help again with Green Chromis

stevenearlmcdonald · May 8, 2024

A few weeks ago I posted that I was treating this fish for what I thought was uronema. After posting pics/vid I was advised it didn't look like the fish had that disease. So I forwent the last formalin dip and just kept him in the hospital tank for observation. This fish is 9 years old so I wasn't really sure what to expect. He didn't look like swimming was 100% meaning he just didn't do a lot of it and mostly kept to the bottom of the tank. Seemed more like it didn't see as well. But mostly he looked ok without any signs of parasites or disease. I feed him with a pipet right by its mouth and it eats but mostly moving in straight lines back and forth on the bottom. I tried reintroducing the fish to the main tank but the clown fish immediately went for him so I pulled him out right away and back to the hospital tank. I figured I would put him in a macro algae tank and just let him be by himself. This was a week ago and he seemed to recover from any stress by that event. Now he is swimming in circles and I don't know if there is a buoyancy issue or fin/tail issue? attaching a video.

Jay Hemdal · May 8, 2024

As I mentioned in the other thread, nine years is really old for a green chromis. I think you are seeing artifacts of old age, or at least an inability to bounce back from stress issues.

The spiral swimming, but still feeding from a pipette seems to indicate either a neurological disease or blindness. In most other cases where a fish "spins" it is moribund, actively dying, and will not have a feeding respsonse.

IMO you have done what you really can for this fish, and you might want to consider euthanasia:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-euthanasia.979258/