damsel in distress

[jfick1010]

I have a 26 gal tank and a blue damsel in distress. I have had the tank for 9months. Today I came home and she is laying at the bottom of the tank, she is still alive but is having a hard time breathing. she will swim if I try to net her. My clown died 2 weeks ago of ick and the yellow tang died about 3 weeks ago of an unknown cause (no white spots or scraping). The damsel was doing fine until today. The levels in the tank are reading normal. I just bought a skimmer for the tank last night(seaclone 100), I don't think this stressed her out but I guess it may have. Also she didn't eat much of her flake food this A.M. I also have a chocolate chip star fish, a peppermint shrimp, a snail, 3 aneomes and a hermit crab. They are all doing fine, can anyone help me figure out what is wrong with my fish? Please and thank you!
Jenny

 

[beth]

If you have ich in the tank, the parasite is likly killing these fish.
You need to treat the ich, which you can't do in a reef tank. Fish will need to be QTed and treated with hyposalinity. If you are interested in doing this, take a look at the FAQ Thread topics on QT, hyposalinity, refractometer and the pic of the fish with ich.
Good Luck!