Fish not looking good after just adding it

[crosby87]

I added a picasso trigger to my 90 gallon set up a few hours ago, after letting him warm up to the temp and dumping in tank water to his bag every 10 - 20 minutes over an hour.
After I released him in the tank, he swam for a few seconds then floated to the top of the water and has been pretty much sitting there since.
I thought by now he would be swimming freely in the tank. I got 3 other fish in the tank, 2 clown fish, and a yellow tain damsel. Also, the moonlights were on, and are still on since I added him.
Is this normal behavior for this kind of fish, or is something wrong?

 

[jesshika]

How long has the tank been setup for and do you know what the water parameters are? The clown trigger may be more sensitive to the water than the damsel fish and clowns.

 

[earlybird]

It's possible you received a sick fish to begin. Please explain futher the acclimation process you performed. IMO it's best to drip acclimate fish for at least 2 hours or longer if the salinity doesn't match up exactly. Did you see the fish eat and can you be sure the fish was given to you healthy? Is the fish alive, still breathing? Breathing fast or slow? How are the other fish? Damsels and clowns are very hardy, triggers are more sensative for sure. Do you have a QT/hospital tank?

 

[garnet13aj]

I second many of earlybird's points. Did you QT and acclimate the fish first? If you didn't, you should definitely do so in the future. There are many posts of QTing if you search this forum and there is a link on the left side about acclimation...Also, you may need to be a bit concerned about the safety of your other fish as the trigger matures...picasso's can be extremely aggressive and clowns especially are too small and too poor of swimmers to defend themselves.

 

[crosby87]

Sorry about taking awhile to post back. I checked on the Trigger ealier this afternoon when my lights where on, and he was swimming though out the tank just fine. I through in some flake food and he even ate.
I don't have a QT tank set up even though I probably should.
I acclimated him by setting the bag in the water for about 20 mins. After that, I put some of the tank water in the bag every 10-20 minutes for about another hour, then I released in the tank after being in the bag for about an hour and a half.
Never the less, the trigger is eating and doing fine.

 

[sepulatian]

I am very glad that the trigger is doing good now. In the future please drip acclimate fish. Some fish are more hearty and can take drastic changes. Others are not so forgiving.