Bella Goby floating and paralyzed from healthy inside of 10m

MrMreef · Sep 4, 2022

Hey guys,

My Bella Goby is suddenly extremely off and looks like a goner - her mouth is stuck open and gills are not moving.

She was fine this morning and was eating with everyone else.

Params all check out - sal at 36 PSU, 8.2 pH, 25c; alk’s at 8.4, nitrates at 5ppm, phosphates at 0.07.

Any ideas? Should I try a fW dip as an emergency treatment?

MrMreef · Sep 4, 2022

No obstructions in her mouth that I can see.

MrMreef · Sep 4, 2022

And she’s gone - what the heck could have happened?

It was maybe 20m since I last saw her swimming normally and then she was gone in 15m…

Lemons · Sep 4, 2022

Weird… i hate to be the guy that says things just sometimes die… but things just sometimes die

maybe they had some sort of neural issue or maybe even some form of organ failure through no fault of your own. But maybe occasionally check in on your other fish later to see if they’re doing okay

if they’re over 6ish years then really it could just be old age

Sorry for your lose

Jay Hemdal · Sep 4, 2022

MrMreef said:
And she’s gone - what the heck could have happened?

It was maybe 20m since I last saw her swimming normally and then she was gone in 15m…

Sorry to hear. After it passed, did yo look closely for an obstruction? How long had you had the fish?

Jay

MrMreef · Sep 4, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
Sorry to hear. After it passed, did yo look closely for an obstruction? How long had you had the fish?

Jay

Hi Jay,

I’ve had her for 9 months now, came from a good online fish store here in Germany.

Her mouth and gills were stuck wide open and her pectoral fins were stuck doubled forward in the end so I could have a good look.

The inside of her rakes were pinkish with no obvious damage or covering and there were no obstructions that I could see; two appendages like a fin-epiglottis were hanging from the top of the oral cavity but nothing else of note (sorry that I didn’t take a picture). The left hand gills didn’t seem as “full” as the right hand but otherwise everything was symmetrical in there, no lumps or bumps.

No breaks in the skin or scales or discoloration other than a mild scrape from where she hit a power head while floating around. Bit of a chunk out of her rear dorsal fin was missing.

Symptoms before she passed were powerless floating with rigidity, sporadic “biting” at rocks and sand as she drifted past and shallow breathing through a massively open mouth. No stress colors until after I put her in the breeder box and then her gills started twitching and she went very pale.

That’s about all I’ve got - any ideas?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 4, 2022

Just a couple of clues, no conclusion though - the mouth being open usually indicates a respiratory problem. The fast onset tends to indicate the issue was acute (thus focusing on a rock getting stuck in its mouth). Other issues can mimic those symptoms - if the fish spooked and ran into something, it could have damaged its spinal cord, which in turn can cause agonal movements like that.

The other other thing is that at its anal opening, there seems to be a protrusion or swelling. Not related to an acute death like this, but something was going on there as well.

Jay