Its just sad because I should have just done it in the first place and if worst comes to worst they all die I would never stop hating myself. Can we rule out the Aiptasia stinging theory just because I read that fish can produce more of a slime coat.
To be fair, quarantine may not have helped, my Royal gramma looks the same as yours, it was fine for the first 5 months in the tank, then changed sex, since that it's personally has totally changed, doesn't eat a lot and is slowly loosing condition.
Oh no thats not good! Is it ok if you can send a picture of yours? I also didnt realise they can change sex so thats pretty cool however it not eating is quite a bad problem I wish you all my luck.
Thanks..
Mine seems to be out all the time in the open or caves, eats pretty well, infact quite the opposite of yours. My theory for this whole situation is 1) brooklynella 2) aiptasia sting
I think im going to be a complete and utter idiot and play the wait game because nothing has happened to it externally ( the blotching hasnt gotten worse or better ) and seems fine other than that however if I do see a big decline then I will act ASAP.
If you do that, expect casualties. Nothing wrong with your decision, but it is certainly a risky one. It's definitely hard to be starting out and experience this. I was greeted to reefkeeping with parasites, and everything died because I didn't really know what to do. Fast forward several months, I was faced with the same challenge, but had the supplies and knowledge to do so. Sadly, if you wait, things will die. You'll feel guilty. But you'll become a better reefer for it.
To be honest, I didnt even do research at all with diseases and parasites because I thought they where hard to come by, my freshwater fish have no diseases whats so ever. Also my LFS got back to me and said they cannot refund or take back the fish however if it dies they would like a sample of my water and photos of this fish before and after death. They also said that it may have been that it scratched its head and needs healing which should take about a week.It takes time to understand. To tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure if it's Brooklynella either. It's just that Brook is known for affecting the mucous coat, and your royal gramma definitely looks like something is wrong with its mucous coat. Glad to hear you are doing research, though! That's the best way to rack up on knowledge!
It sounds to me like the lfs is saying it scratched its head because they wouldn't openly say their fish have parasites. Also, freshwater diseases are definitely nowhere near as deadly or abundant as saltwater disease. They're also much easier to remove.
True however I undertake every fish is different and they use the same quarantine method for eveything in the store but they had copperbands,harlequin tusks, orange spot filefish and yellow spotted scorpion fish. However this point to be fair is completely invalid. I understand there advice isnt the best but its controversial because there keeping rare and hard to get fish.
Probably the clownfish
Update: His back fin seems to be getting torn off more but cannot figure out any possible causes
