Distressed Barnacle Blenny

[Kpigford]

I have a 10 gallon nano that has been neglected for about a year and a half. Its been running for 9 years but spent the last 2 years fishless with just corals, snails, and a hermit. I got it cleaned up and did several water changes over a week and bought a barnacle blenny and 3 sexy shrimp last Tuesday. He settled right in and was doing great with a huge appetite. The shrimp were great too and immediately started hosting my rock flower nem. Sunday with how well everyone was doing I decided to buy 2 juvenile green banded gobies. Id had one years ago and loved his personality. When I got home the blenny had disappeared. After seeing he disappeared from his perch. I looked everywhere and couldn't find him, on Monday I peered inside a hole in the rock with a flash light and found him curled up breathing rapidly. Monday evening he'd moved to a corner of the tank and would randomly spasm or jerk but seemed to be able to sit upright. Refused all food, I stopped the small ocean nutrition pellets I was feeding and offered him brine and tdo B1 size that I've been feeding the green banded gobies. They were fine and so were the shrimp. On Tuesday I did over feed the tank trying to get him to eat and caused an ammonia spike. I added bacteria in a bottle, did several 2.5 gallon water changes and added prime. Unfortunately during this time the smallest of the gobies disappeared. I'm not sure if the water chemistry got him or he just didn't acclimate. The other goby and shrimp are still fine and eating like pigs. Yesterday the blenny seemed to turn the corner. His breathing was normal and he went into a shrimp tube I got him and was perched with his head sticking out. Still not eating though he tracked the food and acted like he wanted it. Today he's back out of his tube in the corner and every so often jostles or shimmies before settling back down. He acts like he can't swim. He appears to be breathing normally. I went to the store and got tdo Xtra small which they were feeding him and he ate several pieces of that this evening when I dropped them right in front of him but he's still not moving right and he's listing to the side. Any ideas? I almost wonder if the small pellets were too large and he's choked or constipated. I currently have an air stone to add more oxygen and I'm testing water params 2x daily to make sure the ammonia spike was just a one off.

Tank: 10 gallon IM
Age of tank: 9 years with various inhabitants
Corals: a crap ton of GSP, mushrooms, 2 rock flower anemone
Inverts: 5 snails, 1 red legged hermit, 3 sexy shrimp
Fish: barnacle blenny, juvie green banded goby

Tank stats as of 11am today
Temp: 77
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Alkalinity: 6.8 (slowly raising that as it was low from lack of water changes before I cleaned the tank up)

 

[vetteguy53081]

How did you acclimate fish?
Please post video of fish using bright white light intensity, no blue

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have a 10 gallon nano that has been neglected for about a year and a half. Its been running for 9 years but spent the last 2 years fishless with just corals, snails, and a hermit. I got it cleaned up and did several water changes over a week and bought a barnacle blenny and 3 sexy shrimp last Tuesday. He settled right in and was doing great with a huge appetite. The shrimp were great too and immediately started hosting my rock flower nem. Sunday with how well everyone was doing I decided to buy 2 juvenile green banded gobies. Id had one years ago and loved his personality. When I got home the blenny had disappeared. After seeing he disappeared from his perch. I looked everywhere and couldn't find him, on Monday I peered inside a hole in the rock with a flash light and found him curled up breathing rapidly. Monday evening he'd moved to a corner of the tank and would randomly spasm or jerk but seemed to be able to sit upright. Refused all food, I stopped the small ocean nutrition pellets I was feeding and offered him brine and tdo B1 size that I've been feeding the green banded gobies. They were fine and so were the shrimp. On Tuesday I did over feed the tank trying to get him to eat and caused an ammonia spike. I added bacteria in a bottle, did several 2.5 gallon water changes and added prime. Unfortunately during this time the smallest of the gobies disappeared. I'm not sure if the water chemistry got him or he just didn't acclimate. The other goby and shrimp are still fine and eating like pigs. Yesterday the blenny seemed to turn the corner. His breathing was normal and he went into a shrimp tube I got him and was perched with his head sticking out. Still not eating though he tracked the food and acted like he wanted it. Today he's back out of his tube in the corner and every so often jostles or shimmies before settling back down. He acts like he can't swim. He appears to be breathing normally. I went to the store and got tdo Xtra small which they were feeding him and he ate several pieces of that this evening when I dropped them right in front of him but he's still not moving right and he's listing to the side. Any ideas? I almost wonder if the small pellets were too large and he's choked or constipated. I currently have an air stone to add more oxygen and I'm testing water params 2x daily to make sure the ammonia spike was just a one off.

Tank: 10 gallon IM
Age of tank: 9 years with various inhabitants
Corals: a crap ton of GSP, mushrooms, 2 rock flower anemone
Inverts: 5 snails, 1 red legged hermit, 3 sexy shrimp
Fish: barnacle blenny, juvie green banded goby

Tank stats as of 11am today
Temp: 77
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Alkalinity: 6.8 (slowly raising that as it was low from lack of water changes before I cleaned the tank up)

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

In addition to a video, what is the specific gravity/salinity? Do you know the pH?

 

[Kpigford]

Hi and thanks for the replies. The blenny was drip acclimated for 20 minutes before being added to the tank.

PH: 8.0
Salinity: 1.026 so a little higher than id like
Ammonia and nitrite still 0

He's much the same today but not listing to the side as much. He did strike several times at the tdo and ate several pieces this morning. He moved maybe an inch and a half to get the food. He's curled up in a corner right now so I turned the pumps off and took a video looking down. The light is an AI prime and was set to whites only. That corner gets very low flow so I'm assuming that's why he's picked it. It's right under the outflow.

Videos:

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi and thanks for the replies. The blenny was drip acclimated for 20 minutes before being added to the tank.

PH: 8.0
Salinity: 1.026 so a little higher than id like
Ammonia and nitrite still 0

He's much the same today but not listing to the side as much. He did strike several times at the tdo and ate several pieces this morning. He moved maybe an inch and a half to get the food. He's curled up in a corner right now so I turned the pumps off and took a video looking down. The light is an AI prime and was set to whites only. That corner gets very low flow so I'm assuming that's why he's picked it. It's right under the outflow.

Videos:

Tough to see - In the first video, it seems to be breathing a bit fast and is "coughing". It also seems kind of thin, but that may just be from the video.

I don't see any specific disease to treat for here -

 

[Kpigford]

Tough to see - In the first video, it seems to be breathing a bit fast and is "coughing". It also seems kind of thin, but that may just be from the video.

I don't see any specific disease to treat for here -

Thank you for the reply. He is slender but his abdomen is not sunken in when looking closely at him and he is eating twice a day. I also thought he was a bit thin too but I wouldn't say he's emaciated. I feel so bad for him and I don't really know whether to keep letting him try to live or euthanize him. I really do think the original pellets I fed were too large and he has choked or has an obstruction. It's the only thing I can think of or he was sick when purchased and it just took a few days for symptoms to arise. I don't know if this is maybe a symptom of cyanide poisoning as he is almost certainly wild caught. He has no visible external parasites or wounds. I am simply at a loss.

His tank mates continue to do well and are feeding normally. The little green banded goby has an obviously plump stomach so between the feedings and the pods in the tank he hunts for he's doing great.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you for the reply. He is slender but his abdomen is not sunken in when looking closely at him and he is eating twice a day. I also thought he was a bit thin too but I wouldn't say he's emaciated. I feel so bad for him and I don't really know whether to keep letting him try to live or euthanize him. I really do think the original pellets I fed were too large and he has choked or has an obstruction. It's the only thing I can think of or he was sick when purchased and it just took a few days for symptoms to arise. I don't know if this is maybe a symptom of cyanide poisoning as he is almost certainly wild caught. He has no visible external parasites or wounds. I am simply at a loss.

His tank mates continue to do well and are feeding normally. The little green banded goby has an obviously plump stomach so between the feedings and the pods in the tank he hunts for he's doing great.

Blennies from SE Asia are usually caught with cyanide - they are low value fish, and they are VERY adept at evading a net, so the only way they can be caught with low cost is with drugs. Same thing with the coral gobies. It would take the fishers hours to catch them in just nets, so they resort to drugs. That isn't 100% a death sentence, but it does increase the mortality rate for them.

The best thing to do is to try and feed the fish small amounts of food, multiple times a day and see if it will pull through.

Green banded gobies are also very tough to catch, but cyanide isn't used where they are found - in those fish, they are either caught in hand nets with a lot of work, or bleach is used to drive them out of the rocks.

 

[Kpigford]

Blennies from SE Asia are usually caught with cyanide - they are low value fish, and they are VERY adept at evading a net, so the only way they can be caught with low cost is with drugs. Same thing with the coral gobies. It would take the fishers hours to catch them in just nets, so they resort to drugs. That isn't 100% a death sentence, but it does increase the mortality rate for them.

The best thing to do is to try and feed the fish small amounts of food, multiple times a day and see if it will pull through.

Green banded gobies are also very tough to catch, but cyanide isn't used where they are found - in those fish, they are either caught in hand nets with a lot of work, or bleach is used to drive them out of the rocks.

Good to know, thank you! I didn't know much about the blennies. If I decide to get a 2nd green banded goby I'll try to find a captive bred specimen as I recently learned there are a few places breeding them. My original gbg died around 7 years ago during a tank crash from a power outage (he was 4 years old I think) and they were no where to be found in the market at the time. Now Im seeing them listed everywhere.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Good to know, thank you! I didn't know much about the blennies. If I decide to get a 2nd green banded goby I'll try to find a captive bred specimen as I recently learned there are a few places breeding them. My original gbg died around 7 years ago during a tank crash from a power outage (he was 4 years old I think) and they were no where to be found in the market at the time. Now Im seeing them listed everywhere.

Yes - early on, Frank Baensch produced green banded gobies. I don't think there are any widely available captive raised ones at the moment though. Bocas Mariculture is producing them, but I don't know who they sell to:

Panamanian Greenbanded Gobies Aquacultured at Bocas Mariculture - CORAL Magazine

While visually similar to the Greenbanded Goby, this Panamaian endemic is only entering the aquarium hobby through dedicated captive-breeding efforts.

www.coralmagazine.com

 

[Kpigford]

Yes - early on, Frank Baensch produced green banded gobies. I don't think there are any widely available captive raised ones at the moment though. Bocas Mariculture is producing them, but I don't know who they sell to:

Panamanian Greenbanded Gobies Aquacultured at Bocas Mariculture - CORAL Magazine

While visually similar to the Greenbanded Goby, this Panamaian endemic is only entering the aquarium hobby through dedicated captive-breeding efforts.

www.coralmagazine.com

Thanks for the link. I found them listed on one site but they were listed as out of stock. I signed up for email notifications if they came back in stock. If I wait too long and the one in the tank gets too big he might not accept a mate. From my research they get quite territorial as they age. It was the reason I bought two young presumably females so one could transition to male and they would hopefully pair up.

The blenny is showing some signs of improvement this morning. He's gone back in the shrimp tube in that back corner. I can just see his head sticking out. He struck out and ate 3-4 pieces of tdo during this morning's feeding session and appeared to keep them down. I'm going to increase the feeding sessions to 3-4 times a day though I'll need to monitor to make sure I don't cause another ammonia spike. In any case the GBG will enjoy the extra feeding sessions. The only bad thing with him in the tube is I can't see if he's still suffering from the convulsions but I'm happy to see him resuming natural behaviors.