyanide caught. So many possibilities...flukes, internal parasites...hard to say without a necropsy. If you suspect cyanide, consider an LFS that deals with hand caught fish. A tip for choosing fish...cyanide caught fish are unusually brighter in color.

 

[jasony]

thanks a million for the info...
im not sure im my lfs sells cyanide caught stock.. i will definately check into that now....
im a noob and i guess this was bound to happen to me... i was skating along for months with nio problems/losses.