Fish acting strange

[Bored_shrimp]

I have some chromis virdis or blue/green chromis that are acting strange and I can't figure out why. All they do is sit at the bottom or top or wherever in the tank, usually the bottom though and do nothing. I'm not sure if they're sick or what, but I can't figure out what's up with them. They won't react to any external stimuli except if you touch them then they slowly move about half an inch to an inch away and continue sitting there as if they're a vegetable, I honestly haven't a clue what's wrong with them. I have two chromis in that tank with the others that are fine and act like normal chromis do. They also came out of a 55 gallon into a 40 since they were doing this. I moved them because in my 40 I can watch them better and there is literally nothing that could harass them in that tank, not that there is in the 55 either, at least I don't think. In the 55 I have a canary wrasse, a lawnmower blenny, a pair of clown fish which are still on the smaller side, a fire fish, and three other chromis that are acting normal, In the 40 all I have are chromis, three of which are not acting normal, two of which are fine. In the 55 my parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.0
phosphate .5-1
Kh 8-12
40 parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.0
Phosphate .25
Kh 8-12
I got as many parameters as I could in case someone can figure something out with them. The longest one of the fish has been like this is about a month or maybe a little more, I haven't had anymore start this strange behavior recently and the ones that are acting weird look absolutely flawless so I have no idea what's happening cause I can't see any signs of anything. I would attach a picture, but I don't have a way of doing that. I've looked on other forums with chromis acting like this, but either they weren't able to be answered or they said aggression and I have an extremely hard time believing it's aggression, I also had one do this after an out break of uronema in my tank. They were my first fish I think and I brought them home and they started dropping from that. One survived all of it and was fine for awhile, then started the behavior like the ones I have now, probably for different reasons, but I don't know. I haven't had uronema since that outbreak of it and that was when I started the salt water part of the hobby. If you think you might know something voice your thoughts cause I'm out of them.

 

[Idoc]

Chromis are very susceptible to Uronema, so watch them closely for changes in appearance. But, maybe it's the stress of the new environment and not being able to break into the current social heirarchy of the other present Chromis. Chromis are known to be aggressive toward their own kind and dwindle down numbers.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have some chromis virdis or blue/green chromis that are acting strange and I can't figure out why. All they do is sit at the bottom or top or wherever in the tank, usually the bottom though and do nothing. I'm not sure if they're sick or what, but I can't figure out what's up with them. They won't react to any external stimuli except if you touch them then they slowly move about half an inch to an inch away and continue sitting there as if they're a vegetable, I honestly haven't a clue what's wrong with them. I have two chromis in that tank with the others that are fine and act like normal chromis do. They also came out of a 55 gallon into a 40 since they were doing this. I moved them because in my 40 I can watch them better and there is literally nothing that could harass them in that tank, not that there is in the 55 either, at least I don't think. In the 55 I have a canary wrasse, a lawnmower blenny, a pair of clown fish which are still on the smaller side, a fire fish, and three other chromis that are acting normal, In the 40 all I have are chromis, three of which are not acting normal, two of which are fine. In the 55 my parameters are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.0
phosphate .5-1
Kh 8-12
40 parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
PH 8.0
Phosphate .25
Kh 8-12
I got as many parameters as I could in case someone can figure something out with them. The longest one of the fish has been like this is about a month or maybe a little more, I haven't had anymore start this strange behavior recently and the ones that are acting weird look absolutely flawless so I have no idea what's happening cause I can't see any signs of anything. I would attach a picture, but I don't have a way of doing that. I've looked on other forums with chromis acting like this, but either they weren't able to be answered or they said aggression and I have an extremely hard time believing it's aggression, I also had one do this after an out break of uronema in my tank. They were my first fish I think and I brought them home and they started dropping from that. One survived all of it and was fine for awhile, then started the behavior like the ones I have now, probably for different reasons, but I don't know. I haven't had uronema since that outbreak of it and that was when I started the salt water part of the hobby. If you think you might know something voice your thoughts cause I'm out of them.

You shouldn’t be able to reach into a tank and touch a healthy chromis, I presume these fish aren’t eating?
Jay

 

[Bored_shrimp]

You shouldn’t be able to reach into a tank and touch a healthy chromis, I presume these fish aren’t eating?
Jay

They've been like this for awhile so I think they would have starved by now if they weren't, I think they might just be picking at little tid bits here and there, then again if they aren't doing literally anything I guess a slow metabolism could sustain them for awhile. To be honest I don't know, but I have no visual confirmation that they are eating.

 

[Bored_shrimp]

Chromis are very susceptible to Uronema, so watch them closely for changes in appearance. But, maybe it's the stress of the new environment and not being able to break into the current social heirarchy of the other present Chromis. Chromis are known to be aggressive toward their own kind and dwindle down numbers.

They've been like this for a while and I haven't see anything, I brought them home from the fish store and they were perfectly fine for a while and then they weren't, I just have a hard time believing it's aggression because I never saw them fighting or anything and I watch them a lot, my computers right by their tank and I would glance up at the tank and stare at it while I procrastinated on what I was doing or when I took a break, the most I ever saw was maybe one little slow peck at another, but then it stopped. I've been thinking it has to be something social more over physical though, but some of the fish from the same batch as the one acting weird are doing just fine in there. I thought at one point it might be under stimulation of their minds even, so I moved them over to that 40 tank with right now one coral and a few fake decorations I put in for them to try and entertain them or something. The thing is though before I got theses one a different one was doing it too that one though unlike these ones was torn up, but he was fine the day before, so with that one it could be aggression, but theses other one I have a hard time thinking it was aggression cause like I said their fins are perfect and there aren't any red spots or places with scales falling off. who knows, maybe it is aggression though, I don't know, my dad's a veterinarian and if one of them do end up dying I was gonna have him take a deeper look at it than I could. Maybe next time I'll try getting them in the tank a different way like taking the existing chromis out first and moving the rock around so they have to establish new territories and think it's a whole different tank or something. I did have one that when I moved him and put the decorations in the tank he did start swimming around again though, but only in circles, then he stopped and started doing nothing again. I mean stress of the new environment and social hierarchy thing sound plausible definitely, but when I put them in the other tank I think that would have helped with the whole social hierarchy at least. It also took them like two to three week if I remember correctly to start doing this for at least some of them. for the last one that started doing this it took him like a month and a week to lose it I think and I'm kinda surprised he was the last one to do that cause he/she is still pretty small.

 

[Bored_shrimp]

Also thanks for responding and helping me with this.

 

[Idoc]

If you have an acclimation box, maybe try putting them in that and closer to all the other fish in a different part of the tank. Then release them after a couple days and see if they are more social.

It could be a couple males who initially had a fight when first introduced... the shy one lost and is now just staying away from the others??

 

[Bored_shrimp]

I don't know, when I introduced the chromis they more so were curious than aggressive, really most fish who tend to be aggressive tend to be curious first I guess, but it took a bit for them to become like this. I guess I might try the acclimation box, but honestly I'm not sure it'll help because those fish aren't just shy, it's more like if they're mentally sick than anything really. Like a human that care about absolutely nothing and barely takes care of the basic needs for living.

 

[Bored_shrimp]

Yep, pretty sure it's uronema. Got one with red hemorrhaging spots and one that looks like it's about to start. Hope maybe this forum can help someone else in the future who's having issues.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yep, pretty sure it's uronema. Got one with red hemorrhaging spots and one that looks like it's about to start. Hope maybe this forum can help someone else in the future who's having issues.

FWIW: I just posted this for another person whose fish has Uronema....

Uronema is a common protozoan that usually feeds on bacteria. In some cases though, it becomes a cause of disease in fish; Chromis, Anthias and Halichoeres wrasses (usually the yellow coris). Here is an excerpt of some material that I wrote about this disease:

Uronema marinum (Red band disease)

Cause
Uronema is an elongate, oval, ciliated, motile protozoan, up to 40 um in length, that can become an opportunistic pathogen in marine aquariums. Because it is so generic-looking, identification in the field is always provisional. Most professional aquarists actually mean “Uronema-like” when they say “Uronema.”

Uronema infections have been seen in six families of fishes (in roughly descending order of frequency): Pomacentridae (damselfishes, specifically of the genus Chromis); Serranidae (subfamily Anthiinae the Anthias); Syngnathidae (seahorses and seadragons); Labridae (the wrasses); Chaetodontidae (the butterflyfishes); and, occasionally, Pomacanthidae (the angelfishes). There are, no doubt, other species of fish that can be infected.

Symptoms
This moderately common protozoan disease has symptoms that include the rapid development of a red mark in the hypodermis (fat and muscle) region of the fish, often following rows of scales so that the lesion is typically elongate and angled downward as it progresses front to back along the flank of the fish. Within a day or two of the development of the primary lesion, the fish will become lethargic and stop feeding and its respiration rate will increase. Scales above the lesion can be dislodged easily due to the massive trauma to the underlying tissue. Death follows rapidly, with few fish surviving beyond three days after the primary lesion develops.

Almost universally, aquarists who do not have access to a microscope will identify this disease as a “secondary bacterial infection resulting from some injury.” In fact, “capture damage” is often cited as the original cause due to the often-linear nature of the lesion, which looks much like a bruise from being hit with a net frame, for example. The rapid onset of the lesion (often many days after capture) and the fact that it develops internally and then erupts externally both point to another cause.

Treatment
A variety of treatments have been suggested for Uronema infections, but full control is rarely seen following most of these treatments. Part of the issue seems to be that Uronema is ubiquitous (naturally occurring in marine aquariums) and re-infection is commonplace.

Bath treatments may fail because the medication used does not target the intercellular protozoans, only those living externally on the skin of the fish. Copper treatments may reduce the numbers of these ciliates, but good control is not seen until ionic copper levels reach 0.23 ppm, and this is too close to the lethal limit for many species of fish. Formalin baths of various concentrations and durations have been proposed, but this treatment is also mostly effective against external protozoans.

The most commonly used treatment is chloroquine at 15 ppm for 30 days.

Hyposalinity and Uronema
A suspiciously high occurrence of Uronema outbreaks is seen in marine fish being kept under hyposalinity (low salinity) to control another protozoan parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans (saltwater ich). It seems that either Uronema prefers low-salinity water or such treatments lower the fish’s resistance to the protozoan.

Jay Hemdal