What's Wrong??

So I have
1 Coral Beauty
1 Tomato Clownfish
1 Yellow-tail damsel

and a blue damsel that is acting strange. He gills are going like he's hyperventelating, but he's not hideing. He refuses to eat and he seems flushed... a more experieced friend of mine doesn;t know what's wrong either. Anybody have any ideas??

 

It is definitely stressed out. Tell us more about the damsel. How long have you had and what its interactions with the other fish are?

 

I've had him for a few months now. He likes to swim with my clownfish, the yellow-tail picks on him a lil bit, and from what i can tell the Angelfish leaves him alone, but she's a new addition, like a few days old. and he started the akward breatheing yesterday morning

 

it could be flukes

 

I take it that everyone else is fine?

Can you see any injuries to the fish?

 

by reading your other post i noticed you do not have live rock? also curious if you have sand. Im not an expert but without live rock your are going to have a hard time breaking down ammonia, which could be why your fish are starting to breath weird, more people may have better advice

 

good point. standard issue question: what are all your water param's at?

 

i checked them yesterday, and the tank needs a water change. and also none of the other fish are haveing the same problems

 

I suspect that you do not have a large enough bacterial filter, if you do not have live rock, and that in your attempt to get the angel to eat, and the addition of a the angel the system's biological filter has yet to catch up with the new addition (new tank syndrome). You are now seeing a ammonia spike, one of the symptoms is rapid breathing.

Rechecking the parameters most noticeably ammonia and nitrites would be a good idea IMO.

 

Hi Reefgirl....we are here to help and we ALL made and still make mistakes....so let us know exactly where you are at with oyur tank and it will help us help you

You need biological filtration even more than mechanical filtration.

Please tell us your complete setup including lights, pumps, heater, water parameters are a must if you want the help.

It is a fun hobby if you take it SLOW and thought out.

Welcome to 3 Reef!!