large cut? dying collare butterfly!

[toadery]

it seems to have a large gouge on his body, but not sure how this would happen. he is now hovering in the middle of the tank, not eating, and has very cloudy eyes. what can i do??
all params are normal otherwise, no other fish are having problems either.

thanks
russ

 

[steve-s]

What species of damsel do you have and are there any other fish?

Most likely the Bfly has injured itself. Best course of action is a few good sized water changes (well aged/aerated) over the next week or so to help prevent infection. Also be sure to soak foods in a good marine liq vitamin high in [acronym="Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acid"]HUFA[/acronym]. Beta Glucan would be a plus if you can find it.

Cheers
Steve

 

[toadery]

ya good idea.. getting ready for some major water changes. although i think i've lost him already....
ahhh i am sad, what a nice fish

 

[steve-s]

What species of damsel do you have and are there any other fish?

Cheers
Steve

 

[toadery]

oh yeah..
yellow tail damsels. vicious little bastards. also one tang, lots of hermit crabs, snails, and 3 pep shrimp.

btw.. 'toadie' (the brown collare bfly) died last night! found him crammed in the live rock. damn, poor guy.

russ

 

[toadery]

damn

 

[toadery]

hmm censorship.

 

[toadery]

also, i had a wrasse for awhile.. and now it is nowhere to be seen!
perhaps nipped by the bfly(he was annoyed by the cleanings) and died? then eaten by shrimp? really too bad all this random die off...

 

[steve-s]

Sorry for your loss

Given your tank size, I would avoid adding another large growing fish with a yellow tang. They are quite territorial and can often fight with new additions similar to it's own size and general shape. More likely the problem with the Bfly was stress from aggression and possibly injury from fighting with the tang, damsels or both. Yellow tails are pretty good at squabbling but are usually not a threat in terms of injuring a larger fish. They can cause a good deal of stress if the new addition is already ailing.

Depending on the species of your wrasse, they do not always acclimate well to captive environments. Especially juveniles and cleaner species. The success rate with keeping cleaner wrasses alive more than a few months is less than 50%.

I would give the tank about a month to settle down before attempting a new addition. Since you have the spare 30 gal, set it up as a QT start cycling it now and you'll be ready for the next addition. With the damsels and tang already in residence, stick with slightly more aggressive species. Meek fish species will not fair well.

Cheers
Steve