About twenty minutes ago I noticed my cat pawing at my aquarium*, and when I reached over to stop I saw that he was watching a flame firefish throwing itself violently around the tank. It seemed to be partially paralyzed or seizing up and was whipping its body around with all its strength. Every few seconds it would float sideways against the rocks as if it were dead, but then it would spasm violently again. It was one of the most horrible things I have ever seen take place in an aquarium, and I panicked while trying to find something to euthanize the fish, and popped him in the freezer. Suddenly I remembered that freezing is not really humane, so I took him back out and poured him into a bowl of fizzing alka seltzer. That worked very fast.
He was the only fish in the aquarium since a pistol shrimp killed the other firefish and I removed the shrimp and shrimp goby. There is a tiny (smaller than a dime) mushroom anemone in the same tank, and it seems to be thriving.
The shrimp goby (seems fine) was with the firefish until three days ago, and could now be contaminating my larger tank. The firefish was very healthy and happy at first, then became more skittish after his mate died. After I removed the shrimp and goby, the firefish stayed shy and spent a lot of time in the rock work, but came out when the room was calm.
*Aquarium is 29g Oceanic Biocube w/ liverock replacing bioballs. Purchased used and established 10 days ago with sediment and filter material from my 8 months established tank. My measurements seem great: Salinity 1.022, pH 8.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate .25,Temp 75. Nothing seems far enough off to cause this.
The only things unusual about this aquarium was that 1) I used a lot of a substance called "Prime" (a water conditioner) when changing the water and 2)the Oceanic Biocube water level was low which caused it to spew out microbubbles all last night and most of today. The firefish was out of sight this morning, but I thought it was just afraid of the bubbles.
Thank you for any advice or theories.
He was the only fish in the aquarium since a pistol shrimp killed the other firefish and I removed the shrimp and shrimp goby. There is a tiny (smaller than a dime) mushroom anemone in the same tank, and it seems to be thriving.
The shrimp goby (seems fine) was with the firefish until three days ago, and could now be contaminating my larger tank. The firefish was very healthy and happy at first, then became more skittish after his mate died. After I removed the shrimp and goby, the firefish stayed shy and spent a lot of time in the rock work, but came out when the room was calm.
*Aquarium is 29g Oceanic Biocube w/ liverock replacing bioballs. Purchased used and established 10 days ago with sediment and filter material from my 8 months established tank. My measurements seem great: Salinity 1.022, pH 8.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate .25,Temp 75. Nothing seems far enough off to cause this.
The only things unusual about this aquarium was that 1) I used a lot of a substance called "Prime" (a water conditioner) when changing the water and 2)the Oceanic Biocube water level was low which caused it to spew out microbubbles all last night and most of today. The firefish was out of sight this morning, but I thought it was just afraid of the bubbles.
Thank you for any advice or theories.
