niger trigger hiding and wont eat

[randallkinsey]

I have a 4 month old niger trigger in a 55 gallon fish only tank. He has not ate in 3 days and is hiding to where I cant get a picture. My ammonia is 0, along with the nitate and nitrite. The ph is 7.8. The salinity is 2.6. temp in tank says 76. The only other fish are 2 damsels and a purple dottyback and they are fine. Please help

 

[Jekyl]

Salinity is 26? That fish belongs in a tank almost 4x that size too

 

[randallkinsey]

I meant to type 1.026 for the salinity

 

[Jekyl]

Pics of the fish would help a lot. Any new additions? If there is illness would be best to get a hospital tank set up.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Welcome to R2R!!!

As stated above, a niger trigger needs a bigger tank. That may be why it’s not eating

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome! Any additional observations other then eating?

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Hello and welcome to the channel.

 

[DaddyFish]

When you say "4-month old Niger Trigger" do you mean he's been in that same tank for four months and was doing fine until when?

 

[randallkinsey]

Pics of the fish would help a lot. Any new additions? If there is illness would be best to get a hospital tank set up.

I cant get a pic because he is hiding in a barnacle that he likes to sleep in. Last new addition was the purple dottyback and that was a month ago

 

[randallkinsey]

When you say "4-month old Niger Trigger" do you mean he's been in that same tank for four months and was doing fine until when?

I got him from saltwaterfish.com 3 months ago and he was just a baby so i am sure hes not even 6 months old. He was doing great until 3 days ago

 

[randallkinsey]

Welcome! Any additional observations other then eating?

he is hiding in a barnacle

 

[Fish Think Pink]

I have a 4 month old niger trigger in a 55 gallon fish only tank. He has not ate in 3 days and is hiding to where I cant get a picture. My ammonia is 0, along with the nitate and nitrite. The ph is 7.8. The salinity is 2.6. temp in tank says 76. The only other fish are 2 damsels and a purple dottyback and they are fine. Please help

Welcome to R2R.

Keep offering food, maybe less of it but more frequent as perhaps eating will self resolve. Try dimming lights just a bit OR turning up lights just a bit.

Was anything (ANYthing) else new? if something electrical has fallen into tank would think everyone acting weird.

Long term he may need a larger tank but if he is tiny baby size of tank likely isn't yet playing factor in not eating. If he's baby, maybe damsels have been picking on him during feedings (they don't know how BIG he will get...)

 

[DaddyFish]

Can you post a full tank shot with white lights?

I've had similar experiences with Niger Triggers in QT. If he's hiding near/behind something dark then that's definitely not good. I've seen that behavior with Nigers in the early stages of Velvet. But without a good visual of the tank and setup, I'm literally stabbing in the dark.

And ask yourself... What happened, what changed 3-5 days ago?

At this point, you've checked off two of the four key symptoms of Velvet, so heads-up!

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, scratching, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a water pump/wavemaker/powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

 

[randallkinsey]

Can you post a full tank shot with white lights?

I've had similar experiences with Niger Triggers in QT. If he's hiding near/behind something dark then that's definitely not good. I've seen that behavior with Nigers in the early stages of Velvet. But without a good visual of the tank and setup, I'm literally stabbing in the dark.

And ask yourself... What happened, what changed 3-5 days ago?

At this point, you've checked off two of the four key symptoms of Velvet, so heads-up!

• Reduced or complete loss of appetite.
• Heavy breathing, scratching, flashing, head twitching, erratic swimming behavior (unfortunately velvet shares all these same symptoms with ich & gill flukes.)
• Swimming into the flow of a water pump/wavemaker/powerhead (unique to velvet).
• Acting reclusive (velvet causes fish to be sensitive to light).

 

[randallkinsey]

no changes lately. if its velvet does petco or petsmart have anything for it

 

[randallkinsey]

Welcome to R2R.

Keep offering food, maybe less of it but more frequent as perhaps eating will self resolve. Try dimming lights just a bit OR turning up lights just a bit.

Was anything (ANYthing) else new? if something electrical has fallen into tank would think everyone acting weird.

Long term he may need a larger tank but if he is tiny baby size of tank likely isn't yet playing factor in not eating. If he's baby, maybe damsels have been picking on him during feedings (they don't know how BIG he will get...)

nothing new in a month and that was just a purple dottyback. ive actually turned the white lights off the past day and a half

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[StPatrick89]

nothing new in a month and that was just a purple dottyback. ive actually turned the white lights off the past day and a half

no changes lately. if its velvet does petco or petsmart have anything for it

Any updates? The Petco thats close to me has a niger that I wanted because it was smaller. It didn’t look good in the bag, so I said I will let it acclimate and see if it finally comes out of hiding. That was last Friday. I went up there today and it’s still hiding, and hiding and not coming out at all. I’m curious to hear what’s happened after 3 weeks