Royal Gramma Gone?

[Diver4242]

I have a small 13.5 gallon saltwater tank I started in June. It's been doing great. Two small Ocelaris Clownfish, three blue leg hermit crabs, and two trochus snails. All are very active. I test and change water weekly.

Recently I added a royal Gramma from my local store. Within a few days I noticed a small white dog just below it's dorsal fin, on the body. The fish was still eating and active two days ago but the dot got bigger, portruding in a Hershey kiss shape.

Yesterday the fish didn't come out of the live rock to eat and I didn't see it all day. Just a tip of it's fin in the live rock. It didn't come out today either. Is it dead? If so what do I do? Let the cuc have it and any bristle worms? I hate to pull the live rock apart to get to it.

I'll attach a video from a few days ago. Thanks for any help.

 

[Chad]

If it is dead and you cannot get it out let the CUC have it and do a medium sized water change after a couple of days. There are many things that can cause this, such as parasites like isopods. My recommendation for a tank that small is to stick with the two clowns and if you want to add a third fish (I don't recommend it unless you have a sump) then a yellow clown goby would work really well. One of the watchman goby group would also work well. The gramma likes tons of rocks to hide in and doesn't care for bright lighting. It is hard to provide those two things in a smaller tank.