Hello all,
I am fairly new to the hobby and am starting a new reef tank. I have had 4 firefish Gobies for just under 3 months now, the first month being in a quarantine tank, the two larger of my gobies live in this larger rock cave
and the two smaller ones live on the other side of the tank in this smaller cave
about a week ago the 2 larger gobies starting breathing heavier and more rapidly (about 4 breaths per second). One of the larger ones only comes out of its cave a couple times a day and lays upright on its pectoral fins on the sand bed when it is in its cave, its partner leaves the cave on and off throughout the day but is much more reclusive than it has been in the past few weeks. Previously all four would swim together out in the open for most of the day. I had some issues with the initial cycling but the ammonia was never above 1 ppm and has been at zero ammonia for 3 weeks now which is what I initially suspected the problem to be. The two smaller gobies are doing fine and seem to be happy and healthy.
I've tried increasing surface tension breakage to increase the oxygen saturation, more frequent water changes (I'm currently doing 10% twice a week), I tried a freshwater dip on the more healthy of the two larger (sick) ones 2 days ago with no improvement, there is no sign of external parasites, I've changed and increased the volume of carbon in the filter, the only difference between the two pairs of fish is that the larger fish sleep on the sand bed while the smaller two sleep on rock but I'm not sure if this could be an issue or not. The sand is locally acquired sand which has been thoroughly rinsed, baked, sifted, and run through magnets. The only algae/bacteria that is visible in the tank is a small amount of yellow/light green film that has colonized some of the rubber and silicone on the refugium pump.
I am currently at a loss and have ruled out everything I can think of. My next action I can think of is to move the two sick fish to my quarantine tank which currently is holding two clownfish and move the clownfish prematurely into my main tank in order to get the two sick fish off of the sandbed for now.
These firefish are the only tank inhabitants at the moment. I have not yet added any corals, inverts, or other fish.
The tank specs/water parameters are below and have been consistent and very stable for 3 weeks now:
75 gallon (48"x18"x24")
Homemade dry rock
Fluval C4 HOB filter
Homemade HOB refugium which is currently being used as temporary biological and carbon filtration
pH 8.0-8.2
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Phosphate 0 ppm
Calcium 440-460
DkH 10
Any ideas/ help would be greatly appreciated!
I am fairly new to the hobby and am starting a new reef tank. I have had 4 firefish Gobies for just under 3 months now, the first month being in a quarantine tank, the two larger of my gobies live in this larger rock cave
and the two smaller ones live on the other side of the tank in this smaller cave
about a week ago the 2 larger gobies starting breathing heavier and more rapidly (about 4 breaths per second). One of the larger ones only comes out of its cave a couple times a day and lays upright on its pectoral fins on the sand bed when it is in its cave, its partner leaves the cave on and off throughout the day but is much more reclusive than it has been in the past few weeks. Previously all four would swim together out in the open for most of the day. I had some issues with the initial cycling but the ammonia was never above 1 ppm and has been at zero ammonia for 3 weeks now which is what I initially suspected the problem to be. The two smaller gobies are doing fine and seem to be happy and healthy.
I've tried increasing surface tension breakage to increase the oxygen saturation, more frequent water changes (I'm currently doing 10% twice a week), I tried a freshwater dip on the more healthy of the two larger (sick) ones 2 days ago with no improvement, there is no sign of external parasites, I've changed and increased the volume of carbon in the filter, the only difference between the two pairs of fish is that the larger fish sleep on the sand bed while the smaller two sleep on rock but I'm not sure if this could be an issue or not. The sand is locally acquired sand which has been thoroughly rinsed, baked, sifted, and run through magnets. The only algae/bacteria that is visible in the tank is a small amount of yellow/light green film that has colonized some of the rubber and silicone on the refugium pump.
I am currently at a loss and have ruled out everything I can think of. My next action I can think of is to move the two sick fish to my quarantine tank which currently is holding two clownfish and move the clownfish prematurely into my main tank in order to get the two sick fish off of the sandbed for now.
These firefish are the only tank inhabitants at the moment. I have not yet added any corals, inverts, or other fish.
The tank specs/water parameters are below and have been consistent and very stable for 3 weeks now:
75 gallon (48"x18"x24")
Homemade dry rock
Fluval C4 HOB filter
Homemade HOB refugium which is currently being used as temporary biological and carbon filtration
pH 8.0-8.2
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 ppm
Nitrate 10 ppm
Phosphate 0 ppm
Calcium 440-460
DkH 10
Any ideas/ help would be greatly appreciated!
