Chromis not eating/hardly swimming

[Thorne23]

For the last 36 hours one of my Black-Axil Chromis stopped eating completely and either hangs out right at the sandbed or up in a corner of the tank. Moves very slowly. This new behavior happened 100% overnight. Had been eating well and very active for many months. Visibly looks very good and and breathing seems fairly normal. It is possible that there is some very minor damage to his tail but it is barely visible. I haven't observed any aggression and if anything this guy tends to be the dominant one. Normal poop as far as I have seen but have not observed a poop in the last few days.

My tank: 50 Gal. mixed reef with just a few corals so far that has been fully cycled for 5 months now. 2 Black-Axil Chromis, 2 clowns, 1 small yellow tang, two cleaner shrimp and one fighting conch. No new additions for a couple months.

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 2.0
Phosphate 0.02
Alkalinity: 9.0 dKH
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Temp: 78F

I am running UV on the tank. The change really did happen all of a sudden so I'm worried he might have injured himself somehow. I did a 20 ga. water change yesterday and started running carbon in case there is some contaminate in the water somehow. I do have everything on hand for a hospital tank if needed but I would need to set it up.

I'm still a beginner at this so any advice is appreciated

 

[McCarrick]

For the last 36 hours one of my Black-Axil Chromis stopped eating completely and either hangs out right at the sandbed or up in a corner of the tank. Moves very slowly. This new behavior happened 100% overnight. Had been eating well and very active for many months. Visibly looks very good and and breathing seems fairly normal. It is possible that there is some very minor damage to his tail but it is barely visible. I haven't observed any aggression and if anything this guy tends to be the dominant one. Normal poop as far as I have seen but have not observed a poop in the last few days.

My tank: 50 Gal. mixed reef with just a few corals so far that has been fully cycled for 5 months now. 2 Black-Axil Chromis, 2 clowns, 1 small yellow tang, two cleaner shrimp and one fighting conch. No new additions for a couple months.

Parameters:
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 2.0
Phosphate 0.02
Alkalinity: 9.0 dKH
Salinity: 1.025
pH: 8.0
Temp: 78F

I am running UV on the tank. The change really did happen all of a sudden so I'm worried he might have injured himself somehow. I did a 20 ga. water change yesterday and started running carbon in case there is some contaminate in the water somehow. I do have everything on hand for a hospital tank if needed but I would need to set it up.

I'm still a beginner at this so any advice is appreciated

How long have you had it in the tank? Did you quarantine it before adding it? Chromis are especially vulnerable to uronema. There is an article somewhere on uronema that you may find helpful

 

[Thorne23]

How long have you had it in the tank? Did you quarantine it before adding it? Chromis are especially vulnerable to uronema. There is an article somewhere on uronema that you may find helpful

Both Chromis were added as a pair in October. I did not QT but I did purchase them from the Diver's Den on LiveAquaria that at least claims to put them through a QT. They are also Fijian in origin which from research I did at the time tend to be much less susceptible to uronema than Chromis from other regions.

I've read HumbleFish's posts about the disease, but beyond the red sores I don't see anything else about other symptoms, so not sure if what I am seeing is consistent with uronema if I don't see any signs of sores.

 

[McCarrick]

Both Chromis were added as a pair in October. I did not QT but I did purchase them from the Diver's Den on LiveAquaria that at least claims to put them through a QT. They are also Fijian in origin which from research I did at the time tend to be much less susceptible to uronema than Chromis from other regions.

I've read HumbleFish's posts about the disease, but beyond the red sores I don't see anything else about other symptoms, so not sure if what I am seeing is consistent with uronema if I don't see any signs of sores.

I would assume it ih dnt uronema then! Which is say is a good thing. And considering that they've been there since October, uronema shows much earlier I believe.

Maybe it got bullied randomly. Even the bullies get bullied back sometimes. If it hasn't been eating then it would make sense that there isnt. Poop. Maybe try a different food to catch his eye.

 

[Thorne23]

Here is a picture of it hovering above the sand bed. And a zoomed in picture of its tail. This is the only possible damage I can see on it. Going on 72 hours of not eating and just hovering either at the sand bed or near the top of the water, usually in a corner.

 

[Thorne23]

Has now been 4 days since it last ate. Overall its behavior has not changed much. Thinking about setting up and moving it to a hospital tank today. It seems less aware of the other tank inhabitants, so I worry about bullying as he aimlessly drifts into other fish's preferred areas of the tank. I also have a bunch of different frozen foods coming in today to see if any of them stimulate its appetite.

Visibly still no sores or any other signs of disease other than the behavioral changes.

Any other ideas or suggestions?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That’s a tough case- no real symptoms to work with. The fish looks pretty good overall! The respiration rate isn’t elevated?
All I can say is leaving it in the tank and hoping something will change probably won’t work, so I agree with moving it. Possibly treating with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic then.
Jay

 

[Thorne23]

That’s a tough case- no real symptoms to work with. The fish looks pretty good overall! The respiration rate isn’t elevated?
All I can say is leaving it in the tank and hoping something will change probably won’t work, so I agree with moving it. Possibly treating with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic then.
Jay

Thanks for the reply. Would it be a good idea to target a lower salinity in the hospital tank (my display is 1.025)? Should I take water from my display tank or start with freshly mixed saltwater? I have media seeding with bacteria in my display sump already so I should be able to get everything set up this afternoon.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for the reply. Would it be a good idea to target a lower salinity in the hospital tank (my display is 1.025)? Should I take water from my display tank or start with freshly mixed saltwater? I have media seeding with bacteria in my display sump already so I should be able to get everything set up this afternoon.

I think you could go a tad lower, perhaps 1.023. I would take water from the tank, fresh mixed seawater can have some pH swings, and some brands have ammonia as a contaminant.
Jay

 

[Thorne23]

I think you could go a tad lower, perhaps 1.023. I would take water from the tank, fresh mixed seawater can have some pH swings, and some brands have ammonia as a contaminant.
Jay

Forgot to mention from your earlier post, but no breathing issues as far as I can tell. Not rapid or forced in anyway.

So reading through HumbleFish's recommendations and based on what I can get quickly I plan on doing a Furan-2 + Seachem Kanaplex + Metroplex treatment in the hospital tank. I'll dose the water vs. trying to dose its food since its currently not eating.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Forgot to mention from your earlier post, but no breathing issues as far as I can tell. Not rapid or forced in anyway.

So reading through HumbleFish's recommendations and based on what I can get quickly I plan on doing a Furan-2 + Seachem Kanaplex + Metroplex treatment in the hospital tank. I'll dose the water vs. trying to dose its food since its currently not eating.

Dosing water for marine fish is fine, since they need to drink copious amounts to maintain osmotic balance, they intake the meds that way. That trio of drugs is a pretty good "shotgun" approach when you don't know what is wrong with a fish, but you think it isn't an external parasitic issue.

Jay

 

[Thorne23]

That trio of drugs is a pretty good "shotgun" approach when you don't know what is wrong with a fish, but you think it isn't an external parasitic issue.

Started the Antibiotic trio last Friday. The Furan-2 and the Kanaplex have run through the recommended days for dosing, and I can continue dosing the Metroplex every other day for another week based on the directions. I was able to see a couple poops the first couple of days in the hospital tank and they looked fairly normal albeit small which is not surprising considering it hadn't really eaten in a week at that point.

Unfortunately there has been almost no change in the fish's behavior. It almost seems like it is blind or at least severely impaired. It will swim normally at times in a straight line in the hospital tank, but frequently bumps into the glass. It also does not respond to visual stimuli that would normally send healthy fish fleeing, such as quickly bringing my hand up to the glass or lights turning on or off. I have been able to get it to eat a couple bites over the last week but the food needs to almost hit it in the mouth and occasionally it will reflexively bite at it with sporadic success.

My only guess at this point is it got spooked and ran into a rock and damaged itself internally somehow. It still looks surprisingly healthy considering it hasn't really eaten in the last 2 weeks.

Any other thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I was going to suggest you try a sight test, but you already have, and it seems it failed. On larger fish, you can often feed a blind fish by impaling a mysid on the end of heavy fishing leader or even a thin broomstraw and the holding it up to their snout...not sure the technique will translate to a small fish like this.
Sorry, I don’t know of any cure for blindness in fish, although they sometimes recover on their own.
Jay