Flame Hawkfish Not Eating/Discoloration

[Cetus]

I’m starting to worry about my flame Hawkfish. I’ve had him for around 2-3 months and he used to be very active and eat we’ll but as of this week he’s become much less active and outright refuses to eat. The only other fish in the tank is a bi-color blenny so I’m worried bullying could be happening but I’ve never seen it. If not I am also concerned about a disease such as flukes or bacteria. I performed a FW dip last month and found nothing so I thought he would be in the clear except maybe for internal parasites. Wondering if I should try and QT him.

 

[Idoc]

Yes, definitely get him into a quarantine tank. Since he quit eating, medicating the water column is going to be your only choice. He doesn't look long for this world, though. I'd suspect bacterial by the look and treat accordingly. I'd start with some Kanaplex, metroplex, and furan2 with some heavy surface agitation to increase oxygen to the water.

 

[Cetus]

Starting to think it’s a bullying problem. My bicolor blenny seems to swim toward him and just sort of sit next to him. He swims back to his crevice whenever I enter but I’m wondering if this is an aggressive b

Yes, definitely get him into a quarantine tank. Since he quit eating, medicating the water column is going to be your only choice. He doesn't look long for this world, though. I'd suspect bacterial by the look and treat accordingly. I'd start with some Kanaplex, metroplex, and furan2 with some heavy surface agitation to increase oxygen to the water.

I see. I also wonder if my bicolor is bullying him since I often see them just sort of sitting together. I thought they were okay with each other but I wonder if this is actually a territorial response. Regardless I have metroplex on hand and a QT set up with a Royal gramma and yasha. It’s 20 gallons so wondering if I can try to place him there.

 

[vetteguy53081]

From the looks of the fins and body, this is either aggression or bacterial and aggression can lead to bacterial issues. Isolation will be your best chance in saving this fish. Acclimation box will work. To find the aggressor, set up your cell phone on video mode for an hour, drop a little food and walk away - Must walk away.
Come back and review video and you will likely find your aggressor

 

[Cetus]

From the looks of the fins and body, this is either aggression or bacterial and aggression can lead to bacterial issues. Isolation will be your best chance in saving this fish. Acclimation box will work. To find the aggressor, set up your cell phone on video mode for an hour, drop a little food and walk away - Must walk away.
Come back and review video and you will likely find your aggressor

There is only one other fish in the tank and its a bi-color blenny so I'm really thinking he's the one. I have a 20 gallon QT tank but it's currently housing a yasha and royal gramma undergoing copper treatment. I have my invert tank set up as well with the snails just a week out of being ready to be put into the DT. I also have a refugium in the sump with sand... I'm wondering what I should do now honestly.

 

[Cetus]

Yes, definitely get him into a quarantine tank. Since he quit eating, medicating the water column is going to be your only choice. He doesn't look long for this world, though. I'd suspect bacterial by the look and treat accordingly. I'd start with some Kanaplex, metroplex, and furan2 with some heavy surface agitation to increase oxygen to the water.

I have two options for QT...
My 20 gallon with a Royal Gramma and Yasha undergoing copper
My 10 gallon with snails that are a week from being ready to put into the DT.
I have metroplex on hand... I'm trying to consider what to do at the moment.

 

[Idoc]

I would move the snails to the DT a week early. The 76 days is ultra long and most ich has run its course by 30 days. Plus research calling for a arson of ich lasting 72-76 days was done in water under 70 degrees... so there is speculation the ich wouldn't have taken that long in normal aquarium water temps. I only quarantine my snails 30 days now.

But this will get your 10 g freed up for this fish to be treated. Don't put it in with other fish... not knowing what's going on will just infect the other fish.

It could be aggression, but you don't really have time to find out. Fish will lose color when stressed. But, I've never seen an aggressive fish sit by a sick fish if it's bullying it. Normally, if the bully notices the other is sick, it will be relentless in its attacks. Just standing back from the tank and watching from a distance would have been enough to see if aggression is occurring.

 

[Cetus]

I would move the snails to the DT a week early. The 76 days is ultra long and most ich has run its course by 30 days. Plus research calling for a arson of ich lasting 72-76 days was done in water under 70 degrees... so there is speculation the ich wouldn't have taken that long in normal aquarium water temps. I only quarantine my snails 30 days now.

But this will get your 10 g freed up for this fish to be treated. Don't put it in with other fish... not knowing what's going on will just infect the other fish.

It could be aggression, but you don't really have time to find out. Fish will lose color when stressed. But, I've never seen an aggressive fish sit by a sick fish if it's bullying it. Normally, if the bully notices the other is sick, it will be relentless in its attacks. Just standing back from the tank and watching from a distance would have been enough to see if aggression is occurring.

Alright. The snail QT has sand and rockwork so would that affect the metronidazole application? I'm thinking of acclimating the snails first then putting them into the DT. My most recent snails came from reef cleaners who I believe keeps them in a fishless environment so that may reduce the risk too... I was doing a 45 day QT for these guys and I'm on day 39 with the tank temp at around 81 or so degrees.

So my current plan is...
-Remove snails from DT and put them in bucket to acclimate for a while
-As they're acclimating, acclimate flame hawkfish to 10 gallon
-Observe and treat with metronidazole until it either dies or starts eating

I am still a bit worried about the bi-color being an aggressor so I'll try to watch out for behavior.

 

[JumboShrimp]

He is very, very pale. I think you are working against time. Hoping for a good result!

 

[Cetus]

He is very, very pale. I think you are working against time. Hoping for a good result!

He was the first one in the tank so I'm hoping he'll pull through...

 

[JumboShrimp]

Fantastic fish-- should he not make it, don't get discouraged; learn what you can from this and get another one!

 

[Cetus]

I would move the snails to the DT a week early. The 76 days is ultra long and most ich has run its course by 30 days. Plus research calling for a arson of ich lasting 72-76 days was done in water under 70 degrees... so there is speculation the ich wouldn't have taken that long in normal aquarium water temps. I only quarantine my snails 30 days now.

But this will get your 10 g freed up for this fish to be treated. Don't put it in with other fish... not knowing what's going on will just infect the other fish.

It could be aggression, but you don't really have time to find out. Fish will lose color when stressed. But, I've never seen an aggressive fish sit by a sick fish if it's bullying it. Normally, if the bully notices the other is sick, it will be relentless in its attacks. Just standing back from the tank and watching from a distance would have been enough to see if aggression is occurring.

I got him into the quarantine tank now... I have an inch or so of sand in there and will it at all affect treatment like metroplex?

 

[Idoc]

I got him into the quarantine tank now... I have an inch or so of sand in there and will it at all affect treatment like metroplex?

You should be fine. We can't really test for the amount of metro in the water column, so I don't know if anyone really knows for sure. But you dose Metro every 48hrs, so the water column should be well covered with meds during treatment.

It's going to be a longshot to pull this one through, though. I wish you had the Furan2 and Kanaplex to add to the treatment...it covers a broader spectrum of bacteria.

 

[Cetus]

You should be fine. We can't really test for the amount of metro in the water column, so I don't know if anyone really knows for sure. But you dose Metro every 48hrs, so the water column should be well covered with meds during treatment.

It's going to be a longshot to pull this one through, though. I wish you had the Furan2 and Kanaplex to add to the treatment...it covers a broader spectrum of bacteria.

I really should shore up my emergency medication supplies but we'll see... I am concerned that this was a case of bullying from the bi-color since they can get pretty nasty I hear so this may not solve the issue directly. Maybe it was just a case of aggression not being dispersed properly with only two fish but it's a 125 gallon so I thought there'd be more than enough space.

Regardless, I'll monitor his health and see how the flame hawk is doing. Regardless of if he passes or not, I'm wondering how I should tackle the potential blenny problem. I've seen them exist in the same location without much issue and even today I saw them sort of sitting together for a split second before the blenny rushed back to its hiding place. The flame hawk was in the tank for a month before the blenny, too so I'd thought it'd be the other way around tbh.

The flame hawk's fate is up in the air atm but I still need to figure out what to do about having a bully fish or even finding out if I have a bully fish in the first place. Bacterial deterioration shouldn't pop up out of nowhere like that as I would assume so the only explanation I can think of is an aggressor.

 

[Cetus]

Update: I think it's just a matter of time now... I'll try to make him comfortable at least. Still not eating.

My main concern now is that I might've introduced ich into the tank. There are white flecks on his body that do look like ich and now I'm concerned my blenny has it too. So, yeah that's great. I think once the flame hawk passes, I'll just have to clean out the 10g, put my royal gramma and yasha in there after they're done in QT, then put the blenny into the QT alongside my next fish. That should give me enough time to fallow the main tank hopefully.
Does this look like ich or something worse? Help would be appreciated.

 

[Cetus]

Here's a picture taken around half a day after the first ones. The white flecks have disappeared so I'm thinking it could've been sand particles? The night prior, I disturbed the sand a lot trying to get the snails to the point the entire tank was murky when I put him in. Could ich spots morph that quickly? If so, then I may not have to go fallow. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Cetus]

So, he finally passed today and I guess I saw it coming cause he just refused to eat. I'm wondering though if it could have been flukes? When I saw his body, there was a bit of white defecation which idk if its because he wasn't eating but could this have resulted from internal flukes perhaps? I tested him before for external flukes but found nothing. This could be good because then that means I won't need to remove the blenny for aggression, but also that means I'll need to put him under prazipro treatment and fallow the tank.

Is there anyone who can weigh in on this? How long could internal flukes take to really hurt a fish because I made a post back in May and another in March about his coloration but back then he was still eating so I don't know. And if it seems like internal flukes, what is the fallow period for that?