Royal Grammi losing color

[Chris Jones]

My royal grammi, over the last week seems to be losing, or getting splotches on, his purple color. He has recently choosen to hide upside down under a rock ledge and hardly moves that i can tell. it also looks like he is breathing rapidly, even though he is at rest. all my other fish are fine and active.

pH-8.2
ammonia 0
salinity- 1.026
calcium -450-500
alk- 4.5-5.0
temp-78-79

[Matt Rogers]

Royal Grammas are one of my favorites.. sorry to hear this..
Looking at those numbers.. you're alk and calcium are a bit high, doubt the calcium would do anything, but the alk may. Not sure though.

How long have you had him?
How are your nitrates?

[Chris Jones]

checked everything again, this time nitrites, and nitrates both 0
my alk is 4.0 and calcium is 400.
i have had him about 2 weeks. tonight he is out and about. his purple still looks a little blotchy but he is out and active.

[Matt Rogers]

That's good news!
Is he eating well?
What are you feeding him?
Got a digital camera?

Those numbers are great now by the way...

[Chris Jones]

Yes he has started eating well. he sometimes eats flakes, but he also likes myses shrimp. I think he is doing better. i'm honing in my water quality on all levels now because i just made my first coral purchase, a small group of star polyps and some other soft corals i will have to identify, and a frag of a green, almost flourscent, (looks like a short fiber shag rug) hard coral. any way, he looks better. maybe the water quality helped him shrug off a parasite or something. thanks Matt.

[Matt Rogers]

Thanks? What the heck did I do? [smiley=jester.gif]

Get some frozen food like Formula I or the like to give him a little better diet than shrimp. I never had much luck with flakes with saltwater fish.

[Chris Jones]

you were concerned, and the only one to respond!! so thanks! and thanks for the tip on formula 1.

[Craig Manoukian]

Flakes are very high in nitrates. I feed mysis shrimp exclusively that is fortified by the supplier. Twice a a week I add Zoe vitamins and cyclopeze. My fish are colorful, healthy and eat like pigs!

[GraviT]

Speaking of Formula1, how do you go about feeding that stuff? I've noticed that it has a 'gel binder' that seems to hold it all together. Do you just float the piece, put it in a blender, food processor, table saw or what??

[captivereefs]

Hikari Marine -S is an awesome food that really colors up fish!