Sick fish. Was healthy at the store.

[Aaryk]

So I bought this guy Friday at my lps. He was healthy and very active at the store. Within an hour of adding him to my tank he became lethargic and acting strange. I checked my tank parameters before I went out and bought a new fish for my already established 55 gal tank. 0 ammonia. 0 nitrates. 0 nitrites. And my ph level was what it usually is for my area. Around 7/8. This will be the third fish in under a month I will have lost. All my other fish are acting normal. What is going wrong here?


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[alyxandria]

A common problem with new fish introduced into tanks is improper acclimation. How did you acclimate him?

His stomach does look a little sunken which could be due to being underfed or it could be an internal parasite.

What colour is his poop? If it's white then it's from the lining of the intestinal tract coming off due to parasites. You would then want to quarantine him and treat him with an anti-parasitic and allow his intestinal tract to heal. Watch for bacterial infections during this time because he will be prone to those - I assume you could do a preventative treatment with melafix while you're treating the parasites. If that is the case of course.

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