Bar goby recovery from extended sump isolation

[Ryengoth]

I have had a pair of healthy and spunky bar gobies for over a year and both of them went missing. One disappeared a couple months ago from a biocube and I searched through all of the media and sump sections. No luck so I wrote him off as decomposed. Then #2 disappeared. Again, no luck finding him. As I was draining the sump in my biocube, after moving everything around, I found both of them. #2 was still in decent health, but #1 looks like a potato chip and can't swim well. #2 disappeared AGAIN from the 90G tank and #1 did as well. UGH! As I was doing a water change yesterday I saw #1 trying to swim in the sump under the skimmer. I guess he ended up in the overflow box and got sucked into the sump. Yay I thought, scooped him back into the display tank and he made his way to the back corner and settled. Not 30 minutes later I saw him stuck in one of my WAV modules. Not chewed up, but just stuck. SO, he's in a floating breeder now and I tried to help support him with a polycarb tube rest but he wiggled out last night and was laying around bent this morning, but still breathing. We'll see how he looks today. I'm sprinkling my own ground-up salt guppy fry food periodically so he'll hopefully get some food into his system little by little. There is hardly any muscle on his spine, so it's hard to tell if he's even worth the effort to save. I've recovered some yellow tangs before with bone and fin loss, but this is crazy. I'm surprised he's not dead already.

Better pics tonight if he's not dead.

 

[Humblefish]

All you can do is keep trying to feed them. However, some fish get so malnourished that they reach the point of return. I recently had a Bicolor blenny survive 3 weeks living inside a filter sock (which shows how lazy I am about changing them.) But at least he had "crap" to eat inside the filter sock to sustain him.

 

[Ryengoth]

I think this one got stuck between the sump pump and the wall of the return chamber in the biocube. Explains the spine and muscle curve. Noticed my torch nem finally came out of hiding.. it was rotting on the bottom, being consumed by tiny little critters. Looked like fleas moving around almost.

 

[Humblefish]

If you have a QT or acclimation box, or a "quiet spot" for them to recover, that might be best right now. That way they can eat without competition, not have to deal with aggression from other fish and you can turn the flow way down until they get some strength back.

 

[Ryengoth]

It's quiet where he is now. I have a 2g QT salt system I can set up if needed, but the flow is stronger due to the HOT filter. I usually only use it for dosing erythro and copper drugs. The flow is mid-line and not too strong in my tank. Surface movement is negated by the breeder. The biggest issue has been keeping the spine vertical so both gills work easy. He keeps bending and rolling to a side and won't stay in the support tube long.

 

[Sabellafella]

Wow what a story. Toss him in a qt or isolate him in the sump,toss some live brine to start him eating, hes obviously takes survival seriously and it would b ashamed if he passed, i had a chromis jump into my return chamber on a biocube for 10 days, i took everything outof thedisplaybecause it was litterally driving me nuts

 

[Ryengoth]

He's not physically capable of catching food at this point. He can't even stay upright. He's a piece of fish 'jerky' with a head, that's still breathing and trying to swim. I'm hoping the powder will make it in through aspiration and collect enough to actually swallow it.

 

[Humblefish]

Do you have any nutramar ova or frozen cyclopeeze? Just trying to think of something small he could swallow without having to chew first.

 

[Ryengoth]

I do not, but I'm gonna see what the LFS has in the freezer today when I pick up some salt. I can always blend up a bay scallop. I have a bag of frozen shrimp and bay scallops I keep just for the reef critters. The rose tip BTA I used to have loved scallop chunks. The torch nem only liked plankton for some reason.

 

[Ryengoth]

Oh well, didn't survive. Guess it's replacement time!
BTW, there is a nutramar shortage. Apparently the harvest was missed so nothing will be available.

 

[Humblefish]

Oh well, didn't survive. Guess it's replacement time!
BTW, there is a nutramar shortage. Apparently the harvest was missed so nothing will be available.

I can't get it either where I'm at. But someone on here (I forget who/where) bought some recently from their LFS. Possibly it was old stock. I would have put it up on ebay for a bidding war if I was that LFS. Ova is great stuff, especially for feeding mandarins in QT.

 

[Ryengoth]

I'm surprised it's not be cultivated at this point. I tried breeding salt guppies for live food but I have too many tanks to take care of!