potter's not looking so hot

[nickyblase]

The Potter's I got 2 weekends ago doesn't look too good. He is pretty pale. No spots to speak of, just looks like he's lost a lot of color.

Swimming around, picking at the rocks still, so hopefully he's getting enough to eat. He ate mysis last night, but didn't see him take any just now (at least not right out of the water column - maybe he got some that landed, as he was picking quite a bit when it was dropped into the tank).

Not sure if he's having a hard time getting accustomed to captive life, or got spooked by something. I haven't added anything in the tank after him.

Should I turn the lights off early, or do anything else to help him?

 

[Duds]

maybe he has intergestion, my fish have looked like that before then the next day they are fine
Duds

 

[nickyblase]

do you mean indigestion/upset belly?

 

[Chris L]

are you feeding any angel specific foods? they sell the little cubes that have the sponge in them. it might intice him to eat a little more. good luck they are beautiful fish

 

[nickyblase]

yeah - I've got the pygmy angel formula, and also started out with some live food and a ton of pods when he was first introduced. He was picking the glass and rocks non-stop for the first several days.

I have noticed that 2 times he's let the cleaner shrimp clean him. I am not seeing any ich though. What could it be???
BTW - I have been soaking the food in selcon and garlic.

 

[Chris L]

is he being picked on by any other fish?

 

[nickyblase]

nope. No other fish are picking on it at all. It's a pretty mellow tank.

 

[NateHanson]

Does he have any irregular shaped pale spots/areas on his body? Brooklynella is sometimes a problem with newly collected fish. The stress of shipment makes them susceptible. I'm not suggesting that's what you've got, but it might be worth searching for pictures to see if it looks similar (you could even search for threads of mine that contain Heniochus or Bannerfish in the title - I lost four to Brook, and posted pictures). If that's it I don't think there's anything to do.

Hopefully he's just feeling off, and he'll be better tomorrow. Keep offering a variety of healthy foods.

 

[zemuron114]

where did you get him from? petstore or online?
many potters are mishandled during the capture/shipping parts. They do not recover as well as many other angels do. So it makes a big difference if you bought it online or at a petstore

 

[Chris L]

and how long has it been acting sluggish?

 

[nickyblase]

thanks for the replies. I will look for photos on Brooklynella. I got him at a store, and it was collected in Hawaii. The store owner was telling me that this was a good thing, because Hawaii has stricter collection rules than other places. Is this true?

I will continue to offer diff. kinds of food. Hopefully he'll snap out of it. Like I said - he has been swimming around & picking at the rocks, so hopefully that's a good thing.

BTW - he started to lose color the day before yesterday.

 

[NateHanson]

The store owner was telling me that this was a good thing, because Hawaii has stricter collection rules than other places. Is this true?

I have heard that it's true, and cyanide is much less common with hawaiian fish. (Although, I am generally skeptical about any store's ability to know where a fish came from - at best they can only know where the wholesaler SAYS it came from, and even that source is a few steps removed from the actual collection site).

 

[RichConley]

are you feeding any angel specific foods? they sell the little cubes that have the sponge in them. it might intice him to eat a little more. good luck they are beautiful fish

Dwarf angels don't eat much sponge. Theyre more algae, and micro-crustacean eaters.

I have heard that it's true, and cyanide is much less common with hawaiian fish. (Although, I am generally skeptical about any store's ability to know where a fish came from - at best they can only know where the wholesaler SAYS it came from, and even that source is a few steps removed from the actual collection site).

Nate, I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think the Potter's range is limited to the hawiian islands.


just checked: according to marinecenter.com
Range in Nature Hawaiian Islands and Johnston Atoll

From what I've heard, theres a big difference in color between the ones collected on Hawaii, and the ones collected at Oahu (sp?)

Theyre finicky fish, and dont take well to being mistreated, but are quite tough once they get settled. (mine is a terror)


Is he better or worse today?

 

[nickyblase]

Lights are just coming on, so it's hard to tell. I'll give it a little while and see if he colors up some. He's still swimming around and picking at the rocks.

 

[nickyblase]

lights have been on a while, and the color looks a little better than yesterday, but still a little pale. Last night, his orange was faded and it looked like his blue on the tail and mid section was almost not there. The blue has come back somewhat, and the orange is still faded, but not as bad.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

One thing that I thought of, and I could be reaching here... the last couple of days I've been playing with the flow in the tank. Could this have any impact on him??

 

[NateHanson]

It's possible. Stress will cause some fish to color down. It's not necessarily a sign of ill-health, but it could indicate that he's still settling in.

I had a hippo tang that would turn very light blue and grey after lights out, then color right back up to royal and black in the first 30 minutes of lights on.

 

[nickyblase]

I've had fish that did that too with the lights off/lights on thing. He is doing that, but hasn't come back to full color the last couple days.

I hope that the fact that I was messing around with flow is all it is. I was trying to increase the amount of flow in the tank, but the only way I could get it to match was to have some serious suction going with the drain pipe (which has an open "t" to help alleviate the gurgling noise). Well, the flow stunk from that, so closing it up made for some serious gurgling at the basket in the display (and much more flow, since it was coming so much faster down the drain).

I have since (last night and this morning) turned it down some - because the noise was annoying, and also to see if that would help the angel. I'm curious to see if it does anything (other than shorten the life of my new pump!).

 

[NateHanson]

No worries about pump life if you are throttling the pump down from the output side. Just don't restrict a pump on the input side.

 

[nickyblase]

got home and now I don't know what's going on. Color still the same, no patches, blotches, etc. But I did see him scratch his body on the rockwork like 3 times, which would lead me to believe he's got something.

I'm hesitant to pull him out, because he would not only be under more stress, but have nothing to pick off of. Been using selcon & garlic. Hopefully that will help.