discolored damsel

[crazye36]

discolored damsel
im new with the saltwater tank. i have 2 yellow damsel one of the is off colored its kindda pale. whats wrong with it? i know my nitrate no2 is around .25 my nitrate no3s about.25-.50, my ammonia is about .25 my ph8.0 . is this normal for a new tank. this tank is only 2 weeks old wsorry im just a newob

 

[mudplayerx]

Your fish is probably discolored because it is in a toxic environment. Using damselfish to cycle a tank is old-school. All those readings you gave should be zero before you put livestock in the tank. Its not your fault though, I'm sure someone told you to do it that way. The damselfish will more than likely survive, but he will never be the same because ammonia eats away his gill tissue and nitrite poisons his blood.
Imagine someone locking you in a building where someone was smoking a cigar in every room 24/7. You'd live, but it would be miserable and you'd die at a young age.

 

[crazye36]

yea a few tank owners i know told me i should use damsels to cycle my tank. now i feel bad for the poor things

 

[texasex]

Though mudplayerx is probably correct about it being stressed, I too have two yellow damsels, I forget what kind, some weird rare one, anyway, one has always been paler than the other one. It is also a little deformed. I couldn't tell it when I got it and it was small. Now that they are growing its top fin and tail are a little small and malformed. I don't know what caused it. All of my fishies have always been healthy and I have never had any diseases in the tank. So all that was to say, sometimes when it is just one fish, it is just different and ya never know what caused it! (my other two damsels that have been in the tank the same amount of time are perfectly normal!)

 

[crazye36]

thnk you for the help.

 

[mudplayerx]

One of my damsels is deformed too! It has a bump on its chin that is extended sometimes...and it has a very small lower jaw. It is so small that it looks like it doesn't have a lower jaw.
I guess the breeding techniques for damsels causes these deformations.