Purple Firefish possible issue

MatthewSS7 · May 30, 2020

Hello r2r veterans. This may be nothing but I noticed something on my firefish’s chin that I haven’t noticed before. He’s under my close watch right now because he was eating a little slower and possibly not able to open his mouth all the way. Not sure if this is the start of some kind of bacterial thing or if I just need to keep a close eye for a couple days and see if situation improves. Thanks for any advice.

Big G · May 31, 2020

Sorry can't see much from the pictures. Firefish are famous for damaging themselves diving into their caves/holes/crevices to hide. Mine used to tear off their dorsal fins constantly.

Can you describe what you are seeing for us? Cut, gouge, etc. Color of it like white, red-ish, etc. Smooth, lumpy . . .

MatthewSS7 · May 31, 2020

It’s hard to see and almost nothing. It’s like a little white chin hair. It may be a small tear or damage but is a slight protrusion. After observing the fish for a while longer I noticed a white bump on his tail. This fish is notorious for having random spots come and go. It was quarantined in copper and freshwater dipped before going in DT. But always has spots come and go.

The white spot on tail is definitely new and is a bump. Hard to see in picture but I’ll add that too. This tank has never had ich and is 6 months old. No new livestock.

Tank params:
Salinity- 33ppt
pH-8.0
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 10ppm
Ammonia- 0ppm
Calcium- 440ppm
Phosphate- 0ppm

I just began increasing salinity yesterday with 20% water change at 34ppt. But that’s the only major change. I just ordered a refractometer because I’m worried my IO hydrometer is inaccurate. Wondering if I’m just stressing it out. There is a spot on this side as well but those seem to come and go. The bump on tail is new. Could this be ich that is just showing up with stress even though the fish was quarantined?