beat up royal gramma

[mdavidson]

I have had my royal gram a for 2 weeks now in with a pair of occalaris clowns, a coral beauty and a yellow watchman. All the fish have always gotten along, never saw any aggression or chasing or anything. When I got home from work last night I noticd d his tail fin was shredded a ton and his coloration was off. This morn he was laying upside down in a corner with even worse coloration and even more beat up. All of the other fish OK fine except my watchman has darkened up. I have hermits and one emerald crab. Would one of them shred the royal gram a at night or is it possible I have an unknown hitchhiker that did that at night.

 

[joy13]

First how big is your tank? I am thinking it is either your clowns or your coral beauty. Both are semi aggressive clowns usually aren't but as a pair they can be.

I had a lemonpeel in a 55 with a royal gamma and clown fish. I never saw any actual aggressive behavior however my fish which I had had for 2 years was acting strange. They stopped being out and begging when I was in the room. In another tank I had a midas and a flasher wrasse never saw any aggression but my wrasses color changed and his fins go a little tattered. I put him in the 55 after the lemonpeel was removed and he is great now color back and healed fat happy little guy.

Just because there is no actual chasing and nipping doesn't mean there isn't stress and stress is a silent quick killer.

 

[mdavidson]

Its a 29 gallon. The weird thing is his tail fin was mostly missing as was a few spots on other fins.