HELP! Royal Gramma acting crazy!

[lkb3493]

Well, I have had my 55 gallon FOWLR since Feb. It is in the stage past the diatoms and currently with that weird purple slime algea stuff. Well, last night I tried to scoop out some of it and it stirred up my tank a bit. My two clowns, serpant star and shrimp are fine but all of a sudden my Royal Gramma started acting crazy. It went down to the bottom of the tank and sort of wedged itself behind an airline. :notsure: Then it came back out and started dive bombing so to speak the sand bottom like it was hitting its head or something.

I quickly checked the water parameters and everything was fine so I did a quick 4 gallon (that is all of the distilled that I had on hand) water change thinking something in the water was borthering him. Well, he went into my big piece of live rock and I haven't seen him since. The one piece is 25 pounds and very cavernous. I can't find him anywhere. Do you think he is dead? :notsure: I have no clue what is going on. How do I tell if he is dead?

 

[glowplug]

If he is dead and you have a good cleanup crew you might not notice hes dead except that youll never see him again, but if you want to be sure keep an eye on your ammo, if it raises above normal then you know you have a decaying body in there, but it sounds like you might have just spooked him from his home, when you feed did he come out and aggressivly eat? Have you tried feeding since it happened? You probably just spooked him more with that quick water change but hey man fish are animals and sometimes animals do stupid crazy stuff- i wouldnt freak out yet

 

[lkb3493]

I guess I will just check my water in a bit and maybe feed and see what happens...
thanks for the 2 cents

 

[glowplug]

it might take a few days for the ammo to rise but a quick check wont hurt, if it were my baby and I had a product that has some sort of a stress coat built in to it, i would use it, anytime you really freak out a fish the chance of them getting sick goes up a little temporarily, JMO

 

[lkb3493]

I am still pretty new to this hobby. Are you recommending a stress coat of some kind? I am HAPPY to go out and get something if it will help him. What product do I get? :notsure:

 

[glowplug]

before i started using ro water (onlyonetime!Initialfill) I got a product called novaqua plus(+),Its a dechlorinator that comes with some vitamins to help build that coat of mucus(thier immune system) fish have on them(thats why they are slimy),I cant say its anything more that marketing but some fish people whos opinion I somewhat respect suggested the product so I tried it, I put a little in after a major WT or when I get a new fish, or if I see a fish looking kind of down, so really I use it for all kinds of things, as long as your not just dumping it in I dont think its hurting anything and if its helping at all, to me that equals a benefit

 

[glowplug]

Its made by KORDON I think but called novaqua+

 

[lkb3493]

Thanks! I have to go get some of that!

 

[glowplug]

can you go check you ammo real quick now im curious?! Ill be here for a while

 

[lkb3493]

Still looks to be at 0. if the fish is dead how long till I will see a spike?

 

[birdy]

you probably won't even see a spike, with a clean up crew and enough biological filtration.

 

[glowplug]

Yeah birdy is right, in a 55 you probably wont

 

[lkb3493]

problem is the only clean up crew I have is 2 pepermint shrimp, serpant star and 10 small hermit type crabs/snail things (tiny small black shells). My two small orange turbo snails died because I could not get to them to turn them over. I have 20-25 lbs live rock, 10 lbs base rock and 20 lbs live sand mixed with reg sand. I know I need more live rock. Hubby just started a new job and things are really tight right now. Just trying to wait a bit before making any more signifcant purchases UGH!

 

[glowplug]

see what happens at chow time i guess, good luck!

 

[glowplug]

well I would just keep an eye on the ammo, at least youll know your water is still good, and if it does rise youll know why, but dont freak out-especially if you havent tried feeding yet

 

[lkb3493]

Thanks everyone! I will remain calm LOL

I just love that little fish. He is the first saltwater fish I ever had and the first I added to the tank and I was so proud to have kept him alive. Keep your fingers crossed.

If I see him I will post back!

 

[3bavboys]

wow - i have the same thing going on
i think my royal gramma is dead in a rock - can't see the body, haven't seen him in 3 days
i am assuming he died , people on the forum have assured me that if he is dead ,my tank will be fine anyway -
90g , 100#lr ,80# ls

 

[kalied20]

My gramma did the same thing when I got ich once. He would dive at the sand then scrap accross it. I think it might be a reaction to stress and trying to get the ick off. If in a couple of days you don't see him. I would assume that he died. I am of the same opinion in your size tank with a cleanup crew you will not even notice any spikes.
Hope you see him again.

 

[alyssia]

Originally Posted by lkb3493
Well, I have had my 55 gallon FOWLR since Feb. It is in the stage past the diatoms and currently with that weird purple slime algea stuff. Well, last night I tried to scoop out some of it and it stirred up my tank a bit. My two clowns, serpant star and shrimp are fine but all of a sudden my Royal Gramma started acting crazy. It went down to the bottom of the tank and sort of wedged itself behind an airline. :notsure: Then it came back out and started dive bombing so to speak the sand bottom like it was hitting its head or something.

I quickly checked the water parameters and everything was fine so I did a quick 4 gallon (that is all of the distilled that I had on hand) water change thinking something in the water was borthering him. Well, he went into my big piece of live rock and I haven't seen him since. The one piece is 25 pounds and very cavernous. I can't find him anywhere. Do you think he is dead? :notsure: I have no clue what is going on. How do I tell if he is dead?

That weird purple slime algae stuff sounds like cyano, and it's not good to have. You might want to increase your water turnover and see if that helps.

 

[promisetbg]

Be careful not to dig into your sandbed, you can cause a break in the aerobic and anerobic layers of your sandbed which can release toxins. If you want to remove the cyano, just take a turkey baster to your rocks, and then do a water change.. syphoning it lightly... every week. The cyano is there feeding off excess nutrients. You may have too low of a flow as mentioned, or you could be overfeeding...or a combination. Most new tanks do experience cyanobacteria until they mature to where they can handle the bio-load. You said your snails fell and died...what is your SG.? If you keep it on the low side, snails will fall. If you keep it at 1.025 they won't fall anymore. If you need to raise it,do so slowly...using sw instead of fresh for several days is a good slow way to do it. A stress coat such as Nova-qua is good to put into the bag when introducing new fish{just a few drops}, but is not needed in the display. Test your water,or see if your LFS will do it,especially for phosphates.{this is the result of overfeeding and will fuel the cyano} Work on beefing up your clean-up crew. Some nassarius and/or cerith snails will help with leftover food and detritus.