Sick damsel?

[crob67]

I have a yellow tail damsel whose lips have all of a sudden turned white. Is this bad? I had something like this happen to my FW tank a while back and wipe out my gouramis, so I'm pretty worried. The damsel is active and eating, there are no corals in the tank, and nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia are at zero.

[CD]

That sounds kind of odd...are there any other fish in the tank? What have you been feeding it? Is there any way you can post a picture? As many details that you can think of may be helpful...how long you've had the fish, if there's any LR in the tank, other creatures (inverts, bristleworms, etc.)

BTW - Welcome to MAAST!!

W.

[crob67]

Thanks anyway wendy, but the damsel died not too long after I posted. It was fine a couple of hours before, and then all of a sudden its lips turned white, some scales started flaking, and it dies. There are some other damsels in the tank, and 2 days later they still look and act fantastic. thanks again though.

[Reef69]

Thats weird. Damsels are bulletproof..sorry to hear it died.

[CD]

Very sorry to hear that your damsel died :( , but this has gotten my curiosity up...did the lips turn white shortly before it died, or days before? Was the fish "panting" or breathing heavily? I'm wondering if the discoloration in the lips was due to lack of oxygen...?

W.

[crob67]

The damsel's lips turned white about 3 hours before it died. However, there are about 10 other assorted damsels in hte tank and they are doing fantastic. Also, the damsel was not breathing hard...besides the white lips it seemed fine, just not as active as usual.