I've been keeping my eye on my Royal Gramma and he's definitely worse. On Saturday, I decided I needed to get him out of the tank to treat him (once I figured out what it was). So I set up my QT and then spent about an hour tearing apart my tank trying to catch the little.....darling.
Put him in QT, and he INSTANTLY starts doing much worse- like laying on the bottom, hiding behind rocks, and gasping, starting to lose color. I'm pretty sure he's dying, but it was so sudden, I freak out and put him back in the DT. Immediately, he perks up and starts swimming around.
He's still swimming pretty well (not as much in the open as before) and eating just as much as before. But he's missing more and more flesh (not just scales- I can actually see white flesh missing). Doesn't seem that bothered by it.
He's in a 75 with 1 green chromis, 1 tiny osc. clown and 2 banggai cardinals (plus 2 peppermint shrimp, a skunk cleaner shrimp, maybe 15 snails and an emerald crab). I've kept an eye on everyone and no one is even coming near the Gramma, and no one else is missing so much as a scale.
It really looks like something is eating the fish- and I can't tell if I have something mysterious in the tank or if it's a parasite/bacteria that's eating away at him. He's starting to breathe more noticeably and the missing parts of him are more obvious every day. Moving him into QT really almost killed him (I was using water from the tank, so it wasn't shock from different water chemistry or anything).
Not the best picture- but this shows the exposed bone/cartilage along the fin. I don't see any redness, worms, bugs or anything crawling on the gramma or in the "missing" parts.
Please help!