Firefish Heavy Breathing / Chunk of Fin Missing

[ATon98]

Nice to meet everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have had my tank running since January of this year (~6 months) and have been fortunate enough to not experience any major problems with any of my livestock thus far. This morning, I was feeding the tank and noticed that my firefish was exhibiting rapid breathing and had a chunk of his bottom fin missing (not sure if I am just now noticing or if it is linked to the breathing). It is also coming in and out of hiding more frequently, relative to its behavior since picking it up about a month ago. Otherwise, it is eating / interacting normally.

In addition to the firefish, my tank includes two clownfish, a damselfish, a wrasse, a pincushion urchin, skunk shrimp, several hermits, turbo snails and margarita snails. Additionally, I have some soft starter coral in the tank as well. I have two videos one showing the firefish specifically and another video of the other inhabitants of the tank to compare behavior / breathing. Let me know if any supplemental information would be helpful.

Firefish breathing
General tank

Levels (Red Sea):
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.2
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Salinity: 1.026

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice to meet everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have had my tank running since January of this year (~6 months) and have been fortunate enough to not experience any major problems with any of my livestock thus far. This morning, I was feeding the tank and noticed that my firefish was exhibiting rapid breathing and had a chunk of his bottom fin missing (not sure if I am just now noticing or if it is linked to the breathing). It is also coming in and out of hiding more frequently, relative to its behavior since picking it up about a month ago. Otherwise, it is eating / interacting normally.

In addition to the firefish, my tank includes two clownfish, a damselfish, a wrasse, a pincushion urchin, skunk shrimp, several hermits, turbo snails and margarita snails. Additionally, I have some soft starter coral in the tank as well. I have two videos one showing the firefish specifically and another video of the other inhabitants of the tank to compare behavior / breathing. Let me know if any supplemental information would be helpful.

Firefish breathing
General tank

Levels (Red Sea):
PH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0.2
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0
Salinity: 1.026

Firefish does appear to be a victim of aggression and those clowns are my prime suspects and the goby r clowns will need to be isolated at least for now. The rapid breathing is likely due to stress and fear

 

[jabberwock]

You have a lot of aggressive fish, and 1 very docile one.

 

[ATon98]

You have a lot of aggressive fish, and 1 very docile one.

Got it, thank you both. Will isolate and monitor.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I agree with the others that it seems to be from aggression. For me, the defining observation is that the fire fish is still eating, diseases that cause rapid breathing also tend to make the fish go off feed.

 

[ATon98]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I agree with the others that it seems to be from aggression. For me, the defining observation is that the fire fish is still eating, diseases that cause rapid breathing also tend to make the fish go off feed.

Understood. Thank you for all of the fast responses / help. Much easier to manage than the alternative.