first of all i would like to say thank you for helping.
1. i've had the fish for about 2 weeks i've known a lot of these fish to be tank raised, however i'm not sure whether mine is or isn't.
2. couple of cleaner shrimp, bunch of crabs, pistol shrimp, randalli goby, algae blenny, and no aggression. except for when anything big comes close to the pistol shrimp it will snap it's claw(without attack), but that is rare
3. the fish IS eating mysis shrimp
4.
ph - 8.3, ammoina - 0, nitrite - 0, nitrate - 15, salinity is 1.024. i use test strips for the nitrate, ammonia, and nitrite. a refractometer for the salinity and an electronis test rod thing for the
ph.. i don't know the techinical name for it.
5. the fish's appearance has gotten worse. the eye is a little cloudy now and it looks like there is a "bruise" on it's tail. some white spots as well, but not like grains of salt. the spots are roundish and the size of his eye. i wish i could take a picture but it would come out blurry.. i need to find a camera that takes good tank pictures.
6. i had never heard the term flashing, but yes now that you mention it. my fish does flash. not so much rubbing. very quick back and forth motions. it will do quick spins and it hangs out with the cleaner shrimp all of the time, ubt the cleaner shrimp never touches him.
7. mostly hangs out with the cleaner shrimp in one area. although once i did see it hang out in the top corner of the tank away from everything. was there for maybe 30 mins. only once.
8. i dont have a
QT getting one setup right now would not be a option. maybe a 4 gallon bucket with a airstone... but not a full tank.
9. it is a 72
gal, with a 18
gal refugium. about 75 lbs of live rock, and about 120 lbs of live sand.
10. i've added a little calcium once. i've stayed away from meds, cause i've heard too many bad stories about them. however i do have "furan-2" manufactured by aquarium pharm. but i have not added it to the tank thinking it might do more harm than good. it does say " this medication will cause a harmless green color in the aquarium, which can be removed with activated carbon. this medication will not harm the biological filter in fresh or saltwater aquariums.
also catching the fish has been a task... well impossible, i've even tried a trap and failed....