newreeferontheblock
Community Member
I am currently running a 20 g with the only (current resident) a Pajama Cardinal I have had for a few months (almost 3 - the tank itself is about 4 months old). Last week I started noticing what I thought was discoloration on the sides of my Royal Gramma (post with video and pictures here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/help-what-is-wrong-with-my-royal-gramma.1019184/#post-11933648). However, its behavior was normal (eating, social - but retreated to its cave from time to time, no signs of heavy breathing, flashing, etc.).
Unfortunately, we had to leave for a few days for Thanksgiving and when I returned, the RG was nowhere to be found. Today I moved some rocks around and found it laying on the sand bed. I didn't take any pictures, however mouth was closed, still had pale spots on his side. The PJ Cardinal is still behaving normally.
Would love to get thoughts from the group on where to go from here. Do I need to do anything to protect the PJ? How long until I consider getting another fish (e.g., is there a risk of disease in the tank)
Params are:
NH3 / NO2-: 0
No3-: between 5 and 10
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: ~77 deg F
PO4-: 0.19 (working on bringing this one down - the autofeeder I use on vacation is a bit more generous with food than I am)
The only other thing of note that may or may not be important is that I had a heater failure the night before we left - I noticed it had been running for 3 hours straight without the temp changing. I had a spare and was able to swap it out and it seems to be functioning properly.
Unfortunately, we had to leave for a few days for Thanksgiving and when I returned, the RG was nowhere to be found. Today I moved some rocks around and found it laying on the sand bed. I didn't take any pictures, however mouth was closed, still had pale spots on his side. The PJ Cardinal is still behaving normally.
Would love to get thoughts from the group on where to go from here. Do I need to do anything to protect the PJ? How long until I consider getting another fish (e.g., is there a risk of disease in the tank)
Params are:
NH3 / NO2-: 0
No3-: between 5 and 10
Salinity: 1.026
Temp: ~77 deg F
PO4-: 0.19 (working on bringing this one down - the autofeeder I use on vacation is a bit more generous with food than I am)
The only other thing of note that may or may not be important is that I had a heater failure the night before we left - I noticed it had been running for 3 hours straight without the temp changing. I had a spare and was able to swap it out and it seems to be functioning properly.
