Diseased Lion Fish - Please help me save him!

[Nicholee816]

Hi, I have a large lion fish (10.5 inches long) that is no longer eating; I've had him for a little over a year with no problems with his appetite before this. I've been feeding him primarily frozen silver sides (once thawed). He is kept in a 75 gal (with attached sump 20 gal) community tank that includes a 20 in snowflake eel, puffer, sailfin tang, blue tang, naso tang, 5 clown fish, 8 in engineer goby, dragon wrasse, Huma Huma triggerfish, and a Black velvet damsel. There is 100 lbs of live rock too. This is an established tank, and we haven't been doing anything different with the water.

The first indication of his sickness was the loss of appetite. I have even tried live goldfish, and he isn't interested. Then a week after the lack of interest in eating, he started to develop a growth on his lip area. I've included a couple pictures.

Please help! I need some advice on how to save my beautiful fish...

[berkdog]

my guess is that the tank is overpopulated with fish.

check out this: Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR

[leebca]

These fishes quite often have internal problems from being fed the wrong foods. But I'm not saying your feeding is wrong. Was this fish wild caught that size or had it been in captivity before you acquired it?

The tank is seriously over stocked.

Check with a test kit all of the following for me and post here when you have the actual numbers:
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Alkalinity
Calcium
Magnesium
and also: pH, temperature range, and specific gravity.

Post again when you have those numbers and then also answer the questions at the top.

[Nicholee816]

Thanks for your suggestions; I don't think I have my test kit anymore, so I'll have to pick up another one and test the water tomorrow.

My fish all have funny personalities, so the tank isn't really that crowded. All of the clown fish stay together on the left side of the tank; they are typically top-swimmers. The damsel and goby live together in a cave. The snowflake eel stays in a larger cave on the other side of the tank, and hunts at night. The puffer likes to burrow in the sand (and look at me...haha), and he also hunts at night...sleeps all day though. The wrasse and blue tang also sleep all the time (although I can't say who is active during the majority of the day b/c I'm @ work); they just come out to eat. The others are fairly normal, but they all keep to their own areas, so it works out. Majority of the fish have lived together here for at least a year.

The lion fish was purchased from a local fish store a year and a month ago when he was about 1/3 of his current size, maybe smaller. I grew him to be his current size, and he's always had a tremendous appetite.
I tried adding some Melafix to the tank tonight, and it suggests to continue treating for 7 days. It is supposed to be an all natural antibacterial fish remedy for any type of damage to fins, finrot, ulcers, mouth fungus, and open wounds. My husband (military - usually cares for the aquarium but is away right now) said that he has used that before in the tank to treat the discoloration on our blue tang, and it has helped. Hopefully this helps my lion fish...I'll update tomorrow, when I hopefully have some numbers from the test kit that I have to pick up. Thanks again!

[Nicholee816]

Oops, forgot to mention that the sump is actually 25gal connected to the tank that is 75gal.