Royal Gramma-Possible Illness

[duckie1905]

Hello everyone! I am brand new to posting here but have spent lots of time browsing the forums and have always found everyone extremely helpful. I'm hoping someone might have some insight on the problems my husband and I are currently having with our Royal Gramma.

We have a 37 gallon column tank with live rock, a peppermint shrimp, a mated pair of clownfish, a firefish, and the royal gramma. We did have a purple firefish in the tank until about a month ago when he died for a reason we were never able to determine. The new firefish was added about two weeks ago and is healthy (and not showing any compatibility problems).

For about the last 2 days our gramma has been exhibiting very unusual behavior-at least for him. He has been extremely aggressive (which was never an issue before) and has spent a lot of time laying vertically in a rock overhang which is far from his usual hiding spot and territory. He has also been hiding a lot more than he used to (he used to be out virtually all day long). He was eating fine until this evening in which my husband noticed he did not have his usual crazy appetite.

My husband immediately did a water test in which everything tested well within acceptable limits (nitrite and amnonia at zero, nitrate, pH and salinity perfect). He then did a small water change just to be safe (as it was due for a change tomorrow anyway). He isn't showing any signs of labored breathing. The only physical thing that we think has changed is it appears that the white spots on his side (which have always been present) appear to be slightly "sunken in."

He has always been a weird swimmer (he tends to swim around the tank sideways) and appears to be moving normally when he is out and about.

I'm curious to see if anyone has seen this type of behavior before and if it might indicate a disease or perhaps if he is being harassed by another member of the tank.

Thanks in advance.

[leebca]

WELCOME TO REEFLAND!

That kind of fish behavior is the direct result of one or more stressors. The trick is determining what the stressor(s) is/are.

Do a very large water change. Make that water change no less than 80% and follow large water change good practice noted here: How to Make a Successful Water Change

To help determine if the matter is water quality, perform such a large water change. If the fish changes behavior within the next 24 hours after the change, the issue is that there is something in the water that is the stressor(s).

The next big stressor on wild caught marine fish is space. Not much you can do about that. But usually after a short time, a fish that is feeling confined or short on space begins to take on some of the characteristics you've mentioned. Although technically this fish should be fine in that system, not all fish, even within the same species, have the same reaction to captivity and the limits of an aquarium.

Usually, another marine life form aggressive behavior towards a fish would be evident to your viewing at some time or other, unless you really don't spend a lot of time looking at your tank. You can usually exclude this as a concern by sitting near your tank (sitting still) and just observing for a few hours (that's right -- hours). Good time to catch up on some book reading.

There are lesser seen problems, for instance if you have live rock, it may have brought with it a hitchhiker that strikes the fish at night. Also, if you have hermit crabs, this can be a problem with fish, too. Some nightlife marine lifeforms and hermit crabs will attack 'sleeping fish.'

Of course, disease and pathogens stressors can't be excluded. In this hobby it is preferred to use a quarantine process on newly acquired fishes. For now the behavior does fit a fish with an internal pathogen or infection. Since the fish is still eating, I would proceed with a 'de-worming' process. Read and follow this: Strange Excrement from Fish -or- How to be a Super Pooper Snooper

All fishes do go through an adjustment to captive life. This can last a few hours to a year or more. This behavior may just go away on its own after a time when the fish does adjust to captive life.

Try the water change and let us know if it made any difference. The reason why such a large change could make a difference is that our test kits don't measure everything that can go wrong with water quality. Then treat for internal parasites.