Any Cause for Concern?

MechEng99

aka Reef'd Up
Well, this is a new one on me.

Purchased a good sized male Melanopsis angel (been at the LFS for 3 weeks, fat as can be, swimming great, no signs of problems) to go with a female...we'll see how that works out. Anyway...

At the LFS he was spitting water out of the bucket that we were going to transport him home in. Figured he was just stressed. He's still spitting water! Why do fish spit water...at least...why do angels spit water? Should we be worried about this? He particularly likes to swim in a loop, then at the top of the loop he'll slightly come out of the water to spit.

He's fat, no pinching behind the eyes or stomach or anywhere. No red streaks, no signs of ich/parasites, no swimming tail-up, etc. He swims normally...just seems to like swimming in a loop then spitting water a good bit too. He's defensive if I stick my hand in the tank - not at all lethargic. He hasn't seemed interested in food...but he does seem to get more active when I put food in the tank. Maybe just still a bit stressed?

He's been in QT for a whopping 1 day - slowly bringing the salinity down to hyposalinity levels. I've done hyposalinity treatments several times...not a newbie there.

Tested with two different test kits:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: undetectable

Salinity: 1.019
Temp: 80F

Unless I hear cause for concern, I'll keep doing what I'm doing. Just seems weird...never had a fish swim in loop-de-loops to spit water at the top. I mean, I'd probably spit at someone too if they dragged me out of the beautiful ocean into a tiny little QT tank.

Thanks!
 
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Thanks - feel somewhat better. I'm hoping after getting him into the main display he'll start acting normal with the increased room. I've tried adding more aeration in case he was gasping for air - didn't curb his spitting. Also tried floating foods just in case he was used to knocking food off the surface - didn't curb the spitting either. Dunno.

He still hasn't ate to my knowledge (tried my own homemade blend of clams/shrimp/oysters/scallops/seaweed/garlic, cyclopeeze, formula one, spectrum pellets, brown and red seaweed, and even some flake food just in case he was used to that. It's only been two days, so I'll just keep trying.
 
AAAAAND...he's eating!! Woo hoo! (Turns out, he loves my homemade blend after all!)

Spitting seems to have subsided, so I guess it was a stress mechanism. We'll see if it continues in a few days.

So, to celebrate... a picture!
101_0730.jpg
 
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