Trigger sick and possibly dying

[slinger]

For the last couple of days my 3" Humu trigger has been in a state of declining health, and has stopped agressively eating food to the point that he hardly eats at all. He has been hiding in the rocks all day long and barely comes out at all. My wife just called me today and told me that he is now just resting on the substrate and leaning against a rock, with rapid breathing and an apparent inability to fully right himself.

The tank he is is a 75G semi-reef with a mandarin, maroon clown, and koran angel as mates. The water parameters are good, with zero ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. The pH is around 8.1.

I've had him in my tsank for about three months, and he was always an aggressive fish, but I seemed to have trouble keeping him "fat". I fed him an alternating diet of frozen mysis and frozen formula one, but it was always once a day. Is this possibly the reason he is in the condition he is in? He doesn't look emaciated by any means, just not as fat as some other triggers I've seen.

Any ideas?

 

[Triggerfish]

i'm gonna guess here that the fish possibly got into something that wasn't entirely edible...what ya got in the semi-reef?

 

[TerryB]

The diet has been very limited. I suggest increasing the variety greatly and adding some seafood such as uncooked prawns, salad shrimp and clams. All your fish might appreciate some frozen spirulina as well. Do you soak the foods alternately in vitamins and Selcon? I would say that the trigger is not getting enough to eat. Start with a LARGE water change using well aged and aerated saltwater and improve that diet! You might see improvement is just a few days.

Terry B

 

[Triggerfish]

any improvement with this fish??
i missed the lack of diet mentioned above, although i'm not all sure that has much to do with the condition as you describe.

ya got to feed the thing though..few crawny mysis isn't gonna take care of this fish...please read up on proper feeding of marine fish prior to adding to your system.
GL

 

[slinger]

Thank you very much for all your replies. Unfortunately, by the time I got home from work the day I posted this, the trigger was already dead. I've had a couple of other fish die during my time in this hobby, but for some reason this one really made me feel bad. I guess the difference is this time I feel like the death could have been avoided had I adopted better husbandry skills...

One strange thing that I noticed after I removed him from the tank and placed him in a plastic bag was that he appeared to be bleeding from underneath one of his pectoral fins, but this could have been an injury from one of his light-speed dashes into the live rock that he would do every now and then when startled.

Anyway, after all this I'll be adopting a much more diversified diet for the fish than they before.