Royal Gramma Looks Sick

[cmcimino]

I have a 29 gallon nanocube that has been setup for 2 years now, and I notice my royal gramma has been missing since I got back in town from being out this past weekend. I found him behind the rocks breathing heavily. I could not see much of his body but his face looked faded/scratched up. He has been in the tank for over a year, and been fine. He was the last fish I added to the tank, and all of my fish have been quarantined. Is it possible for him to get a disease without adding anything to the tank recently? He could be dying of old age maybe, as I bought him from someone who was tearing down their tank so I have no idea how old he is. My other thought is he is stuck in the rock, which happened when I moved my tank. He got extremely stressed, but ended up recovering. Any thoughts on this? I would try to get some pictures but all I can really see is his bottom jaw.

 

[Tahoe61]

Is the fish being bullied?

 

[HotRocks]

I have a 29 gallon nanocube that has been setup for 2 years now, and I notice my royal gramma has been missing since I got back in town from being out this past weekend. I found him behind the rocks breathing heavily. I could not see much of his body but his face looked faded/scratched up. He has been in the tank for over a year, and been fine. He was the last fish I added to the tank, and all of my fish have been quarantined. Is it possible for him to get a disease without adding anything to the tank recently? He could be dying of old age maybe, as I bought him from someone who was tearing down their tank so I have no idea how old he is. My other thought is he is stuck in the rock, which happened when I moved my tank. He got extremely stressed, but ended up recovering. Any thoughts on this? I would try to get some pictures but all I can really see is his bottom jaw.

Disease is probably less likely. Possible though if he was living with disease and his immune system was winning the move stressed the fish enough to let the disease take hold.

Did you move the tank with him in it? Injury is totally possible here, or injury with a secondary infection from the injury.

 

[cmcimino]

The move was over 6 months ago, and he has been very healthy and active the past 6 months. I don't think he would be bullied, hes kind of the tank bully himself. Tank mates are two black ice clowns and a six line wrasse. Everyone is usually very peaceful, sometimes the gramma would flare up if the other fish came too close to his little spot, but no biting or attacking. I don' think he would have gotten stuck in the powerhead because he usually stays towards the bottom of the tank, but I could see him getting stuck in the rocks since there are a lot of little holes he navigates through. I reckon I will just keep an eye on him as much as possible and update you all with any changes. I know royal grammas do not do well with stress, so i really don't want to try and catch him to quarantine him since he already seems on edge.

 

[cmcimino]

So I went home during lunch and tried to get back where he was with the turkey baster and move some sand around. After blasting some sand he quickly swam out from where he was, looking very scrapped up. I am assuming he was stuck back there and could not get out. Here's to a quick recovery.