Fish Attacking Food and Swimming Wildly Around Aquarium

[Windy Miller]

Hi, I really hope you can help me with my Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish.

I have had a Dwarf Lion in my aquarium for a couple of years. I recently added a copperband a few months back whilst I am waiting for a large Aquarium to be built. The copperband had been QTd at the store and has been very healthy and eating really well up until a week ago. It then started to exhibit some odd behaviour and sadly died within two days. I am now having the same symptoms a week later with my Lionfish. Up until this point the Lionfish had not shown any abnormal behaviour...

1. How old is this aquarium?

5 years oldish

2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level?

I did test for Ammonia it was clear.

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured?

1.026 (refractometer)

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium?

A few months back.

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How?

QT'd at store. No treatment.

6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When?

n/a

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer?

n/a

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color?

Fish looks absolutely normal

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish?

When food is introduced rather than feeding normally it is "striking" at the food as if it is a threat then swimming around wildly.

It is now exhibiting a wild swimming behaviour for some time after any food is introduced.

Breathing seems quite increased but with the behavious this is somewhat expected.

The Copperband showed the very same behaviour and sadly died quite soon after.

10. Is the fish eating? What?

It is trying to eat frozen food such as Mysis but it is attacking the food rather than eating it. Yesterday it had some krill, but it spate it out after about a minute.

The fish is now trying to hide under a rock. It's pretty sad, my Lionfish has always been a great character and always interacted well with myself and food.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Windy Miller]

I should add there has been no change in regime or feeding, nitrates are non detectable. There are a efw soft corals in the tank (leather, gsp, xenia). Pink lobster that seems fine.

 

[snake42490]

I notice you said the fish had been QT at the store... I never trust anyone who says they QT the fish. Especially if it's a LFS or something. I have been to tons of stores that all say they QT their fish yet I look at the tanks and I see signs of sick fish everywhere. All it takes is for 1 parasite to sneak by the QT process then the all the tanks are infected then any fish that is clean after a proper QT would just be reinfected. I think that pin points what happened. Now what was the time frame of the copperbanded being in the tank before these symtoms showed up?

 

[Windy Miller]

If the Copperband brought anything into the tank then there is no way anyone would have spotted it. It had been in the tank for a few months eating well and showing no signs of any disease. It's not my main display tank and I agree even though I know the retailer well and I know it was QTd properly I would still have to watch it with my own eyes before it got into my main display.

So it went in the display with just the lionfish in there whilst the new display is being designed/built.

I'm not sure wether to pull the Lionfish into a seperate QT and treat it. Although I have no idea what to treat for so at the moment I feel like is it worth stressing it even further for no good end result?

 

[snake42490]

Well, you need to realize these parasites that we deal with a lot of times don't even present themselves to us visually. It's usually a reaction that the body makes, fish shaking the head, flashing. Rapid breathing. A fish can look perfectly healthy yet still be infected. Most parasites that we deal with in the hobby attack the fish gills first. Only then it spreads to the rest of the fish. Brook, Velvet and Uronema are the fast killing ones. Ich usually isn't deadly until a couple cycles in when it is completely infested and by this point you can usually tell because the fish will show spots.

Look at your puffer and watch it closely. Look for flashing against objects. Rapid breathing, appetite loss. If you watch the fish you should be able to get an idea of what's going on. Describe this odd behavior the fish is doing. This might be able to help us more.

 

[Windy Miller]

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color?

Fish looks absolutely normal

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish?

When food is introduced rather than feeding normally it is "striking" at the food as if it is a threat then swimming around wildly.

It is now exhibiting a wild swimming behaviour for some time after any food is introduced.

Breathing seems quite increased but with the behavious this is somewhat expected.

The Copperband showed the very same behaviour and sadly died quite soon after.

I can only add I'm 99% sure it isn't any of the diseases listed in the sticky as far as "normal" presentation goes. I'm just hoping someone has seen such a thing before and can grant me some insight/hope.

 

[MrTuskfish]

From your description; flukes.ich in the gills, or other parasites may be the cause. Unfortunately, we often lose fish and never have a clue what killed it. CBBs are very difficult fish to acclimate. They need a lot of peace & quiet in a QT. I think there is a good chance that it also brought something in with him. There is no LFS, anywhere, that has the same definition of quarantine that we do. Proper quarantine ,especially for very skittish fish, like your CBB; involves much more than just getting the fish and keeping it alive. Almost all LFS use a central water/filtration system which means the fish all share the same water and new fish on the system can pass on all sorts of things to all of the fish in the system. . You cannot assume any fish is parasite/disease free when you bring it home. The water in the CBBs tank is not the same water it was 10 minutes prior. Even LA/DD; possibly the most trusted source of fish on the planet , strongly recommends that you use a QR regimen. I wish I had a clue as to what is going on with your fish, but don't. I would do a large WC, it sounds like it could be a toxin in the water. Also, run a good carbon and dose with Prazi-Pro, a wormer. Those are just the standard educated guesses. I don't mean to imply that the CBB was definitely the cause; but I hope you'll do a proper quarantine regimen for your next fish.