red spotted scorpion

[dwint]

I've had this fish about a month and was eating daily or skip a day which i hear is too much.Today is Saturday and he hasn't ate since last Sunday.I only have a clown with it in a 75 gallon and now it won't even eat ghost shrimp.My water is always perfect and from my experience not eating always leads to death with my fish.This fish is trained like my puffer was and i'd hate to see it die.It is on the large size and i'm wondering if it is old.Afer looking at it close the eyes are bigger and it looks like there is a glass bubble around it's eye .Also heavy breathing.

 

[Sharkbait19]

@lion king
Any recent changes with the tank?

 

[dwint]

no

 

[lion king]

Are both eyes cloudy, or just one, if only one it could be from an injury. Stopping eating with cloudy eyes could be internal parasites, these fish do come with internal frequently and it can take weeks before they advance enough to indicate an issue. General cure would be the treatment, it is not reef safe and should be started immediately.

You could have been feeding too often, but after a week they should be ready to eat again. What have you been feeding, if rosies were offered these can cause bloat. Possible digestive issues can be addressed by increasing mg to 1400ppm-1600ppm.

These fish do have a high mortality rate and can mysteriously decline for unknown reasons, just stop eating and die. That looks like a Scorpaena plumieri and can reach 14" in the wild, so unless it's that big, it's not dying from old age. If the fish survives it will eventually eat your clowns.

 

[dwint]

Are both eyes cloudy, or just one, if only one it could be from an injury. Stopping eating with cloudy eyes could be internal parasites, these fish do come with internal frequently and it can take weeks before they advance enough to indicate an issue. General cure would be the treatment, it is not reef safe and should be started immediately.

You could have been feeding too often, but after a week they should be ready to eat again. What have you been feeding, if rosies were offered these can cause bloat. Possible digestive issues can be addressed by increasing mg to 1400ppm-1600ppm.

These fish do have a high mortality rate and can mysteriously decline for unknown reasons, just stop eating and die. That looks like a Scorpaena plumieri and can reach 14" in the wild, so unless it's that big, it's not dying from old age. If the fish survives it will eventually eat your clowns.

I feed it clams,silversides and mainly shrimp.It's 5 1/2 to 6 inches and eyes aren't cloudy now that i look close but seems like it has a rounded clear lens?Not sure if it's always been like that.Only live thing i ever fed it was ghost shrimp but mainly the others mentioned.What would i treat it if i don't know what's wrong with it?It's a gold stripe maroon that stays up high so know problem it getting eaten.

 

[lion king]

I feed it clams,silversides and mainly shrimp.It's 5 1/2 to 6 inches and eyes aren't cloudy now that i look close but seems like it has a rounded clear lens?Not sure if it's always been like that.Only live thing i ever fed it was ghost shrimp but mainly the others mentioned.What would i treat it if i don't know what's wrong with it?It's a gold stripe mmaroon that stays up high so know problem it getting eaten.

These fish do come in with internal parasites often, and stopping eating is the 1st sign. Prophylactic or preventive treatment using general cure with these species is not a bad idea. General cure is the treatment, dosed to water volume not tank size. You could try the live ghost shrimp again to see if they would eat, you could feed this fish no more than every other day to twice a week.

Look around the tank to see if you see what may look like shredded plastic strips, or at the rear of the fish for white stringy poo, which is another indicator of internal parasites.

 

[dwint]

These fish do come in with internal parasites often, and stopping eating is the 1st sign. Prophylactic or preventive treatment using general cure with these species is not a bad idea. General cure is the treatment, dosed to water volume not tank size. You could try the live ghost shrimp again to see if they would eat, you could feed this fish no more than every other day to twice a week.

Look around the tank to see if you see what may look like shredded plastic strips, or at the rear of the fish for white stringy poo, which is another indicator of internal parasites.

I saw it poop for the first time last week and it was long like a gold fish poop and it was gray.

 

[lion king]

I saw it poop for the first time last week and it was long like a gold fish poop and it was gray.

Like a long string, a healthy poop for these fish is more like a dog, they will poop out turds. If there is little flow in the tank you can actually scoop it out. If the poop was long and stringy no matter what color, it could be an indication of internal parasites. It turns white towards the end of the infection, at the beginning it could be brown or greyish. I would treat with general cure.

 

[dwint]

I've had this fish about a month and was eating daily or skip a day which i hear is too much.Today is Saturday and he hasn't ate since last Sunday.I only have a clown with it in a 75 gallon and now it won't even eat ghost shrimp.My water is always perfect and from my experience not eating always leads to death with my fish.This fish is trained like my puffer was and i'd hate to see it die.It is on the large size and i'm wondering if it is old.Afer looking at it close the eyes are bigger and it looks like there is a glass bubble around it's eye .Also heavy breathing.

I've had this fish about a month and was eating daily or skip a day which i hear is too much.Today is Saturday and he hasn't ate since last Sunday.I only have a clown with it in a 75 gallon and now it won't even eat ghost shrimp.My water is always perfect and from my experience not eating always leads to death with my fish.This fish is trained like my puffer was and i'd hate to see it die.It is on the large size and i'm wondering if it is old.Afer looking at it close the eyes are bigger and it looks like there is a glass bubble around it's eye .Also heavy breathing.

These fish do come in with internal parasites often, and stopping eating is the 1st sign. Prophylactic or preventive treatment using general cure with these species is not a bad idea. General cure is the treatment, dosed to water volume not tank size. You could try the live ghost shrimp again to see if they would eat, you could feed this fish no more than every other day to twice a week.

Look around the tank to see if you see what may look like shredded plastic strips, or at the rear of the fish for white stringy poo, which is another indicator of internal parasites.

Like a long string, a healthy poop for these fish is more like a dog, they will poop out turds. If there is little flow in the tank you can actually scoop it out. If the poop was long and stringy no matter what color, it could be an indication of internal parasites. It turns white towards the end of the infection, at the beginning it could be brown or greyish. I would treat with general cure.

I ordered it from amazon but won't be here until monday.Thanks for the advice.Maybe it will live.

 

[dwint]

I figured my fish has constipation along with a parasite problem so i gave it a epson salt bath but only 6 teaspons instead of eight per two gallons.I just woke up and looked at it and he is no longer fuzzy like they usually are.It's skin is falling off like fuzz off of a worn blanket.I hope it's not acting like acid.It was only in there for 10 minutes.It's more active this morning but i just hope it's not in pain.It's like a fuzzy lion fish that's not fuzzy anymore.The general cure comes in the mail today so maybe i can save it.

 

[mc-nuggs]

My Scorpion fish history:
I've owned 2 scorpion fish. I've never found any good tips for keeping them, other than looking up lionfish care tips. My first scorpion fish is still alive. The second one died on the 3rd week I had him, about 1 week after not eating. He suddenly had no appetite; would not be interested in anything. He died from some kind of seizure. I woke up one morning to find him him on the glass aquarium bottom (100 gal, bottomless tank), listing to one side with his fins sticking out, like he was paralyzed. As soon as I pulled him up and onto the egg crate, he started spasmodically seizing, and jumped out of the tank, almost hitting me in the face. I used a net to get him off my floor, and dumped him back into the tank, but he remained motionless, and I realized later that he wasn't breathing.

I just lost a copperband butterflyfish this last week with the same symptoms. Couldn't get it to eat anything, and a week later it "froze" like a catatonic person (was still breathing in this state like the scorpion fish), and died.

I know that both these fish were not aquacultured; they were live caught. That is the only common factor I can think of when it comes to the only 2 fish that have died in my aquariums.

Diet history of my surviving scorpion fish:
My surviving scorpion fish is an oddball. His diet is constantly changing. I've had him since January of this year, 2023. He would only eat live food at first, so I trained him to eat live ghost shrimp off tongs.

I then got him to eat thawed krill shrimp off tongs from that, and for about 2 months, it was good.
Then I started noticing he was regurgitating all his meals, like within 5 minutes of ingesting the thawed krill shrimp.
He would not keep anything down. I knew the krill shrimp was still good, because my snowflake eel was still gobbling them up with no problem.

At the time he rejected thawed krill shrimp (around March or April), ghost shrimp were not available anywhere that I could find, and I moved from thawed krill shrimp to freshwater feeder fish (minnows/goldfish) on tongs, which was suggested by a local saltwater guy. And for about 2 months, that was good.
Then he stopped eating those also. Wouldn't bite. No idea why.

Then one night I was slightly drunk, and I had an epiphany that throwing up motionless objects was probably an evolutionary reflex, since they sit on shallow reef floors, where there is probably a lot of junk or detritus floating around, and they eat anything in front of them that moves. Eating something dead, or stationary would be bad, or non-digestible, so expelling it would be a good thing. So maybe the sensation of something moving once ingested was a condition for not regurgitating it.
I thought that if he were to eat frozen food still frozen, the sensation of cold might keep him from throwing it up, because the sensation would be enough for him to know that it wasn't detritus.

And, I'm not making this up, I feed him bite-sized chunks of still-frozen krill shrimp with tongs. And this, he keeps down. I cut them off the sheet with my coral bone cutters. I've been doing this for about 2 months now, and he's still eating. I feed him multiple servings, each spaced about 30 minutes apart, because a cold-blooded animal eating frozen stuff can't possibly be an optimal feeding habit. But he's still alive and eating, which is better than what it was before.

Honestly, I don't know why he stopped eating the freshwater feeder fish. I took the attached picture of him 5 mins ago, as well as the setup for feeding him, so there is no misunderstanding of what it is that I am saying. He was about 3 inches when I got him in January, and he is about 6 inches now.

I hope you can get your scorpion fish eating again. Everyone who has seen my scorpion fish takes a liking to him, and asks how he is doing.

Also, I've never heard of anyone else doing this, but I swear to you, this is working for me. And as one hobbyist who would do just about anything to keep his reef inhabitants happy, I thought I would share this info. Still no idea why my second fish stopped eating and died with a seizure. Good luck.

 

[mc-nuggs]

Also, my scorpion fish turns white and dull, and then sheds his skin about every 2-4 weeks. The first time it was happening, I panicked and thought it was ich. Additionally, it's surprising how different he looks under blue lighting compared to white lighting. I'll usually see his skin (once shed) stuck in a powerhead, or flapping on a rock in the water flow, and his color will be at its most vibrant. Scorpion fish can also change color over time to blend in to their environment. I think mine was more dark purple when I got him in January, but now he is more red/white (even looks blotchy in the above picture), since I have a lot of white rock w/ no coraline algae.

Here are my usual water parameters:
Salinity: 34-36 ppt, measured by a refractometer, calibrated with 35 ppt refractometer calibration fluid (bought both off amazon)
Temp: usually 76 - 80 deg F. The summer heatwave has bumped it up to 80 deg on a number of days. I have a chiller for cooling the tank to 78, once it hits 80. My heater is set to 75.
ph: usually 7.8 to 8.2. Sometimes I used sodium hydroxide or calcium hydroxide to bump it up to 8.4. These days, I don't do that so much.
ORP: 425 (ozone from ozotech device)

Alk (carbonate hardness): 9 - 11 dkh
Calcium: ~500 ppm
Magnesium: ~1500 ppm