Two Dragon (Violet) gobies acting weird...

[MissDragGunn]

Hi. My name is Shawna I'm new to this forum. Though I should've joined sooner due to my love of my aquarium.

I have two dragon gobies. Seamore and Uunagi. I've had them for about two weeks and both eat VERY well, are in perfect water, and they are in a FW tank that has been established for a while. They were bred and kept in FW tanks their entire lives said the fish store. Yesterday morning the little one started going to the surface and stiffening his body completely verticle and putting his nose out of the water and has continued to dso this. I poke him to see if he is dead because he is so still and the current from the filter makes him float and he jets off to another corner.

By dinner time yesterday the big one started to do the same. I checked the water andeverything is fine so i figured they must just be doing it this one time. Not I woke up this morning and they were still doing the same thing and their tails were pressed up against the filter. It looks like they have velvet disease ich on their tails. So I rose the temp to 80 throughout the day, added aquarium salt, and put tablets of fish medicine (like 5-in-one for ich, velevet disease, fin rot, ect). I come home from work and I fed them and they ate but are still doing the same thing. It also looks like they have a bit of the ich on their upper fins as well.

They are still energentic and eat very healthy amounts and are active. Should I be worried?

Also my loach takes heated water TERRIBLY so how long should I keep the tank at 80 or is there any way I can treat the tank without highering up the temp. The loach is very sensitive.

Thank you for your help.
Shawna

 

[Tim Wheatley]

You don't need to heat the tank, just treat for longer. The heat will speed up the life cycle of Ich, but if you have sensitive fish don't raise the temp, just treat for longer.

The things the VGs are doing sounds like they are suffering with low oxygen. Do you have air bubbles or much surface agitation in your tank? Also, how often do you do water changes? Changing water can help oxygenate. I've kept a VG, mine did this for that reason.

 

[MissDragGunn]

i do a partial every two-three weeks. I have a carbon filter. I do not have an air stone filter to add bubbles.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

How big of a water change? I do 2 x 20% water changes every week, you may want to do it more often, especially if the water is still and lacking oxygen input.

 

[MissDragGunn]

i just looked up some air stone filters that I will get tomorrow. I do about 25-30% sometimes. I have a 18 G tank.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Smaller tanks usually require a lot more closer monitoring and perhaps more maintenance than larger ones. With an 18 gallon I would recommend at least 25-30% every week if you can find the time for it.

By the way, gasping at the surface is a common sign of oxygen issues as the oxygen content in water is higher by the surface. It can also be a sign of high ammonia and nitrite levels. If the tank has been established for a while this is probably building up before your water changes a bit too much.

Good luck.

 

[MissDragGunn]

Thanks. I'll make sure to update. I have a small 1 gal tank air stone filter im putting in now to help and im looking into installing an under gravel filter (to filter out the wasted frozen bloodworm and such and waste) and a air stone bar that will oxyigenate the entire tank. I'm also going to do a partial tomorrow to make sure i get a good amount of waste.

Thanks =D

 

[MissDragGunn]

I ended up having to take them back they developed something thats not ich cause it's tearing their fins. I think it's self infecting cause all the other fish are perfect n the loach isn't affected

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Ahh ok. Probably fin rot. If this happens in the future medications like Melafix and Pimafix together can help with that.

 

[MissDragGunn]

I researched it an all symptoms lead to columnis. There's no way it's fin rot and it also explains it not being ich. The medication lasts three weeks after treatment so if they came in with ich or fin rot it Wouldve cured or prevented. Also the tablets do not cure bacterial disease which according to this article dragon gobies can pick up and carry for 36 days without symptoms and due to environmental change or stress of any kind can set it off and let the columnis destroy the fish. Also lack of oxidation in the water can set it off as well. :/

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that there is that much information out there about this fish. I've never seen that info... Do you have a link?

Remember there is a saltwater fish called Dragon Fish (which is why I usually refer to them as Violet Gobies) and often info can get confused.

 

[saltwatertogo]

welcome to AA. Sorry to here about your gobies. I hope they make it.! you came to the right placefor advice. good luck!

Fishman

 

[MissDragGunn]

Columnaris. Here's the wiki. I found an article that was really good n I cant find it now. I research dragon violet gobies common disease then I found columnaris then link n link blink n I found the article I wanted to post. But there's the article. The people at the fish store are fighting with me cause they think I made up columnaris and they tried to say it had ammonia burn but my ammonia is fine and the pink belly is from them scratching the fungus off on the rocks. Idk they're ignorant.

Thanks fishman. I'm sure to be posting more.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Ahhh, most people know it as cotton mouth. The fish store should recognize that.

 

[MissDragGunn]

Sorry I have posted. College and work takes up my time. So when I took the fish back to the store to use the warranty the owner was t there so I had to leave the fish there. The one died and the one was alive. The people at the fish store had no idea what columnaris was and that could be partially my problem cause I pronounced it wrong but I spelled it correctly and i called it cottonmouth. So I went back and the owner said his warranty is 48 hours and I was told a week. So he fought me on that but I did everything I was told to do which is crazy. So I told him that he does have quarantined tanks n he admitted the nets are not sterilized after each use and there are several tanks per net so I said it was just a contamination. No Biggie and it's no ones fault. So he said my tank had cottonmouth cause he has 70+ fish tanks and he knows What he's doing. I told him that's my point and none of my fish got cottonmouth cept the gobies I got from him. Long story short though a worker he had me talk to agreed it came from the stores tank, the guy was a total jerk and he was yelling at me saying he's not giving me any fish even though I did everything right, and I'm not educated about fish and I have no business owning a tank and all this crazy. Which idk why I was polite and kind the entire time. So he was treating the one I brought back and the girl worker said that the fish had cottonmouth and she was treating it. So he said to her give her two gobies so I can get her out of here. Then he said something to her on the side and she only gave me one new goby and gave me the infested one. I then asked how many days of treatment was performed and he said fish get sick. I didn't do any treatment. It cleared on it own. And get out of my store and never come back. Worst fish store experience ever and it's sad cause I was never rude and I'm known to be a really easy going, polite person.

When I brought the fish home and put him in the tank 24 hours later started showing signs of cottonmouth and I'm on the 4th day of treatment since then. The cottonmouth has cleared up and the tail and fins are in perfect condition.

 

[Bettababe1011]

That is ridiculous. Word travels I hope he knows. He'll probably lose some customers if people who shop there hear you're story. I'm sorry for you're bad experience, but glad that the fish you got back was able to be treated.

 

[Tim Wheatley]

Yeah just don't go there again. The LFS I use has a fish there right now with cottonmouth. It happens. This is a $600 fish we're talking about... Knowing your stuff doesn't mean anything unless you breed every fish yourself and have full control over your water supply too! It's basically impossible to get the control you would need to actually KNOW what you are doing...