discolored damsel, please help!

[sptfyre51]

I have a blue devil damsel that has a coloration on the side. I have no idea what it is. It looks like there oil on top of water (kind of a like a rainbow). Does anyone know what it is and how to treat it? The salinity and water levels are fine. Right now it is the only fish in the tank other than snails and hermits.

 

[trigger40]

any strange behavior?

 

[sptfyre51]

Lethargic it has just sat in a cave all day, then within the past hour or so it has come out and floated close to the bottom of the tank by the glass, then has darted a couple of times to the top of the tank then has gone back to its cave.

 

[trigger40]

well i thats not good. if i wher you i would treat him with copper. but that might not be the salution. that is just incase it is a parisite wich it most likely is.

 

[sptfyre51]

won't a copper treatment kill all my snails and crabs? I've also read that if you ever do use a copper treatment it is nearly impossible to get the levels to 0 so invertebrate can survive, but i don't know if that is true

 

[beth]

Can you get a better picture of that fish. It looks like he's being harassed from that picture.

Sounds like you need a protein skimmer for your tank's water condition. Do you have one already?

 

[sptfyre51]

It is the only fish in the tank so I don't see how it would be getting harassed unless my hermits got it, but they are small. I do not have a protein skimmer I looked into getting one but they are expensive.

 

[jay0705]

Depends whats in the tank when u use copper. Sand, rock , ect absorb it. Bare tank emptied and refilled is invert fine atleast mine is

 

[beth]

Copper doesn't seem appropriate here. Are you able to post a better picture, or at least describe in detail what that spot looks like? Post your water readings anyway.

 

[jay0705]

Agreed. It seems more like a wound

 

[sptfyre51]

Ammonia 0.0, Nitrite 0.0, Nitrate 0.25, Salinity .025, pH 8.0. Here is a closer shot, but it is still a little blurry. The best I could describe it the red in the middle is where the scales are gone and flesh is showing and it gradually discolors out from there. I also noticed some grey spots on other parts of his body. How could it get a wound that large if there is nothing else in the tank other than small hermits and snails?

 

[trigger40]

i have had some thing like this happen to one of my oscars. the skin started peling of and scalles wher falling off. this was caused buy an infection when he got in a fight. i ended up putting him out of his misery. i hope you dont haft to do that.

 

[beth]

Everything points to aggression. Look to your hermits. Is it an open wound?

 

[sptfyre51]

Can a hermit crab really get a hold of my fish? They are small. I have a couple blue legged hermits and scarlet hermits. Maybe that is the case though because when I first noticed it there were 3 or 4 hermits piled on top of each other right next to the damsel. It is not an open wound just looks like the scales are gone and the flesh is exposed.

 

[beth]

Unless the fish succumbed to some kind of accident or burn from a heater, there is no reason for a fish to have that much blood accumulating there. That spot looks like blood to me.

 

[sptfyre51]

You're right I guess it is a little bloody, when you asked if there was a wound I was thinking more of a gaping wound. Let's say for instance that the hermit crabs did cause the wound, wouldn't the fish have to be sick in order for the hermits to get a hold of him? Or if it wasn't hermit crabs could the rock cause that much damage? I don't think it would have been a burn from the heater because I have never seen him around the heater before.

 

[beth]

I think its better to focus on seeing if the fish recovers. We can only guess exactly how the wound occurred. Is the fish still eating and swimming normally?

 

[sptfyre51]

Unfortunately I came home from school today and he was dead in the hospital tank. Am I going to have to worry about my hermits attacking any fish in the future? I didn't think they posed any risk to the fish because they would have no chance in catching one

 

[trigger40]

i dont think it was yur hermit crabs. i think is was just something freaky like he hit him self on a rock or rubed him self raw.

 

[beth]

Here is my take on hermits. They don't do the marine aquaria any benefit. When they outgrow their shells, they will kill a valuable snail you've put in your tank as a detritivore to get at his shell. As they grow, they become troublesome as the knock over rocks, and you run the potential of one being aggressive toward other inhabitants. I would trade them in at the store.

Does your tank have live rock?