Odd problem! :( *URGENT*

[emcmilla]

Hello,

My magnificent foxface keeps lying on his side on the sand bed. He will do this and sometimes change to his darker colour. After a few minutes, he'll start swimming around again with his normal colouring appearing. I just don't understand. The only thing I can see is that the tips of his tail fin look sort of like tail rot. I'm doing a water change now. We were away for the holidays for 2 weeks and had my landlord feed them. I really don't know what to do.
He also seems to swim off balance.

Any help would be great!

Thanks in advance!

 

[snorvich]

History of fish? Tank size? Tank mates?

 

[emcmilla]

Got him about 2 months ago. Had QT-ed for appox 4 weeks. No history of problems. Specs 150 G
2 ocellaris clowns
2 cleaner shrimp
blue legged hermit crabs
snails

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Have you added anything to the tank since the foxface?

 

[emcmilla]

nope

 

[Fragman4]

Interesting...he seems stressed but the clowns shouldn't really bully him. Did you treat him for worms with Prazi in QT?

 

[emcmilla]

no. I didn't treat with Prazipro. What it looks like is tail rot. Can this cause unbalanced swimming? Or swim bladder (if this occurs in marine fish). My water parameters are fine. I don't know what would cause the tail rot.

I wonder if it could be a nutrition problem. My magnificent foxface is fed mysis shrimp and brine shrimp and dried seaweed as well as the algae in the tank.

 

[snorvich]

Got him about 2 months ago. Had QT-ed for appox 4 weeks. No history of problems. Specs 150 G
2 ocellaris clowns
2 cleaner shrimp
blue legged hermit crabs
snails

This timeline may be such that a parasite was masked. Did you acquire him from a source that ran copper?

 

[emcmilla]

I don't believe the LFS runs copper. I will have to verify that with them though.