Diagnosis Please

[grouper25]

I have an orange tail blue damsel whom is spectacular. Today I noticed he is gasping, mouth wide open and not eating. As luck would have it,my fish friend borrowed my test kit so I can't assess my parameters until tomorrow. Any guesses mates?
I am suspecting it may be an amonia spike as this is a qt tank with no substrate or live rock.

thanks
G25

[Craig Lambert]

If you have been doing regular water changes in the QT it probably isn't an ammonia spike. It could just be that the fish was already in trouble when you aquired him. Sometimes there is just no way to tell. Capture and shipment have alot to do with it.

Is there anything else in the QT? Live Rock?

[grouper25]

No, bare bottom, no live rock and I have had him for 3 weeks and he has been thriving. My experience with QTs is amonia is hard to control even with a colonized bio wheel pad. Did a water change 30%(of 20gallon) last week.

G25

[Craig Lambert]

Since he's been there for 3 weeks, do you know the pH level of the QT? Perhaps it's low. I would do more frequent water changes in a QT assuming it has a pretty sparce filtration system. Still think the fish may have been doomed by the collection, or transportation process.

[mikeandjenn99]

try another water change to be on the safe side until you can test the water...

[Sk8r]

Agree.