Dead goby? Is it my fault?

[LordNecro]

So I just came upstairs after excerising and I found my new yellow watcherman goby dead. I saw it an hour ago alive so was really sad. This is my first fish death and have no clue if it was my fault.

Tank has been up for 2 months. I have 2 clowns, a fire fish and 13 coral frags. Clowns added after cycling, around a month ago, fire fish two weeks after that and coral a week ago. I just added the goby yesterday.

Parameters are: Salinity 1.025, Nitrate 5, Alk 8, Cal 410, Mag 1400. Haven’t measured ammonia and nitrate in weeks as I’m confident it is 0 and everything has been looking healthy.

Goby is a wild caught small yellow watcherman that I bought from my LFS. I posted a picture and a fellow reefer pointed out its fun looked damaged and I also found all it’s fins injured. He was in a tank with a bunch of bigger fish with no sand so he was constantly swimming when I saw him in store. I drop acclimated for a hour and added him into the tank. He immediately went to the sandbed like I expected. This morning when the lights turned on after being off yesterday to acclimate him I watched him move around the sandbed. He did move weirdly, like hopping and randomly bumping into rocks a few times.

Here’s a picture. He was upside down and not moving and I removed him, definitely dead. Was it my fault?

 

[themcnertney]

Sorry to hear that. Occasionally fish just don't acclimate well. What was your acclimation process?

 

[LordNecro]

Forgot to mention I have a oversized cuc in my opinion, bunch of snails and hermit crabs. A bunch of the tiny snails that usually I don’t see until lights are off and under the sand suddenly went to the top. Did they perhaps smell or know something died?

 

[LordNecro]

Sorry to hear that. Occasionally fish just don't acclimate well. What was your acclimation process?

I pour the specimen and water it was in into a specimen container, around halfway full. I drip acclimate about 2-3 drops a second until it fills the container and then remove half of the water again and repeat until it fills up again. This takes about 40 min to an hour. I then scoop the fish into the tank without the water it was acclimating in

 

[Zionas]

It’s not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It was likely doomed from the start, though I will say the drip acclimation for an hour furthered its decline.

You mentioned “it was in a bigger tank with much bigger fish and no sand”. The bare bottom + being in a tank with bigger AND likely more aggressive fish meant that it was already extremely shocked. Now, it’s removed from the tank, bagged and taken home by you, and then endured a drip acclimation.

I’d say it was already doomed from the start OP. Sorry man, wish you had better luck as I know these guys to be tank wipeout survivors.

Best of luck if you decide to get another.

One guy on here I think accidentally used tap water in his tank, and his Yellow Watchman Goby endured it for quite some time.

A healthy specimen will be among the last to die in a nuked tank, if it dies.

 

[LordNecro]

It’s not your fault. Don’t beat yourself up over it. It was likely doomed from the start, though I will say the drip acclimation for an hour furthered its decline.

You mentioned “it was in a bigger tank with much bigger fish and no sand”. The bare bottom + being in a tank with bigger AND likely more aggressive fish meant that it was already extremely shocked. Now, it’s removed from the tank, bagged and taken home by you, and then endured a drip acclimation.

I’d say it was already doomed from the start OP. Sorry man, wish you had better luck as I know these guys to be tank wipeout survivors.

Best of luck if you decide to get another.

One guy on here I think accidentally used tap water in his tank, and his Yellow Watchman Goby endures it for quite some time.

Thanks. Yeah I'm going to look for another sand shifting goby from the LFS, don't really want to buy them online. This is my first tank and I read that drip acclimation is the best and should take 40-60 min when doing research so I thought that was the way to go. Hopefully the next one does better

 

[Zionas]

Yeah. They’re usually very hardy fish, anything but fragile. I think yours was already stressed and shocked at the time of purchase.

 

[Cell]

Probably sick when you got it. QT tank highly recommended.

 

[Big G]

What was the salinity level at the LFS?

 

[LordNecro]

What was the salinity level at the LFS?

Didn't check the salinity of their water and didn't ask :/. Bought my clowns and firefish from them so I wasn't expecting any issues

 

[Big G]

Didn't check the salinity of their water and didn't ask :/. Bought my clowns and firefish from them so I wasn't expecting any issues

Some LFS keep their salinity lower than 1.025/6

 

[melanotaenia]

These gobies can be tricky, especially wild caught, but generally do well if they survive the first few weeks after shipping/acclimation to your tank. I did however have one for over 9 months that just up and died for no reason in my old reef tank and I never figured out why.

I would not stress too much about it as long as all of your other animals are behaving normally.

 

[LordNecro]

Some LFS keep their salinity lower than 1.025/6

Isnt that why you drip acclimate? To make sure the temp and salinity are exact or close to your own tank?

 

[LordNecro]

These gobies can be tricky, especially wild caught, but generally do well if they survive the first few weeks after shipping/acclimation to your tank. I did however have one for over 9 months that just up and died for no reason in my old reef tank and I never figured out why.

I would not stress too much about it as long as all of your other animals are behaving normally.

Yeah everything else is fine. I might resort to buying a captive bred online and deal with shipping

 

[Big G]

Isnt that why you drip acclimate? To make sure the temp and salinity are exact or close to your own tank?

Drip acclimation is for temp. You match your QT's salinity to the incoming fish's water salinity. And then slowly, only 0.001 movement each day until you reach your display tank's salinity.

 

[BeltedCoyote]

If the poor little guy was that stressed at the LFS AND he had damaged fins, yeah...I’m a newbie like you but I still don’t think you caused the death. Drip acclimation probably did add to the stress, but that was just you following what you thought were best practices (heck I do the same). I’m sorry for your loss, but you did what you could.

If you’re not keen on online ordering, perhaps your LFS could order whatever species if goby you choose for you? My LFS has done the same for me and was actually willing to hold my clown pair when I got them. YMMV but worst they’ll say is no

 

[King Turkey]

It just happens sometimes not your fult. I just dump my fish in they are all going a year stong. Its not you. Sorry for your lose

 

[LordNecro]

If the poor little guy was that stressed at the LFS AND he had damaged fins, yeah...I’m a newbie like you but I still don’t think you caused the death. Drip acclimation probably did add to the stress, but that was just you following what you thought were best practices (heck I do the same). I’m sorry for your loss, but you did what you could.

If you’re not keen on online ordering, perhaps your LFS could order whatever species if goby you choose for you? My LFS has done the same for me and was actually willing to hold my clown pair when I got them. YMMV but worst they’ll say is no

Thanks! I'm heavily considering buying from tsmaquatics right now. Just because I heard their quarantine practices are really good and is a good place to buy fish/coral online. I asked my LFS to order the goby and a wrasse for me but they said they can only order when their supplier sends them a list I guess and if they have it then the store can order it for me.