majestic foxface acting weird

[TomJon]

I bought a 5" majestic foxface about a 10 days ago. I put him into a 40g QT tank with 3 firefish I got at the same time. I immediately started cupermine as a precautionary measure at 0.5-0.6 final level. Everyone has been fine and acting/eating normal. 2 days I started reducing the copper by a 20g water change and added my carbon filters back. He ate last night according to my wife. He started not eating this morning and staying in the pipes all day blacked up like they do and he didn't eat tonight. I have been offering green nori, Mysis shrimp, and plankton. I wondering if there is a problem starting or im being over cautious. The fire fish are eating and acting as normal. Should I worry yet.?? Should I go ahead and put him in DT since there are no signs of disease?

Ammonia/Nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 25. Salinity is 1.025. Copper is 0.2-0.3

40gal QT with mechanical filtration.

 

[TomJon]

Update: he didn't eat this morning either.

 

[Tahoe61]

How are you offering the nori. I cut mine into tiny strips and disperse it throughout the tank, the fox eats like spaghetti.

 

[TomJon]

I have a small strip rubberbanded to a pipe. I watched him for a while this morning and did catch him rubbing on the filter intake pipe. I immediately put him in a fresh water bath for 3.5 to 4 mins. He is staying out of the pipes now just not eating still.

 

[TomJon]

 

[Tahoe61]

Welcome to Reef2Reef

Fox fish are pretty skittish initially, they tend to freak out with human activity in or around the tank especially during acclimation. Once acclimated they do become much more interactive but still easily spooked.

I am impressed with your knowledge of quarantine techniques. Some fish stop eating during copper treatment, it may take awhile for the appetite to return. Random scratching is not always a sign of disease.

I would cut up small piece of nori, a small amount, introduce it to the tank and walk away do not stick around to see if the fish eats.

Moving this thread to the Fish Disease Discussion forum for the experts to review.

 

[TomJon]

Thanks! Much I learned from being hard headed and not using a QT tank. I lost many fish that way. Right now I have the light off and He is out all camo'd up chillin. I will try your not method and let you know how that goes

 

[aykwm]

Usually with copper you would want to remove the fish into new sterile quarantine instead of keeping them in the same tank as some parasites might still be there but resistant to ich during some stages of their life cycle. For food, try feeding him other types of algae, perhaps red sea weed or herbivore flakes. My tang hates green nori but eats anything else. For light off method I think its good method as bright light might stress fish and let them feel they are exposed to predators.
You have a healthy and beautiful looking fish, hope it gets back to eating soon.
Best of luck.

 

[justingraham]

I'm pretty sure that's a magnificent foxface.

And if it's anything like mine he's going to do what he wants and be scared a lot and camo himself. But once he settles in and is no longer afraid and used to his settings he will eat and they can eat.

If u have purple nori I would try that also I have never seen mine turn down lrs reef frenzy and herbivore frenzy.

Be patient I'm sure it's been rough on him

Also just a heads up they can jump out of the tank

 

[justingraham]

I also recomend leaving him be they are very skittish animals

No direct light
Don't try to put the nori in his mouth

Let him be for a while
I know u were trying to do the best for ur fish but grabbing him up and doing a fw bath prolly scared him a little bit more.

Watch from afar as I believe new fish never want you to see them eat but if u watch from another room i bet he will graze the nori as long as u don't have brite lights on him.

I think ur doing everything right u just need to stop calm down and relax. If ur this worried imagine how worried that little guy is


And again this fish can jump like five feet when it gets scared be sure to have a top on any tank he is in

 

[TomJon]

As hard as that will be in trying to do just that and let him be... I have lost so many fish to dumbness over time I guess I'm hyper sensitive lol... I have had him 9 days and he ate just fine up until a day ago that's why it's so odd to me... on a side note I didn't say before there was a puffer in there to with him but I could never get it to eat no matter what I offered... i got him out right after he died. Don't know if that matters at all. I do have a screen on top since I have fire fish in there... never thought about him jumping though so thanks for the heads up

 

[TomJon]

I'm pretty sure that's a magnificent foxface.

And if it's anything like mine he's going to do what he wants and be scared a lot and camo himself. But once he settles in and is no longer afraid and used to his settings he will eat and they can eat.

If u have purple nori I would try that also I have never seen mine turn down lrs reef frenzy and herbivore frenzy.

Be patient I'm sure it's been rough on him

Also just a heads up they can jump out of the tank

I will try some different not and see thanks for the reply!

 

[justingraham]

I will try some different not and see thanks for the reply!

Not a problem hopefully everything turns out ok because I believe this is one of the prietiest fish in the hobby and there ability to destroy alge is just another benifit

 

[TomJon]

ok so i went to bed and left him alone with blue led's on. (i work nights so sleep during the day). When i got up and checked on him the strip of nori was gone ;Happy. I was skeptical so i check the filter and no nori in it. I suspect he ate the whole piece but never saw him eat it. (unless my fire fish like nori;Hilarious). I fed my shrimp/plankton mix but he didn't touch that. either way im glad he ate the nori. Is their diet mostly nori? I seem to remember the one i had before loved shrimp too. This is day 11 in QT for them. Do i need to be concerned with any parasites any longer? No one has shown any signs of any kind of sickness. I am thinking of moving the firefish to the DT tomorrow what do yall think about that? Do you think i can move the foxface to Dt also?? I put my DT on a 9 week no fish to kill of all the disease in there so i know its clean. How much longer should i wait to add them to the family in the DT.