New to this, please help! Fish scratching

[newtothereef]

Hi all,

I have a new nano tank (inherited from my brother, who has been keeping fish for years, so it's not a brand new tank) that has been up and running for about a month. At first I had a couple pieces of live rock (from my bro's tank), three snails, two hermit crabs, and a little saddle puffer fish. Everyone was doing great for a while. Then I bought a hector goby and a royal gramma basslet from a pet store. The basslet had a small spot on his side that I noticed after they were in the tank - looked like he had scraped against something, and after a day or two I noticed him scrape against the rocks a couple times. I am so new to all this that I thought he was just playing around!...until I told my brother and he said this could be a sign of a parasite. A couple days later I saw the hector goby do this same skimming thing a couple times.

After they'd been in about a week, I noticed that the spot on the basslet had gotten worse, and the fin on that side was all messed up - a whole chunk of it was missing. It looked like he had been beat up, or scrapped really hard against something. On my brother's advice I took him out of the tank and brought him back to the store. The guy there was really unhelpful and said he looked like he'd been beat up (thanks) and maybe had gotten infected. But he was the aggressor in the tank so no one did that to him. I left him at the store.

Since then (three days), the goby, has been skimming more than before, and today he hid in the rocks a lot more than usual. I also saw the puffer skim once today, the first time I've seen him do that.

Does this sound obvious to anyone? I don't see any spots on anyone, and there never were any on the basslet either. I do have a few rocks in there with polyps on them (bought them from live aquaria) and they all seem to be doing fine, which my bro says means that my water is okay. What could the fish have caught from the basslet? And does anyone know how to treat them without damaging the coral? I don't have a quarantine tank, unfortunately...

Any ideas are so appreciated! I'm so new to all this that I need all the help I can get...please! I don't want my first ever fish to die after a month...then I fear my new hobby might be dead in the water (wow, no pun intended).....THANK YOU.

[reeferbill]

Welcome to Reefland Newtothereef ; What did the white spot on the royal gramma look like? Cotton like growth or more like cauliflower growth. This would mean a fungus or a virus, and they are treated differently. What size is your set-up?

[newtothereef]

The spot wasn't white - it really looked more like a bruise. He was purple, and the spot was discolored, looked like some of the color had been scraped off of him - greenish blue, definitely not white. The tank is 7.5 gallons - a nano tank.

[MyNameIsJoe]

Welcome to reefland!!!

When you put too many fish in a tank that small, you are gonna have conflict. A lot of fish are territorial and aggressive.

You definitely want to use caution with basslets and puffers.

That puffer fish can get up to 5-inches, so when it gets a little bigger you will need to remove it from the 7.5 gal. It's gonna require at least a 50gal. tank.

Is the sick fish breathing fast? How's the appetite? is it eating?

Ich generally presents itself as white spot on the body or gills of the fish.
With most skin irritations, it seems that the fish like to rub against things. It is really hard to determine whether it is a trauma injury or some kind of parasite/fungus. Either way, do not treat your display tank if you have corals in there. Most medications are not reef safe, even though the bottle may say they are.

I would say the best thing to do now is to isolate the injured fish somehow, so the others cannot get to 'im. if the fish is being bullied, it is gonna continue until one is dead or removed.

With your size tank, one (or maybe two) SMALL fish will be ok to keep. Just make sure that they are compatible ahead of time. You can find a salt-water fish compatibility guide/chart by just googling. Cramming too many fish in that tiny, tiny, tiny space will induce stress. This stress will then lead to worsening of a parasite/fungus, or lead to violence.

Do you have a picture of the injury? that always helps with identification.

*Put 20 human adults in a 500 square foot apartment and I bet at least one will be sick or dead by the end of the week.

[newtothereef]

Yeah, the basslet was definitely a mistake. Especially because he had that thing on his side! But I didn't notice that until I got him home. The puffer, I know, I will have to give up when he gets too big. But I love him for now! And he hasn't been aggressive towards anything yet.

The sick fish seems to be breathing okay, but so far today he's only come out from the rock for a brief period for me to look at him! This is probably not a good sign. He used to be out all the time. He isn't eating much - but this was a problem with him even before this mystery illness. He eats sand all day, but it was only when I put live brine shrimp in there that he went for food aggressively. I did see him take a couple bites this morning, but mostly nothing.

Is there a way to isolate him safely without buying a whole new setup?

The fish with the injury is gone - just to be clear. The only fish in the tank now are the puffer and the goby, who now is the one that seems to be sick. He LOOKS totally fine, though, I don't see any spots on him. Just the scratching and now the hiding all the time.

OY, this fish keeping! Don't know how you do it!

[leebca]

You have not told us the actual size (in gallons) of this aquarium. Also, what kind of filtration is on it?

[newtothereef]

It is a 7.5 gallon nano tank. The filtration is all built in to the tank...

[leebca]

The short advice is that this tank is unsuitable for marine fish. You may have gotten mis-information somewhere along the line. It would make an okay reef tank with maybe a shrimp or crab.

Please read through this post:
Fish Stocking Limit - for FO and FOWLR