jrevoman
Community Member
Okay this turned out to be quite the read, just wanted to provide all information on the situation. I really really appreciate any help, I'm so worried sick about the guy I can't even sleep lol
So long story short - about 22 hours ago my tailspot blenny fell into the unfortunate claws of my emerald crab. It was my fault, i tried to move some rocks around as i noticed the blenny was just sleeping in the open on the sand after sleeping in a rock for the last week or so. I had seen some people say that watchman gobies become territorial, and basically kick any other fish out of whatever they decide their home is. I added a YWG four days ago, and he took residence under the rock the blenny slept in.
So going off some peoples advice, I rearranged the rockwork, but the whole time the blenny was completely unresponsive to anything happening around it. The lights had been on for a long time at this point so he wasn't stunned by that. I wasn't sure why he was unresponsive but thought he might just be scared as he is the smallest fish in my tank at less than an inch. At one point I had to give him a gentle push out of the way to set a rock down. As I was setting the last rock in place, my emerald crab, a rather large one, was under so I waited for him to move. He started off in a path directly over the blenny, about a second after touching the blenny he snapped him up in his claw.
The blenny started flailing for his life, luckily my hands were already in the tank, i flicked the crab and he held on, i flicked him again and he let go, but the damage was done. In the next minutes the blenny lost almost all color, I could see two lines down his body from front to back, and he begin floating upwards while using all his strength to swim down. I realized to save him I needed to get him away from any danger, so I scooped him up, he swam upwards away from the net but it took all his strength, the swimming was very pathetic. I got him into a clean container filled with tank water, but realized I couldn't leave him in there for long as the temperature would drop too low. I only have the one tank and no breeder box or anything, but I keep the bags from the fish store just in case.
I poked holes in one of the bags, large enough to let oxygen and water through but not large enough for him to swim through, at this point it had been maybe 30-45 minutes since the attack. He still had barely any color, and once I transferred him into the bag which I floated with a good amount of water, then secured under my lid, I noticed he had major damage to his tail and tail fin. The tail fin has about 60% of it missing in the middle, and right in front of where his spot is was all red. I put a couple flakes in the bag and had to call it a night, I believe I did all I could, although I could barely get any sleep anyways.
I woke up a couple hours later, now about 9am, and turned on the dim lamp in the room. I kept this on all day instead of the tank light, enough for him to see but still have shadows to hide in. Reading numerous threads about injured fish, the consensus seemed to be as long as the tank was safe (in most cases meaning removing a bully) they would have a better time healing in the tank. My tank didn't have any bullies to begin with, so I released him back, but not before switching the crab into the makeshift quarantine, just for good measure. Hopefully he can think about his actions in there. I had to go to work, so I was only able to monitor him for a couple hours, but I observed that he could swim well enough to evade hermits so I decided he could stay in the tank and didn't need to be returned to quarantine. I should add that right away when I woke up, I noticed his coloring was back and looked great, apart from the red mark where the crab grabbed him and the missing tail fin section. He perched up on a rock, his swimming was obviously not as good as normal, but he managed. Then it was off to work for me.
When I got home I found him after about ten minutes of looking, perched on a new rock, he stayed there until I shut the lamp off for the night. The only symptoms left are the mark where the crab grabbed him, the tail fin and faster than normal breathing. The fast breathing had been there the whole time. It's now 1am, and I went out and turned on a light in another room, just enough to still see the tank. I found him laying in the sand in a corner rather than on a rock, is it normal for blennys to sleep in the open in the sand? He's done it a handful of times. The symptoms above remain, and I'll include pictures I just took.
I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to help him. I'm going to get a breeder box as soon as possible, just to have. Will his tail fin/tail heal? Will he be able to swim well enough to survive? I haven't seen him eat anything yet but again I haven't been able to monitor him as much as I would have liked. What does the breathing mean, is he just trying to circulate as much oxygen as possible? Any help/answers are appreciated, I've been worried sick about the little guy.
#fishmedic
So long story short - about 22 hours ago my tailspot blenny fell into the unfortunate claws of my emerald crab. It was my fault, i tried to move some rocks around as i noticed the blenny was just sleeping in the open on the sand after sleeping in a rock for the last week or so. I had seen some people say that watchman gobies become territorial, and basically kick any other fish out of whatever they decide their home is. I added a YWG four days ago, and he took residence under the rock the blenny slept in.
So going off some peoples advice, I rearranged the rockwork, but the whole time the blenny was completely unresponsive to anything happening around it. The lights had been on for a long time at this point so he wasn't stunned by that. I wasn't sure why he was unresponsive but thought he might just be scared as he is the smallest fish in my tank at less than an inch. At one point I had to give him a gentle push out of the way to set a rock down. As I was setting the last rock in place, my emerald crab, a rather large one, was under so I waited for him to move. He started off in a path directly over the blenny, about a second after touching the blenny he snapped him up in his claw.
The blenny started flailing for his life, luckily my hands were already in the tank, i flicked the crab and he held on, i flicked him again and he let go, but the damage was done. In the next minutes the blenny lost almost all color, I could see two lines down his body from front to back, and he begin floating upwards while using all his strength to swim down. I realized to save him I needed to get him away from any danger, so I scooped him up, he swam upwards away from the net but it took all his strength, the swimming was very pathetic. I got him into a clean container filled with tank water, but realized I couldn't leave him in there for long as the temperature would drop too low. I only have the one tank and no breeder box or anything, but I keep the bags from the fish store just in case.
I poked holes in one of the bags, large enough to let oxygen and water through but not large enough for him to swim through, at this point it had been maybe 30-45 minutes since the attack. He still had barely any color, and once I transferred him into the bag which I floated with a good amount of water, then secured under my lid, I noticed he had major damage to his tail and tail fin. The tail fin has about 60% of it missing in the middle, and right in front of where his spot is was all red. I put a couple flakes in the bag and had to call it a night, I believe I did all I could, although I could barely get any sleep anyways.
I woke up a couple hours later, now about 9am, and turned on the dim lamp in the room. I kept this on all day instead of the tank light, enough for him to see but still have shadows to hide in. Reading numerous threads about injured fish, the consensus seemed to be as long as the tank was safe (in most cases meaning removing a bully) they would have a better time healing in the tank. My tank didn't have any bullies to begin with, so I released him back, but not before switching the crab into the makeshift quarantine, just for good measure. Hopefully he can think about his actions in there. I had to go to work, so I was only able to monitor him for a couple hours, but I observed that he could swim well enough to evade hermits so I decided he could stay in the tank and didn't need to be returned to quarantine. I should add that right away when I woke up, I noticed his coloring was back and looked great, apart from the red mark where the crab grabbed him and the missing tail fin section. He perched up on a rock, his swimming was obviously not as good as normal, but he managed. Then it was off to work for me.
When I got home I found him after about ten minutes of looking, perched on a new rock, he stayed there until I shut the lamp off for the night. The only symptoms left are the mark where the crab grabbed him, the tail fin and faster than normal breathing. The fast breathing had been there the whole time. It's now 1am, and I went out and turned on a light in another room, just enough to still see the tank. I found him laying in the sand in a corner rather than on a rock, is it normal for blennys to sleep in the open in the sand? He's done it a handful of times. The symptoms above remain, and I'll include pictures I just took.
I'm wondering if there is anything I can do to help him. I'm going to get a breeder box as soon as possible, just to have. Will his tail fin/tail heal? Will he be able to swim well enough to survive? I haven't seen him eat anything yet but again I haven't been able to monitor him as much as I would have liked. What does the breathing mean, is he just trying to circulate as much oxygen as possible? Any help/answers are appreciated, I've been worried sick about the little guy.
#fishmedic
