Coral Beauty Hiding/Not Eating

TMF89 · Dec 3, 2023

Looking for some advice, guys. Have had this Coral Beauty for a few weeks, and over the last several days it's quit eating, spent most of it's time hiding, and has this growth/sore on its side. Any advice or information would be appreciated! Fish is in a 40 gallon, with two wrasse, a firefish, and bangai cardinal. Thanks! Pix to follow in the first reply.

Sharkbait19 · Dec 3, 2023

Did you notice the spot as soon as it stopped eating? It looks like a potential injury - which would definitely make the fish more timid.

TMF89 · Dec 3, 2023

I would say it probably quit eating over a period of a couple days, and then when it really stopped, I looked and noticed it. I want to say it's gotten a little bigger over the last few days, but that could just be me. He seems like he "wants" to eat, he'll come out and look at food or move towards it, but doesn't even mouth it. He was the most aggressive fish of the group, but I never noticed him nipping or chasing, just coming up and displaying and waving at other fish from time to time. He seemed to calm down a bit though, even before all this started up. Knock on wood, but no other fish are showing any symptoms or issues.

Sharkbait19 · Dec 3, 2023

It’s possible an injury got infected, especially if it’s growing.
Try treating in a qt with kanaplex or neoplex.

Jay Hemdal · Dec 3, 2023

Is it breathing fast? If you are unsure, you can post a video and I can assess its rate for you.

Jay

vetteguy53081 · Dec 3, 2023

TMF89 said:
Looking for some advice, guys. Have had this Coral Beauty for a few weeks, and over the last several days it's quit eating, spent most of it's time hiding, and has this growth/sore on its side. Any advice or information would be appreciated! Fish is in a 40 gallon, with two wrasse, a firefish, and bangai cardinal. Thanks! Pix to follow in the first reply.

Need clearer image under brightest light possible

TMF89 · Dec 3, 2023

The injury is on both sides, seemingly across the belly, for what its worth. I don't feel that it's breathing relatively quickly at all, or gasping or anything like that. Making water for the water change/QT tank, and I'll try to get some better pix of it when I move it there later tonight.

TMF89 · Dec 3, 2023

Here's a video I took, wasn't able to get it to hold still for the camera. Have it in a 10 gallon QT with Prime and Neoplex. Is there anything else I could look into dosing? Thanks again guys!

Jay Hemdal · Dec 4, 2023

TMF89 said:
Here's a video I took, wasn't able to get it to hold still for the camera. Have it in a 10 gallon QT with Prime and Neoplex. Is there anything else I could look into dosing? Thanks again guys!

It isn't breathing fast. The "glass surfing" is likely because of your presence filming it making it stressed.

Trouble is - a lesion on both sides of a fish in that location implies that whatever the cause is, goes right through the fish, and there are organs there (intestines). Treating with antibiotics is the only thing to do really, but I worry that if the infection is inside the fish, like peritonitis, the treatment won't work.

As to an original cause - if the lesion was higher up, I would say it was from a diver "needling" the fish to decompress it, and then that got infected. In this case, the diver would have had to missed the air bladder and got the lower gut by mistake. That could happen I guess....

Jay