Fish not doing so well...

[bschroller]

Hi again
I feel like I constantly come to this board with questions. I am a newbie at sw tanks, so I guess it is a given. I noticed this morning that one of my damsels is not doing too well. He has a white substance near the front of his body. I also noticed what looks like a battle scar on him. I have noticed that my other damsels have teamed up and pick on him. I have one agressive one and one that I guess has teamed up with the aggressive one so he wont get picked on. Instead they have targeted the littler fish. What should I do? I also noticed that the injured fish is not eating, even when I make sure to give him food near where he is swimming. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I really enjoy knowing I can come to a board and get the help I need.

 

[ogden10]

Damsels are pretty tough..... I would not worry about it to much. Were all of them added at the same time? If not you could try to rearrange your rock work in the tank. This changes the defined territories they have established and can put them all of even ground so to speak.

How long has he not been eating? What are you feeding?

 

[bschroller]

hi
He has never really defined a territory, the others have. He just started not eating today. I feed him marine granules and brine shrimp. He usually eats the brine shrimp but did not even eat that today. I am thinking I am going to take back the more aggressive fish because he is proofing to be a little more aggressive than I want in my tank. So I should I try to separate the fish that is getting picked on when I feed him? I might try rearranging the rocks to see how that works.
Thanks

 

[bschroller]

here are pics of my poor damsel. Any ideas?

 

[ogden10]

Hmmmm.
Based on the picture I can honestly say I have no idea what the white stuff is. If it just appeared and he did not have it before, I would guess maybe bacterial.

If you have a QT tank I would take him out and put him in there....one it will keep him from getting picked on, and two to prevent spreading if it is something.

Most likely if he is getting picked on real bad it is something relating to the stress.

For the record.... Alot of fish will go days without eating. In fact most people do not even feed them everyday. I would not worry if a fish does not eat for one day. If it last a few feedings try something else to entice them to eat, soak food in garlic helps alot.

Good luck maybe somone else will know what exactly is wrong with the damsel

 

[bschroller]

well the fish died during the night. Some ppl think it might have been an infected wound from being attacked by the other 2 damsels. We woke up yesterday morning, saw the white fuzzy patch and him swimming on the top of the tank. Through the course of the day the white patch got bigger, and by nightfall it covered about half of his left side. When we woke up the next morning, the fish was dead. The other 2 damsels show no signs of the same and as active. We are not sure what it was, but hope the other fish didnt catch it.

 

[austinsdad]

What other kinds of fish ya got or plan on getting? I've heard MANY stories of folks trying to get rid of their damsels later after more expensive fish added afterwards were stalked and picked on by the little territorial beasts. We're talking bigger and expensive fish that get picked on and either die or get diseased from the stress.