Sick Lyretail Trio

[Pmj]

Just got a female lyretail trio from Diver's Den on Tuesday. My plan is usually TTM with prazi and observe after that. TTM tanks are 5G platic bins with air stones. I floated bags for 20 mins, matched SG (~1.025), and put them in (11 AM). They seemed very slow moving and hid at first. After about an hour I fed some mysis, which two of them definitely ate and seemed to be normal. One always seemed to hang out behind my PVC elbow.

After I came home from work and watched them for a while, I tried to feed again and they were much less interested in it (this was Roggers food this time), much slower moving. Two seemed to be swimming vertically almost with one even sticking his snout out of the water at times. I tried to read and thought maybe it was poor water movement for anthias as I only had an air stone in the tank (which is what I always use). I added a small powerhead and they seemed to perk up a bit but maybe they just had to swim more.

Fast forward to today and I turn off the powerhead to see if they'll eat and they look even more listless, the worst one falling over to her side at times and the other two just being stationary on the bottom. I move them to my old tank which I still have running but has no fish (34g cube) and they are still just listless on the bottom. The worst one may have white specs on his head that I took pictures of (please zoom in the first picture. The other two don't show anything I can see minus their behavior.

Any ideas what I may be dealing with? My meds on hand are only Prazi & Furan-2.

Pics (all pics are the worst one btw): http://imgur.com/a/1Q1hC

 

[Pmj]

Ok now of a day in the other tank, they are swimming around when I'm not around (at least two anyway, but I've seen all 3 swimming at times once). When I come to the tank, they immediately hide or play dead (as in they are resting on a rock or the ground, not swimming). They seem extremely shy but did eat a small amount. Going to just watch, wait and feed to see what happens. I did not expect lyretails to be shy.

 

[Pmj]

Day later, two are out and aren't scared of me now, recognize I'm bringing food, third one is out but hiding behind magfloat at the moment. She did eat when I squirted some mysis back near her. The female that's turning male (fin is bigger than the others) is really a terror. Has terrorized both females and now terrorizes the one that's hiding when she comes out.

I'm glad they seem to be better. Idk if it was just the small tank I was using for TTM or the biggest female bullying them and they were stressed, but they did not like TTM. I'm leaning towards just observation for 4-6 weeks in this tank before putting them in the DT, unless I can get a bigger TTM setup.

 

[ThRoewer]

Did you give them a formalin bath?
With Anthias I would never skip this as they are prone to Uronema, an opportunistic parasite that can't be eradicated from a reef tank with corals and inverts once it makes it in.

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