change in behavior - goby

[phish7740]

so my goby has been behaving very different reciently. he was very active, perching on the rocks and sand spending lots of time in view.

now he hides in a cave most of the time...when he is out he hangs out in a top corner near the surface mostly vertical. and sometimes he swims real fast along the sand bumping into it. and hes not eating well if at all.

have not spotted any signs of ich on him.

here is what has changed since the behavior change.

1) removed my rock to remove my last two damsels about 2 weeks ago
2) did a 15% wc a few days ago
3) added a strawberry pseudochromis
4) added 2 anthias (one of which is missing and the other hasnt eaten in 4 days and is in the corner on the bottom of the tank)


please help
week 7
i have some of brown algae (just added more crabs and snails)
my sg is .023, temp 78-80, ph 8-8.2 still flucuating, amon .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, phoso 0.

skimm will be here friday Aqua Remora Pro..woo hoo!

 

[austinsdad]

Need to find the source of that ammonia. The goby is probably reacting to that. You're gonna need more rock too IMO to help with the filtration. Suprised your inverts are OK with that ammonia up, but maybe you've stirred up some bad stuff when you moved the rock. The new fish will have a harder time when the ammonia is up. The existing fish may be a little more tolerant since they may have been there before the spike.

When you did the PWC, didja vacuum the sand where the ugly stuff gathered under those rocks you moved? Can't imagine one dead anthias (presumed dead maybe??) can cause ammonia to go up like that in a 100g.

Don't know anything about a Fluval, but does that remove undissolved waste from the water? May just have a buildup of that and more vaccuming and a larger pwc is in order.

 

[roka64]

Fluval, but does that remove undissolved waste from the water

The fluvial (304, that I have) has four spoonges in the canister at the intake, about 3x6x1 (roughly). From there, mine has 3 media "trays".

I agree with austinsdad, you need to find the source, it would think stirring up the nasties in the sand migh have something to do with it. Did you test your water after you did the moving? If the ammonia spiked then, that is probably what caused it. I would work on a PWC and re-test your water. I would think, those new crabs and snails might have a problem with that ammonia. Just keep testing and doing PWC and it should balance out.

Is you goby getting thinner? Can you try to soak in garlic, to get him to eat?

 

[phish7740]

i did try to vacume the brown algae when i did the WC on monday so that may have caused a spike?

the emerald and hermit crabs are going to town on the algae.

ill do another water change today; and tomorrow my skimmer will be here.

i did put some garlic with some misis shrimp yesterday, the chromies, psudochromis, and clown all ate. i added some vitamins yesterday also.

couple of my zooz didnt open yesterday also.

well the purple anthis is "missing" this morning.

 

[phish7740]

could the goby be stressed by an emerald crab?

the crab hasnt attacked the goby as far as i have seen

 

[austinsdad]

Ammonia that high can stress anything in the tank.

 

[phish7740]

really, i thought amonia had to get up past 2-3 to be lethal

well the goby didnt last throughout the night, i set up a QT with 50/50 water from tank and new saltwater and he just breathed really intensly. im bumed he had great personality and was a great eater until a few days ago.

my maroon clown and psuedochromis are still fine


im going to have my water checked by lfs today and see what is really up.

thanks for your advice guys

 

[roka64]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[phish7740]

lfs said everything is fine ph 8.1-8.2
alk was fine
amonia 0
nitrate 0
nitrite 0

the only thing else it could have been was temp...it got cold here the past few days and i forgot to plug my heaters back in so i think it dipped down to 76 in the tank after being at 81-82 for a few days.

well my clown and purple pseudeochromis are doing great...so we will see

 

[melosu58]

Any ammonia over the long haul is lethal