Help !! Dommino not doing well
 

Hi
I just got in and one of y domminos has totally lost a ll his black color pretty much. She is swiimming very eratically , darting all over the place. her eyes appear to look normal and there is no notiicable parasites rr anything else on her.
She was fine when I left earlier this evening, she ate well today , nothing out of the ordinary. Just all the sudden she seems to have lost most of her blacm coloration and is swimming / darting very irratically
I have a 2nd Dommino in the same tank and so far he is not , or doesnt seem to be affected

Anyone have any ideas on what may be weron with her and what I can do to help ?

Any help would be really apprciated

captainhemo

Domino Damsel? Is the unaffected domino being aggressive, keeping the stressed one out of hiding spots? How big is your tank? How long have you had the fish?

Hi,

Sorry for not mentioning tank details, just slipped my mind a t the time. Wos worring to much about the fsih
Yeah, they are Domino Damsels but it is more like the other way around. The stressed one (larger) is putting the run on the other (smaller).
I've had these fish for about 3 weeks and they have been doing well. The larger one has always apperaed to be the dominant one but last night she was really aggressive Both fish have always eaten well, (mysis) , there doesnt seem to be any change in her appitite
The tank is 33 gal, those are the only 2 fish. Also have numerous hermits, a few snails 40 lbs live rock / 40 lbs live sand.
Tank levels are 8.2 PH, 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites, < 10ppm Nitrates, Salinity 1.023, temp 78. The only newly added items are 10 days ago I addded another 10 lbs live rcok and a small rock with a red mushrrom and what appears to be a yellow center Zooanthid.
Looking in this am, the fish appears to have regained much of its color, its very strange. She also seems uch calmer today . I ahvent turned ont he lights yet today so she may appear to be a bit "paler" once that happens I cant believe how she seemed totally normal when I left for dialysis ( i fed them just a bit before leaving so I know she appeared fine) and was so different when I got home about 4.5hrs later. She seems so calm right now I'm scared to turn the lights on

captianhemo

Ok, I've had the lights back on for a bit now and the fish definately looks much better than last night although there is a still a bit of " paleness " to her. She is much more herself so far though .
I have given them a bit more mysis and it was eaten quickly as usual. She has also seemed to have eased in her aggression twards the smaller fish.

I dont understand this, what would cause such an abrupt loss of colr (black) and then a return to normal or bery close to normal ?
She did not look well at all last night when I wrote my intial post, almost all her " black colro " had disapperared and like I had maintioned last night, she seemed very aggitated

Could have simply been a really big scare. Some fish are more skittish than others and will take longer to regain their composure. Hopefully that's all it is.

I'm surprised you have 2 of the same species of damsel in the same tank. I would have thought they would be extremely aggressive, especially in a 33gal.

Can a " really big scare" make them lose their color like that ? I have never seen this before
They still arent themselves, but seem to be doing a bit better as time goes by. Seems very strange . It's almost like they get better w/o the main lights on , then for some reason are suddenly scared of the lights. Not sure
what could have happened to start this though

I bought them at the very same time and one was quite a bit smaller than the other, they seem to have an " understanding" of who's bosss and it seems to work most of the time. Once and a while the larger one will chase the small one away to the other end of the tank but nothing more. Alot of the time they are together within an inch of each otter

Please Help !
 

This is turning into a bigger problem than i origtinally thought :(
I looks as if I've got a parasite problem ( 1st time) . There has been some small white spots apperaring on the glass over the past couple days and now a dustlike covering over the fish ( which are acting strange still btw)
Upon looking clser at these white specs on the glass, they appear to be small parasites with approx 6 legs apriece.

Can anyone reccomend a decent parsite tratment for a reef tank ? I dont think I can just remove the fish and treat them as it appears to be nthe glass as well ?

I guess I know tyhe source fo my fiosh's strange behaviour, now I need to know what to do to help them