fish behavior?

[Crucial]

My damsel is swimming more erratically than usual, and he seems to twitch/flinch randomly - I have tested all of my chemical levels which look okay to me, what could be wrong? Can that be a stress thing?

[Crucial]

someone, anyone?

[yardboy]

Is he rubbing himself on rocks? What I mean is that quick little flip turn that they can do that rubs their sides on a rock or even a coral. That's the only thing I've seen with my fish and it meant ich.

[Crucial]

no he isn't rubbing himself on rocks - but i didn't know that was a sign of ich. thanks, i will keep an eye out for that in the future.

as crazy as this may sound, the only thing i can think is maybe he is flipping out because his tank-mate died. when i rearranged my LR for the addition of a protein skimmer, i stirred up the tank a lot, and for some unknown reason my dwarf butterfly died. i checked my ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp, pH, calcium and all looked good, so I don't know why he died - i checked him over very closely post-mortum and i couldn't find anything wrong (except that he was dead).

my damsel seems to take more interest in his reflection now, and darts around randomly, like he is very nervous... its sad.

[rottielover]

Sometimes I think fish are a mystery. My three clowns don't eat near as much as my other fish come feeding time, and some days they even refuse to eat, but then the next day, back to normal and eat a little. So far they seem healthy though, but it is a concern, since the other fish seem to always be hungry.

[Crucial]

Agreed.

My damsel is always ravenous, but my late dwarf angel hardly ever ate. He never really went after the flake or frozen formula one... he only ate off of my polyps and other junk. I wonder if he could have starved? I gave him several different types of flake and frozen but all he seemed interested in were the growths on my LR. I had him for the better part of a month before he died.

[yardboy]

How old is the tank setup, and you had two fish in there, right? A dwarf angel (or butterfly?) and a damsel? If the tank's been set up long, your sandbed (if you have one) could have some anaerobic pockets (particularly under rocks) that would have released hydrogen sulfide that could have killed the dwarf, and possibly damaged the gills of the damsel, causing his erratic behavior. Just a possibility.

I have a dwarf angel (coral beauty) that it took me months before I caught him eating flake food. Don't know if he was eating it on the sly before that or not. I've had him for over two years now and he fat and happy, though I still rarely see him even trying to compete in the feeding frenzies every morning.