New damsel is in distress

[Bunnylicked]

I got a little blue damsel for my pico a few days ago. He was very active and appeared healthy at the petstore. When I got him home, he was very shy at first, but then started darting around the tank normally.

He seemed fine when I turned on the light this morning, but now he's laying on his side and breathing heavily. He swam around a little when I chased him with a net, but then went back to laying on the rock. I got a close look at him, and he looks like he has spots of light blue and dark blue mixed in with his regular blue coloring. He also has a "glazed" appearance around his gills and face. What's wrong with him? He's the only one in the tank besides a coral and some inverts, who appear to be doing fine.

Also, for anyone interested, here's the water parameters:
Ammonia & nitrite: about 0
Nitrate: about 10-20 ppm
pH: 8.0
SG: about 1.023
Temperature: 77 F

 

[Bunnylicked]

Unfortunately, the little guy died a few minutes ago. After looking around a little, I believe he had either brooklynella or marine velvet. I gave him a FW dip, but he died shortly after being put back in the tank. Since there's no other fish in my tank, I think he caught it at the petstore.

Does the tank need to be fishless for a while before I add a new fish? I don't want the new one to catch whatever he had.

 

[readmeli]

Sorry to hear about your Damsel. We do not recommend an aquarium less than 30 gallons for Blue Damsels. This may have been part of your problem. I am not sure any fish would thrive in 3 gallons. A pico is a great thing, but not for a Damsel. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+28+111&pcatid=111

Did you acclimate him first? http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=157

Also, assuming he was not quarantined? If not, then you probably are going to want to start all over with your tank and let it go fallow for about 9 weeks- read up on that here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2041951&highlight=fallow

Good luck with your future endeavors. I'd recommend reading up some more on here regarding animals for Pico tanks: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=75