fish disease?

Hi,

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area. He's been that
way for about 3 weeks, but he eats well and is very active, and
otherwise normal. All water parameters are normal. Anyone have any
idea what this is? I'm aware it's just a $4 damsel, but I've had him
almost ten years and I'm upgrading from a FO tank to a bigger reef
setup, and I'd like to see him make the switch. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks,

Grant

Could be nerve dammage. Nerve dammage will do that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



wrote on 2/10/2006 1:37 PM:

Hi,

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area. He's been that
way for about 3 weeks, but he eats well and is very active, and
otherwise normal. All water parameters are normal. Anyone have any
idea what this is? I'm aware it's just a $4 damsel, but I've had him
almost ten years and I'm upgrading from a FO tank to a bigger reef
setup, and I'd like to see him make the switch. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks,

Grant

Wow, ten years!! That's great to keep livestock that long

Susan
"Wayne Sallee" wrote in message
...
Could be nerve dammage. Nerve dammage will do that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



wrote on 2/10/2006 1:37 PM:

Hi,

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area. He's been that
way for about 3 weeks, but he eats well and is very active, and
otherwise normal. All water parameters are normal. Anyone have any
idea what this is? I'm aware it's just a $4 damsel, but I've had him
almost ten years and I'm upgrading from a FO tank to a bigger reef
setup, and I'd like to see him make the switch. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks,

Grant

"Susan" wrote in message m...
Wow, ten years!! That's great to keep livestock that long

That is actually not unusuall for marine fish...
I read here, not that long ago, somebody here
kept his blue tang for something like 15-16 years.

Nerve damage? What could cause that?




On Sat, 11 Feb 2006 22:11:05 GMT, Wayne Sallee
wrote:

Could be nerve dammage. Nerve dammage will do that.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



wrote on 2/10/2006 1:37 PM:

Hi,

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area. He's been that
way for about 3 weeks, but he eats well and is very active, and
otherwise normal. All water parameters are normal. Anyone have any
idea what this is? I'm aware it's just a $4 damsel, but I've had him
almost ten years and I'm upgrading from a FO tank to a bigger reef
setup, and I'd like to see him make the switch. Any help would be
appreciated.

Thanks,

Grant

wrote:

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area.

Electrical leakage into the tank can cause this sort of thing. If all your
submerged equipment is on a GFCI outlet, this is almost certainly not the cause.
If you don't have a GFCI, get one. If it trips, unplug equipment and reset until
it doesn't trip. Replace the last item you unplugged.

If this is the cause, the scales may not regrow, but the fish will be ok.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

On Mon, 13 Feb 2006 03:58:09 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

wrote:

I have a yellow tailed blue damsel that appears to have lost all of
the blue coloring (scales?) at the top of his head and around his
eyes. So he's mostly blue, but black in that area.

Electrical leakage into the tank can cause this sort of thing. If all your
submerged equipment is on a GFCI outlet, this is almost certainly not the cause.
If you don't have a GFCI, get one. If it trips, unplug equipment and reset until
it doesn't trip. Replace the last item you unplugged.

If this is the cause, the scales may not regrow, but the fish will be ok.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

George,

All tank equipment is on a GFCI outlet. However, I live in an old
house. Most of the circuits are knob and tube style wiring. The
tank's circuit, as well as a few others, are updated wiring, but the
electrical panel is not grounded to anything. Is my GFCI useless?
What about a grounding probe? And is this the most likely cause of
the problem. Thanks for your input.

Grant

All tank equipment is on a GFCI outlet. However, I live in an old
house. Most of the circuits are knob and tube style wiring. The
tank's circuit, as well as a few others, are updated wiring, but the
electrical panel is not grounded to anything. Is my GFCI useless?
What about a grounding probe? And is this the most likely cause of
the problem. Thanks for your input.


Who installed the GFCI? If it was a qualified electrician then there's
got to be a gounding line in the panel that it's conneted to.

mark h

wrote:

All tank equipment is on a GFCI outlet. However, I live in an old
house. Most of the circuits are knob and tube style wiring. The
tank's circuit, as well as a few others, are updated wiring, but the
electrical panel is not grounded to anything. Is my GFCI useless?

No. GFCI outlets are frequently used with obsolete wiring to provide the safety
equivalent of a grounded circuit. It will work just fine. If one of your pieces
of equipment were leaking current into the water, the GFCI would trip.

One more thing. Your electrical panel is almost certainly actually grounded to
something (I've never seen one that isn't). Prior to about 1970, it was common
practice to ground the box to the cold water supply line. These days, they sink
one or two heavy copper rods 8' into the ground and run a wire to them. It's
possible that the original ground wire was removed, especially if plumbing lines
have been re-routed.

What about a grounding probe? And is this the most likely cause of
the problem. Thanks for your input.

I use a probe on my tank, but I think it's unecessary if you have a GFCI (I put
mine in before I got a GFCI). From what I've read, the most likely cause of the
symptoms you describe is some sort of bacterial infection, but it doesn't have
all of the symptoms of the most common infections (for one thing, these are
usually white and cause tissue loss). Infections are hard to treat, since it's
hard to tell what antibiotic will work on your particular disease. You also
can't just dump a bunch of antibiotics in a reef tank.

Perhaps it's just old age?

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Mark Henry wrote:

Who installed the GFCI? If it was a qualified electrician then there's
got to be a gounding line in the panel that it's conneted to.

GFCIs are frequently installed on ungrounded circuits for safety upgrades. It's
much cheaper than running a ground wire.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.