My new copperband died this morning as I assumed he would. I only had him a few days. He was not a good specimen to start with. I knew that but I got him cheap because he had some fungus on his mouth and I could see that he had some skin discoloration that comes with internal injuries. I was curious as to what his internal injuries were so I disected him. As I suspected the fish had internal injuries. A large area towards the rear and top was filled with blood.
Normally this area is white and just mussle. I am surprised he lived that long.
He probably received this injury when he was collected as this is common with very flat fish and comes from crushing either by a net or being squashed in a shipping bag.
He ate but not great. I knew he had problems but rarely this will clear up on it's own. Copperbands are delicate fish even in good condition.
His gills were clear, he had no more fungus and the rest of his organs looked normal. Unfortunately
he would have died no matter what was done.
It is what it is and it happens.
They are a great fish. In this picture taken yesterday you can see two injury places, one below the black spot on his lateral line just to the left of the yellow bar and one to the left of the spot.
I say this when I got him and figured he would not last long.

Sorry to hear.

At least you tried

__________________
fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden