Lawnmower Blenny died after 3 days - Help Please

[BluewaterMP]

I am running a Red Sea 250 (55g display), it has been up about 5 months. I have two clowns that have been in for 3 months, very healthy and active. About 15 coral frags, all happy and healthy (Except one grumpy zoa that got manhandled when introduced).

I purchased a Lawnmower Blenny friday afternoon from the LFS to be the third fish resident. Relatively large in size and mature which I hoped meant hearty. After acclimation he immediately hid in the rock work - which I chalked to to being shy / stressed. Over the weekend when I would check in on him I would see him out and about in the rock work, but any time I entered the room he would immediately hide - which made him tough to monitor.

Was not able to see him eat anything over the weekend. When I was able to observe him he was usually hidden stationary in the rockwork - at times it seemed like he was breathing heavier then I would expect, but didn't seem too alarming. When I came downstairs this morning he was dead on the floor of the tank.

I haven't run my parameters today, but did on Friday.

Salinity - 1.025
Nitrates - 10pm
Ammonia - 0
Alk - 8.0
Calclium - 400

Protein skimmer and two powerheads at the top creating a lot of surface agitation - so I feel like the tank should be fairly oxygenated.

Any feedback on what could have gone wrong? I am fairly new to the hobby - so I really don't know if this is just something that happens sometimes, or if I should be fully alarmed. I've been patient in waiting to start adding more livestock to the tank, so it is very disheartening to me to finally pull the trigger and have an immediate death. Any suggestions or feedback is welcome

 

[Rtaylor]

Sorry for your loss, it’s definitely the worst part of the hobby. The hiding is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. It does sometimes seem to happen for no discernible reason. Could have been stress related perhaps, or may have been in poor health when you got him. With no obvious visible symptoms or signs of disease it’s unlikely you’ll ever know the actual cause.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Does it look like there’s bruising or bleeding around the head area? Mine that I had for quite awhile, got spooked, and slammed into the glass, or something else. Lived for a couple days after and died. I think the smaller younger ones are a better choice. Also you need plenty of algae for them to eat.

 

[TheBear78]

My initial thoughts on this are how your water compares to the LFS?
Also, certainly not uncommon is possible harassment from one or both Clowns.

 

[BluewaterMP]

My initial thoughts on this are how your water compares to the LFS?
Also, certainly not uncommon is possible harassment from one or both Clowns.

The one known parameter difference between LFS and my tank is Salinity - they are low salt, I think they stay around 1.021, and I am usually between 1.0245-1.025. Pretty stark difference, so I did drip acclimate for an hour before he went in the tank. Think the other parameters are similar ish, I got the two clowns and all my corals from that LFS and all are happy.

I did see the clowns investigating him, but mostly from a distance. They are both considerably smaller then he was though but idk

 

[DeniseAndy]

I will say, with my experience with lawnmower blennies is they can be iffy. I have tried at least three times before I got one that survived long term (this being second time owning one - first died after jumping (7+ yrs in)).

One I had was full grown so I thought would be healthy, died in a few days. One was skinny and did not survive. Last one I got smaller, qt'ed it fully, now is happily in my 210g system fat and funny.

I love these guys, but for some reason, they are not always good survivors. I think size and distribution have a huge effect. The one I have now was at my LFS when I got it.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Are you saying there's a correlation between his health and jumping out of the tank?

To me, it seems those 2 are separate. He can jump out for many reasons, and I wouldn't narrow it down to health.

Raising salinity is tricky, lfs like to keep it lower because fish seem to be less stressed in a lower salinity environment. The rule of thumb for raising salinity for a fish is 0.001 a day. That's why it's recommended to set up a small observation tank that matches your lfs to monitor as well as raise the salinity slowly.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Are you saying there's a correlation between his health and jumping out of the tank?

To me, it seems those 2 are separate. He can jump out for many reasons, and I wouldn't narrow it down to health.

Raising salinity is tricky, lfs like to keep it lower because fish seem to be less stressed in a lower salinity environment. The rule of thumb for raising salinity for a fish is 0.001 a day. That's why it's recommended to set up a small observation tank that matches your lfs to monitor as well as raise the salinity slowly.

Nope, not at all. Mine jumped because of aggression in the tank and startled. I just had no good cover types at the time (old tank with a 1.5ft brace in middle could not stop fish jumping on. Very frustrating.)
Agreed that raising salinity should be done slowly.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

@denisemy post was intended for the OP.

 

[BluewaterMP]

@denisemy post was intended for the OP.

I'm not. My death wasn't a jumper, found him at bottom of tank. Just noting that the only difference I know between my water and LFS is salinity

 

[threebuoys]

As others have stated, the acclimation to the big salinity increase should have occurred over a couple of days. However, the fish did live for 3 days, so cannot be certain the death was attributed to that factor. Without photographs or videos, diagnosis is pretty much impossible.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

In some cases fish just cant make the adjustment to our tanks, the transportation to get there is super traumatic to them.

My own personal experience in fish keeping is that the first 3 days are always the crucial days. If a new fish dies it usually dies in the first 3 days, if the fish makes it past 3 days it usually will live. IME

 

[DeniseAndy]

I think these guys are more prone to shipping issues due to there constant eating habits. During all the transport they do not get the nutrition needed as they constantly graze. So, the first week is crucial to get them fattened up and eating.
JMO

 

[TokenReefer]

Your tank looks good. Is there enough algae around for it to eat?

 

[BluewaterMP]

I appreciate everyone who took the time to reply. Super bummed about the whole thing but it does help to hear the feedback. Trying to do my best in terms of tank husbandry but as a newbie there are elements of not really knowing how often this thing happens, versus uncertainty that I am doing the right things in terms of care and freaking out when something goes wrong.

Understand I will never have a definitive answer without pictures etc. I get the feedback about the salinity variance and an hour drip acclimation may not be enough to cover it.

 

[TokenReefer]

Just want to add that it's definitely a bummer... Sorry about it

 

[BluewaterMP]

Your tank looks good. Is there enough algae around for it to eat?

Theres some, patches of hair algae in the rocks especially in some of the areas that aren't high flow, and some growth on the walls. But no not a ton - I figured what I had + supplementing with algae based food would be enough to keep him healthy.

LFS told me it would be normal to not see him really eat the fed food for a few weeks, but I figured I had enough patches of algae to keep him going until then. Is three days enough for starvation to occur if he wasn't eating the local algae?

 

[DeniseAndy]

For the future, these guys like to eat the film algae off the glass/acrylic, munch on the really low algae on the rocks, not so much the hair algae. They will eat algae sheets, but will need to learn that. Can give by tying on rock for it to graze on. These are usually one of the last I put in the tank so the tank has enough for it to eat.
Plus, it follows the other fish in eating the food I feed by hand. Not on its own did mine eat prepared food.
Good luck and sorry for your loss.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I am running a Red Sea 250 (55g display), it has been up about 5 months. I have two clowns that have been in for 3 months, very healthy and active. About 15 coral frags, all happy and healthy (Except one grumpy zoa that got manhandled when introduced).

I purchased a Lawnmower Blenny friday afternoon from the LFS to be the third fish resident. Relatively large in size and mature which I hoped meant hearty. After acclimation he immediately hid in the rock work - which I chalked to to being shy / stressed. Over the weekend when I would check in on him I would see him out and about in the rock work, but any time I entered the room he would immediately hide - which made him tough to monitor.

Was not able to see him eat anything over the weekend. When I was able to observe him he was usually hidden stationary in the rockwork - at times it seemed like he was breathing heavier then I would expect, but didn't seem too alarming. When I came downstairs this morning he was dead on the floor of the tank.

I haven't run my parameters today, but did on Friday.

Salinity - 1.025
Nitrates - 10pm
Ammonia - 0
Alk - 8.0
Calclium - 400

Protein skimmer and two powerheads at the top creating a lot of surface agitation - so I feel like the tank should be fairly oxygenated.

Any feedback on what could have gone wrong? I am fairly new to the hobby - so I really don't know if this is just something that happens sometimes, or if I should be fully alarmed. I've been patient in waiting to start adding more livestock to the tank, so it is very disheartening to me to finally pull the trigger and have an immediate death. Any suggestions or feedback is welcome

I would let the LFS know. Losing a fish in 3 days when everything else is fine means either the fish had some issue when you got it, or there was some acclimation issue.
Jay

 

[bnord]

As always have said, sorry for the loss. It stings every time and your care and concern and attention to detail speak well to your success in the future.
Do you know how long it has been in the local store before you acquired it, shipping and stress are always a concern. And I too have lost a Blenny or two in the first week, but also have three year old members in different tanks.
There are two local stores in my community and one of them also runs low salinity as a putative parasite control. Never quite understood it and I’ve never bought a fish from him either.