About a week and a half ago I received my shipment of livestock for my current 125 reef tank. It consisted of an emperor angel, blueface angel, flame angel, niger trigger, blue tang, indian trigger, and sailfin tang. All of the fish were in great condition on arrival, and were doing fine. I did however see some yellow-orange discolorations on the blueface, but from what I could tell it had slowly begun the color change process. However, in the last few days, it has become shy, and hides a lot in the rock. It doesn’t seem to eat (I had seen it peck at food but now not sure if I was imagining it). It had been eating when it arrived.
However what has happened now is I am seeing his dorsal fin and some of his upper body turning white. There doesn’t appear to be any growth on the actual fish but it does seem a little like the edges of the fins have turned a little rugged (almost as if the fin pulled back a little between ridges, but I might be just imagining it).
Now, I’m not extremely surprised by him being stressed out, as I’ve introduced some corals and also have been fiddling with the lighting in the last few days, however the other fish ate doing great. I dipped the corals in bayer and rinsed in 2 different buckets then scrubbed in a third bucket, and the corals were originally from a reliable vendor, Aqua SD, so I think that the chance they introduced a parasite or disease is minimal (though I do know that some diseases and parasite eggs escape the bayer dip).
Have not checked water parameters lately, but a week after the fish introduction (but before coral introduction) my pH was 8.2, nitrates 8 ppm, phosphate looked to be almost 0 (less than 0.25 ppm for sure, but perhaps a smidgeon above 0). And my salinity is sitting at a solid 1.024 SG. My alk was a little high, at 12 dKh. Edit: of course, nitrite and ammonia were 0, undetectable.
And so I am ultimately worried, especially when he lost much his appetite and is hiding as well as this recent color change. Is he sick? Or is this just part of him turning into an adult?
However what has happened now is I am seeing his dorsal fin and some of his upper body turning white. There doesn’t appear to be any growth on the actual fish but it does seem a little like the edges of the fins have turned a little rugged (almost as if the fin pulled back a little between ridges, but I might be just imagining it).
Now, I’m not extremely surprised by him being stressed out, as I’ve introduced some corals and also have been fiddling with the lighting in the last few days, however the other fish ate doing great. I dipped the corals in bayer and rinsed in 2 different buckets then scrubbed in a third bucket, and the corals were originally from a reliable vendor, Aqua SD, so I think that the chance they introduced a parasite or disease is minimal (though I do know that some diseases and parasite eggs escape the bayer dip).
Have not checked water parameters lately, but a week after the fish introduction (but before coral introduction) my pH was 8.2, nitrates 8 ppm, phosphate looked to be almost 0 (less than 0.25 ppm for sure, but perhaps a smidgeon above 0). And my salinity is sitting at a solid 1.024 SG. My alk was a little high, at 12 dKh. Edit: of course, nitrite and ammonia were 0, undetectable.
And so I am ultimately worried, especially when he lost much his appetite and is hiding as well as this recent color change. Is he sick? Or is this just part of him turning into an adult?
