Flaky scales on saltwater fish, please help!

Subject: Flaky scales on saltwater fish, please help! Sat Feb 02, 2008 5:50 pm

One of my damselfish just died because it had huge brown, flaky patches on it, it got sucked onto the filter intake. What should I do to make sure this doesn't happen again?
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I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Visit my blog at http://fgaquarium.blogspot.com/

I have never had saltwater fish, but are all your water parameters good.

I am going to have to check them, but I know something is wrong, because damselfish are the most hardy of all saltwater fish
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I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Visit my blog at http://fgaquarium.blogspot.com/

I know salt water tanks are different, but I would do 50% water change remove carbon if you use it at all(I only use carbon after I have treated my tanks with meds) and treat the tank for health problem like parasitic attack, injury, or bacterial infection. If there is no visible injuries, start treating for parasites or bacteria. I would continue to do daily water changes of 20%. Most likely I would be able to find out what the problem is on a web site that has diseases listed for freshwater tanks, so I would start going to salt water site and look up diseases for salt water fish.

Bang on Celtic! I did a water test, and the ammonia had skyrocketed. I did a 50% water change and replaced the filter cartridge. I'm going to do another water change today, just to make sure.
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I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Visit my blog at http://fgaquarium.blogspot.com/

Have you done something to cause an ammonia spike, change substrate or some other change that would cause that. What type of filter do you use? I just think there must be something going on to cause that.

The filter is all built in, so it is not that. It is probably because I didn't do frequent water changes, which caused a spike. I will be keeping an eye on the two other damselfish more closely now.
_________________
I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Visit my blog at http://fgaquarium.blogspot.com/

Rank2 Member Age : 33 Joined : 20 Jan 2008 Posts : 63

I hope it all works out for you, it really sucks when you loose a fish

Thanks Zebra. Oh well, I didn't have him for very long, and the other damselfish were beating him up. He was pretty cheap for a saltwater fish, he was only 7$ and I got the 3 of them for 20$.
_________________
I have been keeping aquariums most of my life. I have kept both fresh and salt water, cichlids, catfish, loaches, clownfish, wrasses, and everything in between. Feel free to ask me any questions!

Visit my blog at http://fgaquarium.blogspot.com/