goby not compatable or sick?

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phil_vetter

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 29, 2009
Messages
7
I have a 55 gal saltwater tank with 1 clownfish and 1 blue hippo tang. I bought a goby on Friday and put him in. He went under a rock and I didn't see him come out again (today is Sunday so basically about 48 hours since I put him in). I could just see his head under the rock and he was breathing very heavy so I figured something definitely was wrong. I picked up the rock and he would barely move. I don't know if there is anything I should be doing or if there is anything I can do at this point to save him. He was just laying on the bottom for a while and then he swam up next to the intake tube and is just laying there against the suction inlet. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I fully expect that he will probably be dead by tomorrow morning.
 
salinity 1.022
nitrate 10
nitrite 0
alkalinity 300
pH 8.2

I didn't do anything to acclimate other than placing the bag he was in into the aquarium for the temperature to level out and then put him in. He swam immediately to this particular rock and started putting sand in front of the opening. This is a particular rock that the blue hippo has gone under in the past. I thought that might be a problem but there didn't seem to be any tension. When I just uncovered him tonight the blue hippo was swimming near him but never made any type of movements or acknowledgement of him.
 
He just died. I would still like to know what I should have done differently. This is the second goby that I have lost. The first was in the tank with the clown and doing fine. Then I put the blue hippo in and the goby jumped out of the tank over night.
 
no ammonia test? simply floating the bag is definately the least preffered method of acclimating... if your tank has different water parameters than those of your lfs (which if yours are good, chances are theyre different), you can shock the fish from the difference in params... drip acclimating is the best way, imo, to acclimate a fish... by slowly dripping your tank water in to a bucket and allowing it to mix with the lfs water, it slowly transitions the fish to your water... i let mine drip until i have 4x the amount of water they originally came in... you can also float the bag for about 30 minutes, then add a cup of water to the bag every 15-20 minutes until you have 4x the water in the bag as well... i just prefer dripping, as do most of the guys here. Though that may not be the culprit, it sure could have been a factor
 
Just a little addition to the floating the bag. Ive done it with a powder blue tang, orange shoulder tang, and many other fish. The fish never died because of parameters. These fish were from 3 or more different stores. I also floated a little hippo tang who did well, until I learned it needs rotifers...

It could of just been a sick fish. Since your first fish jumped, then it probably isnt tank related. Was he active in the LFS tank?
 
I assume by LFS you mean the store that I bought him at. He seemed to be pretty active in the store. Thanks for the tips on acclimation. I will definitely do the water addition next time. How much time do you spread the water addition over?
 
Nice to know the difference between the lfs water and yours in order to gauge the acclimation time, but a drip that triples the amount of LFS water is about what I used to shoot for. Might fill up the water container that the fish is in, dump it and do it again. Took about an hour for me.
 
There is 2 thoughts about drip acclimating fish one is it puts stress on the fish and that can cause more problems than just float and release. The other is to drip acclimate and then release the fish.

I test the water while I am floating the bag if the water in both the tank and the bag is pretty close add some of the tank water and then release the fish. I buy my fish locally and our water is pretty much the same all the time. I always add a drop or two of stress guard to the bag to help keep the slime coat in good condition.

Either way don't allow any water from the fish store to get in your tank.
 
Thanks for the info. I had not thought about not putting the store water in my tank. Just assumed it was fine.
 
The drip method uses a piece of air line tubing with a knot in it. With the knot loose start a siphon. Then tighten the knot to get a drip of 6 drops a second or slower. After floating the bag. I put the bag into a plastic container then the plastic container into a 5 gallon bucket. Depending on the fish I will use a net to gently release the fish into the tank. Did anyone mention quarantine?

Good luck!
 
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