Dirt Leads to Fish Death?

[ingchr1]

This morning I found our Tailspot Blenny on the bottom of the tank dead. The death was sudden, and I wasn't sure what could have been the cause. Then I remembered something that occurred on Friday when I fed white worms. A small piece of dirt fell into the tank when I fed the worms. The Blenny ate the piece of dirt. I was surprised when I didn't see the fish spit it back out. I was out of the house yesterday afternoon and didn't get a chance to feed when I normally do in the evening, so I'm not sure of the behavior throughout the day or how the fish would have acted during feeding. But the fish was alive in the AM, perched in its spot.

Could the ingestion of the dirt have lead to the death of the fish?

The dirt in the white worm culture is organic, if that means anything. At least what I put in there. Not sure about the dirt they came in.

This happened in quarantine. The fish has been in the QT for a little over a month and has been doing well. The QT has been at therapeutic Cupramine (0.45 - 0.60PPM, Hanna Checker) for three weeks. No other meds in the QT. Also in the QT are a Firefish, Chalk Bass and Possum Wrasse. All doing well, except the Chalk Bass that developed a popped eye early this week.

All are in QT due to ick in the DT. The Firefish had spots and the Blenny and Chalk Bass were flashing. The Wrasse showed no symptoms of anything while in the DT. The Wrasse does have a red spot on its side, that I'm not sure what it is. It doesn't seam to be affecting the fish. I noticed the spot when I got the fish home and into the DT. The spot has remained unchanged. I got all of these fish on 1/2.

I tried no quarantine with this batch of fish and thought they may have had velvet as the Blenny was swimming into the flow of the powerhead. So I plucked all of them out and put them into the QT. All have been in the QT since 1/22. All got freshwater dips going into QT. The Blenny did have a couple of flukes. None of the fish have been flashing while in QT.

 

[Birdbrains?]

It sounds like a correct deduction, I am sorry to hear about your loss also.

 

[ingchr1]

Thank you.

It was really unexpected, the fish was doing so well. If the fish had been sick it would be a lot less disappointing. Especially after none of my original fish made it. Ran into prazi resistant flukes and a couple of unexplained deaths. This is the second time the tank has been follow in it's short one year life. The first batch of fish went through the quarantine procedure over in the disease forum, the next group I just did an observation in the QT and these no quarantine.

On the bright side, the other three are doing well except the Chalk Bass with the pop eye. The fish has been hiding the past couple of days, but did come out briefly during feeding this evening.

My coral are doing well also. So far I've only lost one out of nine. That was a Xenia lost the first time the tank went follow. I let NO3 and PO4 bottom out (didn't know better at the time) and had dino outbreaks twice. It looks like I may have some dino currently, but I'm dosing to keep NO3 and PO4 up. My PO4 has bottomed out, with dosing 0.02 - 0.03 PPM/Day. Will keep at it to find the balance. The corals look good with the dosing and coralline seams to be taking off.

 

[Birdbrains?]

Starts are usually not unpainful but without learning all of these things first, you wouldn't be able to save anything from plastic so look at the bright side, you have a huge success rate already and you are growing in knowledge and skill.

Do you know why the bass got the Popeye, is it just a mechanical injury? I guess the general advice is that if it is only one eye, then just dose epsom salts while making sure nobody bullies the fish and it should heal up again in most cases?

 

[ingchr1]

I'm not sure what caused the popeye on the bass. I was thinking mechanical injury. But I guess it could potentially be from flukes, since a couple did come off the blenny when I did the freshwater dip into the QT.

Hoping it's just an injury that will heal on its own.

Since a couple of flukes came off the blenny I plan on running Prazi after copper is done, which will be this Sunday.

 

[ingchr1]

Update on the bass, the fish appears to be all healed up on its own and no longer hiding.

 

[ingchr1]

As an update the Bass died on 3/8 in the QT. I thought it had recovered from the popeye, but I guess not.

On a bright note, the Firefish and Wrasse went back to the DT last Sunday.