Disease or not?

[Thumbster]

I picked up a very small Springeri Damsel four days ago and I’m wondering if it has something internal going on and what would be a good treatment. It’s about an inch long and hasn’t been eating like expected.

Not sure where to start but the problem is it won’t eat full (small) pellets. It will eat small pieces if I crush them up though. Never enough to look “full” though.

I’ve tried brine shrimp and it has eaten two, it doesn’t pay any attention to flakes and mysis shrimp is too big I’m guessing.

It’s doing better than it was when I first brought it home though. It did appear to have rapid breathing but that has returned to normal and it seems to be acting “normal”.

I have it in a breeder box inside of a 10 gallon qt tank. The qt tank has been cycled and running for at least a couple months. I have a green/yellow wrasse in the qt tank and its doing fine.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

 

[Thumbster]

Forgot to mention that I have seen it poop and it didn’t look stringy. Appeared normal to my untrained eyes.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I picked up a very small Springeri Damsel four days ago and I’m wondering if it has something internal going on and what would be a good treatment. It’s about an inch long and hasn’t been eating like expected.

Not sure where to start but the problem is it won’t eat full (small) pellets. It will eat small pieces if I crush them up though. Never enough to look “full” though.

I’ve tried brine shrimp and it has eaten two, it doesn’t pay any attention to flakes and mysis shrimp is too big I’m guessing.

It’s doing better than it was when I first brought it home though. It did appear to have rapid breathing but that has returned to normal and it seems to be acting “normal”.

I have it in a breeder box inside of a 10 gallon qt tank. The qt tank has been cycled and running for at least a couple months. I have a green/yellow wrasse in the qt tank and its doing fine.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone has any suggestions?

Raised scales suggest possible flukes or dropsy like issue although dropsy is a freshwater issue. Assure good water quality and as for feces are you by chance feeding it brine and mysis shrimp?
If so, it often mimics internal issues due to excess mucus in the stomach lining. Add flakes and pellets to diet

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Forgot to mention that I have seen it poop and it didn’t look stringy. Appeared normal to my untrained eyes.

The brine shrimp that you tried - was it adult or baby? Live baby brine would be best to get it started eating.

One concern I have is that the fish is very thin behind its head (the nape). Fish do not store much fat, so a starving fish loses muscle mass, and that shows most clearly right behind the head, and some in the belly. That tells me that this fish's lack of feeding has been going on a long time, weeks at least.

Do you know the history of this fish? How long did your dealer have it, etc.?

 

[Thumbster]

Hey thanks!
The two brine shrimp it ate were adult frozen. I do have some brine shrimp eggs that I will try to hatch.

The fish was in a one foot deep 4’x8’ coral display tub at the LFS. There were a handful of fish in the tub to keep flatworms and algae down. I don't Know how long the fish was in the tub, I’m guessing less than 6 months. There were 4-5 other springeri’s in the tub that I saw but they were bigger than this one.

To my knowledge, the only thing this fish has ate since I’ve gotten it were the two frozen adult brine shrimp and pieces of the crushed pellets. It may be eating more than I am seeing since I’m not staring at it all day but it never eats enough to look full. A small amount of food sets at the bottom of the breeder box all day and I change it out several times a day.

It is doing better than it was though. It looks alert now rather than swimming around listlessly and it does peck around at some of the food on the bottom of the breeder box. I just wish that it would peck around enough to start looking fat but that may take some time if it was starving in the coral tub.

 

[MnFish1]

In addition to the above, do you think part of the problem is that it's in a small acclimation box? To me the scale issue looks like it could be partly from moving around bumping into things. Have you treated the fish with any medication? FYI - IF the fish has something transmissible, you may have exposed your wrasse - and I would consider extending its quarantine. (I'm assuming you're treating that fish?). As Jay said - this may be a longer-term issue. Can you mention the source of the fish (not the specific vendor) - i.e. was it bought at an LFS, internet, etc?

Its not clear to me exactly what the cause of this is, however, the fact that its improving, and if you can follow some of the pointers above and the fish is eating thats a good thing. Note there are companies out there that sell various sizes of fish food/i.e.

 

[Thumbster]

The wrasse is in qt itself, I picked it up a couple weeks ago. Long story short, I bought the wrasse and a damsel at the same time from a LFS. The damsel turned out to be a Fiji blue devil so I promptly took it back and got this one after showing pics of what I wanted vs what they gave me.

I haven’t treated the qt tank with anything yet. The wrasse is doing great but I plan on keeping it in qt for a while just to be sure.

I don’t think the acclimation box is bothering the damsel. I have a piece of pvc in there for it to hide. I was afraid to let it loose in the 10 gallon because there’s no way it could compete for food against the wrasse. If it starts eating a little better or shows signs that the box is too small, I’ll let him loose.

There were a handful of other springeri’s in the coral tub but this was probably the smallest, and the easiest to catch. I didn’t see any aggression from the others but I was only watching them for a few minutes.

 

[MnFish1]

The wrasse is in qt itself, I picked it up a couple weeks ago. Long story short, I bought the wrasse and a damsel at the same time from a LFS. The damsel turned out to be a Fiji blue devil so I promptly took it back and got this one after showing pics of what I wanted vs what they gave me.

I haven’t treated the qt tank with anything yet. The wrasse is doing great but I plan on keeping it in qt for a while just to be sure.

I don’t think the acclimation box is bothering the damsel. I have a piece of pvc in there for it to hide. I was afraid to let it loose in the 10 gallon because there’s no way it could compete for food against the wrasse. If it starts eating a little better or shows signs that the box is too small, I’ll let him loose.

There were a handful of other springeri’s in the coral tub but this was probably the smallest, and the easiest to catch. I didn’t see any aggression from the others but I was only watching them for a few minutes.

Curious - is there a reason you're not treating the fish with typical quarantine medications?

 

[Thumbster]

Curious - is there a reason you're not treating the fish with typical quarantine medications?

I’m not opposed to it. I use to be firmly in the kill it with fire camp but after losing seemingly healthy fish, most likely my own doing, I’m now in the observe and treat symptoms (if needed) while in qt camp.

That said, if you know of something that would help me out with this damsel, I’m all ears. I’m just not seeing any symptoms with it. Normal poop, normal breathing (now), normal slime coat, no white spots, healthy looking gills, no weird lumps, acting normal, etc.

I don’t know how long the LFS had this fish or why it is underweight. I would think that if it was in their 32 sq ft coral tub for very long at all it would have found something to eat on its own or maybe it’s just not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

 

[MnFish1]

I’m not opposed to it. I use to be firmly in the kill it with fire camp but after losing seemingly healthy fish, most likely my own doing, I’m now in the observe and treat symptoms (if needed) while in qt camp.

That said, if you know of something that would help me out with this damsel, I’m all ears. I’m just not seeing any symptoms with it. Normal poop, normal breathing (now), normal slime coat, no white spots, healthy looking gills, no weird lumps, acting normal, etc.

I don’t know how long the LFS had this fish or why it is underweight. I would think that if it was in their 32 sq ft coral tub for very long at all it would have found something to eat on its own or maybe it’s just not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Possible. and Thanks for answering - I just was interested!

 

[Thumbster]

Well it’s been a couple weeks and it’s still kicking. It’s eating slightly better than when I last checked in but still isn’t where I’d like it to be. Not sure how long it takes to fatten up.

It will eat slightly bigger pieces of pellets than it was but only if the pellets are floating down from the surface or if they’re on the surface. If the pellets reach the “floor” of the acclimation box the fish completely ignores it.

I hatched some brine shrimp and it went absolutely nuts eating that. I fed that once a day for three or four days along with the crushed pellets that I’m feeding daily. I was afraid to feed the shrimp too often. I didn’t want the fish getting pickier than it already seems to be. I’m starting another batch and they should be hatching tomorrow.

I guess my question is how long should it take to make a comeback? I think it does look a little better but that may be me wishful thinking. Also I don’t understand why It will eat pellets if I crush them up but if it lands on the floor or if it’s too big to fit easily in its mouth it doesn’t touch it. I’m feeding New Life Spectrum pellets “regular” size which is 1-1.5mm. Not exactly huge.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Well it’s been a couple weeks and it’s still kicking. It’s eating slightly better than when I last checked in but still isn’t where I’d like it to be. Not sure how long it takes to fatten up.

It will eat slightly bigger pieces of pellets than it was but only if the pellets are floating down from the surface or if they’re on the surface. If the pellets reach the “floor” of the acclimation box the fish completely ignores it.

I hatched some brine shrimp and it went absolutely nuts eating that. I fed that once a day for three or four days along with the crushed pellets that I’m feeding daily. I was afraid to feed the shrimp too often. I didn’t want the fish getting pickier than it already seems to be. I’m starting another batch and they should be hatching tomorrow.

I guess my question is how long should it take to make a comeback? I think it does look a little better but that may be me wishful thinking. Also I don’t understand why It will eat pellets if I crush them up but if it lands on the floor or if it’s too big to fit easily in its mouth it doesn’t touch it. I’m feeding New Life Spectrum pellets “regular” size which is 1-1.5mm. Not exactly huge.

It looks a bit better to me. I’d continue with the crushed pellets and the baby brine shrimp for now.

I’d give it at least two more weeks, a month would be better in terms of getting weight back on it.

 

[Thumbster]

Update:
It has been in the display for a little over a month now and is doing very good.

I kept in the acclimation box for about a month, feeding it newly hatched brine shrimp once a day and pellets/flakes. I would have kept it in there a couple weeks longer but I went to Colorado at the beginning of July so it was sink or swim.

Anyway, the damsel and wrasse are in the display and both are doing fine. The damsel looks like it has even grown a little.

 

[MnFish1]

Update:
It has been in the display for a little over a month now and is doing very good.

I kept in the acclimation box for about a month, feeding it newly hatched brine shrimp once a day and pellets/flakes. I would have kept it in there a couple weeks longer but I went to Colorado at the beginning of July so it was sink or swim.

Anyway, the damsel and wrasse are in the display and both are doing fine. The damsel looks like it has even grown a little.

Thanks and awesome - it's always good to get feedback!!! Nice fish