Sick filefish?

[Mrs. Music]

How on earth can you tell if a green file fish is not well in QT? He eats mysis and a few pellets. But they always have weird colors, always swim weird and hang out at weird angles. I am sure laying on his side is not ok, and that is what he was just doing now. I did a huge water change, the ammonia badge is yellow, temp is good, salinity was up a touch from evaporation. Any thoghts? I get prazipro thursday or friday.

 

[Sapelo]

How long has he been in QT?
Any other symptoms?
Eating is a good sign!

 

[Sk8r]

Matted (don't know about greens) filefish do often sleep nose down or hang out near a cord doing the same. They're being leaves.

 

[Joke]

Pics?

 

[Sapelo]

My slender behaves as Sk8r describes.

 

[Mrs. Music]

Do they ever get a white stripe down the center of its nose all the way to the tail? Or a white stripe along their sides?

 

[Sk8r]

Matted gets a white quarter moon on sides.

 

[Sapelo]

My slender does have a white stripe down his sides that is more or less distinct depending on whether or not he is trying to be "invisible"

 

[Keoki18]

OP, I just experienced the same issue with two matted files that we were quarantining. I know that the behaviors you were describing are normal for this species, but the color always looked a bit off. Both perked up when we added more habitat (fake corals, plastic plants, pvc) to the holding tanks. See if that helps.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Sk8r describes them perfectly. The Matted file fish changes color with whatever background is there. I've seen mine all whiteish at times. They also are a very strange fish in their behavior and like Sk8r stated they are a lot of the time acting like a leaf :lmao:

 

[bat21]

My whitespotted pygmy is always changing color. It's cool to watch them change when they move to a different background. But in my experience, they need objects to swim around, lean against, and investigate. Awesome fish, but I have had some bad luck with them. I feel like they are both hardy and fragile at the same time.

 

[Mrs. Music]

Matted gets a white quarter moon on sides.

Yep. This is a good description. Well, into the DT he goes. So relieved, thank you.