Foxface Lo distressed overnight

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

Last night we did a 20% water change. Our fish have been fine up until this morning when I woke up to my Foxface Lo barely making it. He sees me and will attempt to swim but loses strength quickly and just floats with the current. He is starting to get brown patches and I can't get him to eat. I even tried hand feeding him seaweed. All the water is in line except the nitrates are between 40 & 80 and we are actively trying to get down. Please help

govolsguy31 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
Last night we did a 20% water change. Our fish have been fine up until this morning when I woke up to my Foxface Lo barely making it. He sees me and will attempt to swim but loses strength quickly and just floats with the current. He is starting to get brown patches and I can't get him to eat. I even tried hand feeding him seaweed. All the water is in line except the nitrates are between 40 & 80 and we are actively trying to get down. Please help

I'm new to this, but will help get the ball rolling. What all is in the tank? Other fish, inverts, corals, etc? Anyone else showing any unusual signs? Do you have any way to quarantine if need be?

How big of a tank?

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

govolsguy31 said:
I'm new to this, but will help get the ball rolling. What all is in the tank? Other fish, inverts, corals, etc? Anyone else showing any unusual signs? Do you have any way to quarantine if need be?

How big of a tank?

80 gal tank with Foxface Lo, Porcupine Puffer, Princess Parrotfish, Indian and Blue Lined Trigger and a Queen Angel. No live coral but crushed coral and sand mixture. All other fish are fine. I don't have a quarantine tank ready but can if need be.

govolsguy31 · Dec 15, 2016

@melypr1985 @Humblefish #reefsquad

I feel like I've been tagging you guys a lot lately. LOL.

govolsguy31 · Dec 15, 2016

#mods, might want to move this thread to fish treatment board.

govolsguy31 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
80 gal tank with Foxface Lo, Porcupine Puffer, Princess Parrotfish, Indian and Blue Lined Trigger and a Queen Angel. No live coral but crushed coral and sand mixture. All other fish are fine. I don't have a quarantine tank ready but can if need be.

Foxface Lo was my first "real" fish in my tank, after a couple damsels. He's a big scaredy-cat and acts partially retarded sometimes, but what you're describing sounds different. Meredith and her gang will be able to help.

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

govolsguy31 said:
Foxface Lo was my first "real" fish in my tank, after a couple damsels. He's a big scaredy-cat and acts partially retarded sometimes, but what you're describing sounds different. Meredith and her gang will be able to help.

Thank you so much! And I am new to posting in forums so I may be doing this all wrong so bare with me

Tahoe61 · Dec 15, 2016

Was the fish completely awake? I am going to be honest, with that size of tank and the current live stock you're more than likely to see issues. My experiences with the two Fox Fish I have had is that they cower easily and will not be able to stand up to more aggressive fish types like Triggers and Parrot fish. There may at this time be no obvious aggression but the mere presence of these more aggressive fish will cause enough stress to detrimentally affect the fish.
Have these fish been through any type of QT?
You're nitrates are going to be hard to control in that size tank with those fish types.

Welcome to R2R

govolsguy31 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
Thank you so much! And I am new to posting in forums so I may be doing this all wrong so bare with me

No problem. I've only been here a couple months now, but this is the nicest, most knowledgeable forum. Everyone here is super.

Tahoe61 · Dec 15, 2016

I'll move this to the Fish Disease section for more eyes on.

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

Tahoe61 said:
Was the fish completely awake? I am going to be honest, with that size of tank and the current live stock you're more than likely to see issues. My experiences with the two Fox Fish I have had is that they cower easily and will not be able to stand up to more aggressive fish types like Triggers and Parrot fish. There may at this time be no obvious aggression but the mere presence of these more aggressive fish will cause enough stress to detrimentally affect the fish.
Have these fish been through any type of QT?
You're nitrates are going to be hard to control in that size tank with those fish types.

Welcome to R2R

We are working on getting a 200+ gal for them all but not currently up and running. Haven't had any fish not get along so far but maybe I am missing something. They have not been quarantined. Very new to saltwater and trying to stay educated as much as possible.

Brew12 · Dec 15, 2016

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Have you tested for ammonia?
How long have you had this fish, any new additions?
Are the "brown patches" something different than how his colors naturally fade in and out? Are they fuzzy?
Do you run a skimmer and is he breathing rapidly?

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

Ammonia, ph, nitrites are good. Nitrates are a little high so we have been doing the water changes to help lower. His spots are different than normal the normal color fades. Very lethargic and won't eat. The tank is fairly new so we were told we didn't need a skimmer yet but now seeing we may have been misinformed.

Brew12 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
Ammonia, ph, nitrites are good. Nitrates are a little high so we have been doing the water changes to help lower. His spots are different than normal the normal color fades. Very lethargic and won't eat. The tank is fairly new so we were told we didn't need a skimmer yet but now seeing we may have been misinformed.

You have been misinformed. You have some very "dirty" fish that would benefit from a skimmer. However, I don't think it is the cause of this and the nitrates at your level aren't a problem with fish, either.

Do you have an airstone you can put in the tank?

Does your system have a sump?

Any chance you can get a picture of the brown spots or that you can try to give a more detailed explanation of what you see?

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

Air stone is already in the tank to promote more oxygen. Don't have a sump but filter is Marineland C-360. Currently looking into skimmers now.

Tahoe61 · Dec 15, 2016

He looks skinny and stressed, are you feeding him any nori?

Sounds like you're making and learning the right moves. Reality is that if you're going to keep big fish you need a big tank and you're working on that.

Learn about QT so you can use it as a tool to prevent fish disease resulting in less frustration and money spent. I would start setting up a QT asap it will be money well invested.

I would not add any other fish to the current system and I would look at a decent skimmer.

Good Luck.

Brew12 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
Air stone is already in the tank to promote more oxygen. Don't have a sump but filter is Marineland C-360. Currently looking into skimmers now.

Please get your QT set up. This looks like it could be Marine Velvet although it could be a bacterial infection. Do you have copper or any other meds on hand?
Have you had this poor guy for around 2 weeks or had any recent additions?

Can you look at this and see if those brown spots look similar?
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

melypr1985 · Dec 15, 2016

Hammfamfish said:
Air stone is already in the tank to promote more oxygen. Don't have a sump but filter is Marineland C-360. Currently looking into skimmers now.

This looks like an infection. How long has he been this way? What -if any- medications do you have on hand? Is there an LFS near you, that you can get to today?

I also agree that he's VERY skinny. Poor baby. Oh and welcome to R2R! Sorry about the circumstances though.

Joey waid · Dec 15, 2016

It looks terrible. I have seen velvet a few times and they never looked that bad when they died.

Hammfamfish · Dec 15, 2016

Husband is bringing home copper treatment when he gets home from work. I don't notice anything with the other fish. Foxface has been in for several months but we did add trigger and angel over a week ago.