I got this beautiful citrinis clown goby a couple of days ago, together with a yellow and a green clown gobies. I drip acclimated them for an hour and introduced him in the tank, as I do with all my livestock. The citrinis clown looked ok, he went to the back and perched on a rock.
Bad news.
Today I woke up expecting to see the citrinis clown feeling a little more comfortable after two days and perhaps swimming a bit, but I found him belly up on the sand! Oh no!! Poor guy, what the heck happened?
I had never had a fish die in my tank. I need to know what went wrong to avoid harming other animals.
In my mind there can be only three possibilities:
1. Sick fish
2. Acclimation shock
3. Killed by other fish
1. Cant rule out this one. Never had a sick fish come in so I wouldn't know unless it was apparent. He looked fine.
2. Never had a fish die of shock but this would be my best bet. I drip acclimate in the dark for one hour with a heater and a thermometer to make sure the temperature matches the one in the tank before transferring the fish. Everything is done slowly and in a controlled procedure void of hard light, noise, vibrations, etc...
3. I dont have any aggressive fish in my tank. The only fish that I believe could harm him (just because its big enough) is a yellow striped cardinal I have. Sometimes he pushes my clowns away, but he doesnt dash right in his face like the springeri damsel I had. He might be developing into a bully but I dont think he would kill the fish.
I took some pictures of the dead citrinis clown to try to identify marks of agression but I couldn't recognize any, so I'm posting them here so you guys can have a look and help me figure this out. I never had this fish before, is his belly caved in?
Bad news.
Today I woke up expecting to see the citrinis clown feeling a little more comfortable after two days and perhaps swimming a bit, but I found him belly up on the sand! Oh no!! Poor guy, what the heck happened?
I had never had a fish die in my tank. I need to know what went wrong to avoid harming other animals.
In my mind there can be only three possibilities:
1. Sick fish
2. Acclimation shock
3. Killed by other fish
1. Cant rule out this one. Never had a sick fish come in so I wouldn't know unless it was apparent. He looked fine.
2. Never had a fish die of shock but this would be my best bet. I drip acclimate in the dark for one hour with a heater and a thermometer to make sure the temperature matches the one in the tank before transferring the fish. Everything is done slowly and in a controlled procedure void of hard light, noise, vibrations, etc...
3. I dont have any aggressive fish in my tank. The only fish that I believe could harm him (just because its big enough) is a yellow striped cardinal I have. Sometimes he pushes my clowns away, but he doesnt dash right in his face like the springeri damsel I had. He might be developing into a bully but I dont think he would kill the fish.
I took some pictures of the dead citrinis clown to try to identify marks of agression but I couldn't recognize any, so I'm posting them here so you guys can have a look and help me figure this out. I never had this fish before, is his belly caved in?