Highhat and porkfish question

[beaker99]

Hi All
I have caught, on several occasions, highhats and porkfish. Every time these fish succumb to ick after only a few days in the tank. The damsels, which are store bought, are fine. As well as four grunts which where caught with the porkfish. Are these porkfish like puffers which harbor pathogenic microbes in their guts? Which become a problem when the fish is confined in a smaller space.
I always have problems with the highhats. It is difficult to get them to eat. And when I do they don't last long. Always succumbing to some infection, or stop eating and just wasting away. I come to the point where I don't even bother to keep them any longer. Any advise? I try feeding them a wide variety of foods. Scallop and shrimp mixture laced with garlic, brine shrimp, and tubiflex worms.

 

[Sk8r]

Stress probably plays a certain part in it. I'd definitely qt and feed them garlic-laced food to try to cycle through some of what's in their gut. Porkfish get so huge when adult [if I'm thinking of the right fish] they may stress and die like tangs. The high hats may be a saveable item, if you can get them calmed down. Try lowering the lights to quite dim and keeping their environment very quiet. Just the pump sound itself has to be new to them.