Red hawkfish (lyretail) is not eating after being a ferocious eater for 4-5months.

[RiverChad]

Hi, a few days ago I noticed my lyretail Hawk not eating and being a lot more stationary than normal. I've had him for about 4-5months and he has always been a good eater and active. I've noticed a few days ago that he now perches a lot more and stays stationary for very long periods of time. Before he would perch for at most a couple minutes at a time. I also have not seen him eat anything the past few days. I feed a variety of different foods. (Mysis, fish eggs, brine shrimp, etc) When I put food in the tank he does start swimming around though, almost like he wants to eat, but doesn't. I have not noticed rapid breathe or any other signs besides being more stationary. I have 2 clowns and a coral beauty that are healthy and eating and they all get along fine and no signs of aggression.
All my parameters have been and still are stable and the same since adding him except for my nitrates. I've started dosing neonitro a week ago to get my nitrates up to 5. They were previously 0. Ive been testing my nitrates everyday to make sure it wasn't spiking and they never go past 5. I also added a wave maker so maybe I have too much flow for him but he still gets around just fine when he does move.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi, a few days ago I noticed my lyretail Hawk not eating and being a lot more stationary than normal. I've had him for about 4-5months and he has always been a good eater and active. I've noticed a few days ago that he now perches a lot more and stays stationary for very long periods of time. Before he would perch for at most a couple minutes at a time. I also have not seen him eat anything the past few days. I feed a variety of different foods. (Mysis, fish eggs, brine shrimp, etc) When I put food in the tank he does start swimming around though, almost like he wants to eat, but doesn't. I have not noticed rapid breathe or any other signs besides being more stationary. I have 2 clowns and a coral beauty that are healthy and eating and they all get along fine and no signs of aggression.
All my parameters have been and still are stable and the same since adding him except for my nitrates. I've started dosing neonitro a week ago to get my nitrates up to 5. They were previously 0. Ive been testing my nitrates everyday to make sure it wasn't spiking and they never go past 5. I also added a wave maker so maybe I have too much flow for him but he still gets around just fine when he does move.

I wonder if neonitrate is causing issue? They can tolerate both low and high up to 30. How are you testing nitrates?
Pics provided are somewhat hard to see what is going on with fish (need it more out in the open even temporarily or a video under bright light for at least 20 seconds. Agression isone of my suspect causes. Clowns can be well behaved in your presence then evil when you walk away. Perhaps, next time you feed, set your cell phone on video mode for about 20 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor can be a bully at feeding time.

 

[RiverChad]

I'm testing my nitrates daily using the Hanna nitrate hr. I don't believe it to be aggression from tank mates since I've not noticed any fin damage or seen any aggression in the 4-5 months of keeping him. I'll try to take some better pictures, for some reason it won't let me upload videos, I'll try to keep them under 10 seconds and see if that works. Thanks

 

[RiverChad]

@vetteguy53081

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081

After confirming near normal respirations and fish noy fluttering its fins, scratching , etc, I suspect intimidation by a tank mate. Tank I see is bare bottom. How much rock is in the tank and what filtration are you using?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@vetteguy53081

I don't see anything really standing out in the video. I don't think this is related to tankmate aggression or the neonitrate (that's just nitrate salts). People have reported issues with phosphate removers and carbon dosing, but this isn't the same.

 

[MnFish1]

Hi, a few days ago I noticed my lyretail Hawk not eating and being a lot more stationary than normal. I've had him for about 4-5months and he has always been a good eater and active. I've noticed a few days ago that he now perches a lot more and stays stationary for very long periods of time. Before he would perch for at most a couple minutes at a time. I also have not seen him eat anything the past few days. I feed a variety of different foods. (Mysis, fish eggs, brine shrimp, etc) When I put food in the tank he does start swimming around though, almost like he wants to eat, but doesn't. I have not noticed rapid breathe or any other signs besides being more stationary. I have 2 clowns and a coral beauty that are healthy and eating and they all get along fine and no signs of aggression.
All my parameters have been and still are stable and the same since adding him except for my nitrates. I've started dosing neonitro a week ago to get my nitrates up to 5. They were previously 0. Ive been testing my nitrates everyday to make sure it wasn't spiking and they never go past 5. I also added a wave maker so maybe I have too much flow for him but he still gets around just fine when he does move.

That is a nearly dead fish unless it recovers

 

[RiverChad]

That is a nearly dead fish unless it recovers

So I ended up checking my ph and found it to be extremely low. 7.5
Idk why, but I've never tested my ph. Typically only check dkh, nitrates and phosphates since I dose all for reef and was under the impression a good dkh meant a good ph. Lesson learned, since then I added an air stone to my filtration with the airline leading outside and my ph is now at 8.0 and climbing. My fish seems to be back to his normal self, eating and very active. Not sure why the other fish werent affected by the low pH, guess they are a lot hardier. I also moved my phosguard since it was mentioned as a culprit and added macro algae to my display. I'll be adding the phosguard back so I can be 100% sure it was the ph causing this behavior. It would also explain some of my coral issues as well.