My royal gramma does not look good, what larger spots on the fish, laying on the sand

[treminga]

Over the last 2 days I have noticed my Royal Gramma not doing so hot, about 3 days ago she would not really eat- think it was due to the fact my friend forgot to feed my fish for 5 days :-( (only the gramma was in there).

Noticed the gramma had larger white spots on her, not ick looking spots (like sand), more like blotches.

Over the last 2 days she has been eating well it seems like. Although my girlfriend noticed her laying on the sand or kinda resting against some live rock. During the day today I did not notice any spots, but now at night she has these blotches/silvery scales. Also she is breathing heavily. Girlfriend said she looks like there is a film over her fins and gills. But during the day she seems healthy, moving around, eating etc.

Water parameters seems fine-
Nitrites- 0
Nitrates- 0
Ph- 8.3
Salinity-1.021 (which is low I believe)
Ammonia was 0, but I ran out of test kits 2 weeks ago

Only items added was a sea hare- yesterday, after the royal gramma seems sick. I also added a bunch of coral frags about a 1 and 1/2 weeks ago, glued them with some underwater glue from the hardware store.

Since I was out of town for those 5 days I got a green hair algae outbreak, but could have been due to a final cycle and switching to Metal Halide lights.

Here are some pics of the fish... I am trying to increase my salinity to 1.025 by adding heavier amount of salt water slowly all evening.

 

[barjam]

Look real close, do the blotches move? I had something similar on my gramma... did a fresh water dip and probably 20 flat worm looking things fell of... fish was fine after that.

Don't mess with the salinity while your fish is sick, it will just make it worse. 1.021 is fine for fish (raise it after the fish gets better).

 

[treminga]

Well she didn't make it, by this morning she was not breathing. What is odd, my cl;eaner crew usually makes quick meals of dead fish/livestock, but no one was even around her. Pulled her out and put her in some fresh water to see if that would do anything postmortem- see if any worms come off etc...

Kinda hard to see since she started to decompose a little, but here are some of the autopsy photos, as you can see some of her scales on the side are bleached white in spots, which is what I saw. I really would love to ID what she had so it does not affect the new fish coming in tomorrow

 

[Fish Filet]

Sorry for your loss but open her up, see if any of those white thingies were able to penetrate her skin. We must determine the cause of death. Have you found any finger prints? Any signs of foul play? Have you found the murder weapon yet? Please post pictures.

 

[treminga]

I tried to open her up, but I don't really have a small enough knife to skin her like that, she is not really that large. There are no other tank mates in the tank until yesterday with a Sea Hare, and I added a bunch of soft coral frags a week and 1/2 ago or so. I just hope the glue I used to glue the frags was not toxic- said it was able to be used in salt water to glue items but nothing more.

No murder weapon yet, everything else in the tank seems good, beyond the green hair algae, but that is from a cycle I believe- moved the tank, and rebuilt the rocks, etc. She came over with the move, though she was dead in the old tank, and then bam she was out swimming around, so she got transfered. Its been a tough couple months for her.

 

[Sk8r]

Sorry I didn't catch this thread earlier, but I'm betting she had a bacterial infection. Withdrawing her to quarantine with a Maracyn treatment would likely have helped.

Also, try to get some bristleworms into your tank: they can get into amazing places to serve as undertakers for the dead, and they're good at getting spare food as well. They don't harm corals or live fish.

 

[treminga]

Should I done anything in my tank in the next day or so before new fish arrive? Going to be pretty tough for me to QT them since I don't have a true QT tank, and if the water is already tanted how should I fill a QT tank?

 

[unda_da_see]

never had a royal gramma but do know they are a colder water species collected off of calif. coast in deeper waters, so cooler and not much light.