Midas blenny sick

[a7a8a6]

Hello,


This is my first post—I’m new to reef keeping and one of my fish has become sick.


About three weeks ago, my blenny started acting unusual. It began hiding in the rocks and eventually stopped coming out to eat. After about a week of not seeing it, I later found it resting on the bottom corner of the tank.


I moved it into a small quarantine container inside the main tank and treated it with ich medication after noticing some white spots. However, I’m not entirely sure if those spots were actually ich or possibly sand. The white spots cleared up after a couple of days, and its breathing seemed to stabilize slightly, but it still wasn’t eating properly.


After a few days of no feeding, I started target feeding it. I noticed a small lump on its underside. It will eat about 4–5 bites of mysis shrimp before becoming stressed (possibly due to handling).


At this point, it is still breathing rapidly and appears to be losing weight, especially along the upper body. I also notice another round, lesion-like spot under the skin—though I’m not sure if this is related to weight loss or another issue.


I’d really appreciate any advice or guidance on what might be going on and what steps I should take next.

I added the pictures in chronological order so the worse looking one is the latest
Thanks

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello,


This is my first post—I’m new to reef keeping and one of my fish has become sick.


About three weeks ago, my blenny started acting unusual. It began hiding in the rocks and eventually stopped coming out to eat. After about a week of not seeing it, I later found it resting on the bottom corner of the tank.


I moved it into a small quarantine container inside the main tank and treated it with ich medication after noticing some white spots. However, I’m not entirely sure if those spots were actually ich or possibly sand. The white spots cleared up after a couple of days, and its breathing seemed to stabilize slightly, but it still wasn’t eating properly.


After a few days of no feeding, I started target feeding it. I noticed a small lump on its underside. It will eat about 4–5 bites of mysis shrimp before becoming stressed (possibly due to handling).


At this point, it is still breathing rapidly and appears to be losing weight, especially along the upper body. I also notice another round, lesion-like spot under the skin—though I’m not sure if this is related to weight loss or another issue.


I’d really appreciate any advice or guidance on what might be going on and what steps I should take next.

I added the pictures in chronological order so the worse looking one is the latest
Thanks

Fish looks thin and maybe feeding off it’s liver, known as edema

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello,


This is my first post—I’m new to reef keeping and one of my fish has become sick.


About three weeks ago, my blenny started acting unusual. It began hiding in the rocks and eventually stopped coming out to eat. After about a week of not seeing it, I later found it resting on the bottom corner of the tank.


I moved it into a small quarantine container inside the main tank and treated it with ich medication after noticing some white spots. However, I’m not entirely sure if those spots were actually ich or possibly sand. The white spots cleared up after a couple of days, and its breathing seemed to stabilize slightly, but it still wasn’t eating properly.


After a few days of no feeding, I started target feeding it. I noticed a small lump on its underside. It will eat about 4–5 bites of mysis shrimp before becoming stressed (possibly due to handling).


At this point, it is still breathing rapidly and appears to be losing weight, especially along the upper body. I also notice another round, lesion-like spot under the skin—though I’m not sure if this is related to weight loss or another issue.


I’d really appreciate any advice or guidance on what might be going on and what steps I should take next.

I added the pictures in chronological order so the worse looking one is the latest
Thanks

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

As noted, your blenny is really emaciated and is using its liver for energy, that in turn causes liver failure. I wrote about this issue here:

Skinny Blenny issue

Skinny blennies: Midas blennies are much more difficult to maintain than their common presence in the pet trade would have you believe. They are very prone to starvation. It is unknown if this is due to not feeding them often enough, not feeding enough, feeding the wrong foods, or if internal...

www.reef2reef.com

There may be an underlying infection as well.

Are there other fish in the tank? Any issues with them?

 

[a7a8a6]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

As noted, your blenny is really emaciated and is using its liver for energy, that in turn causes liver failure. I wrote about this issue here:

Skinny Blenny issue

Skinny blennies: Midas blennies are much more difficult to maintain than their common presence in the pet trade would have you believe. They are very prone to starvation. It is unknown if this is due to not feeding them often enough, not feeding enough, feeding the wrong foods, or if internal...

www.reef2reef.com

There may be an underlying infection as well.

Are there other fish in the tank? Any issues with them?

Thank you, I have a cardinal, 2 clowns, a blue tang a diamond goby with pistol shrimp, snails and hermit crabs. 55 gallon tank. Water levels look good from the strip test, I need to get ammonia tester but none of the other fish are showing any signs of sickness. The Blenny has been in the tank for 6 months and got along with everyone. No bullying.

From reading your article and some other articles here, it seems like this guy might not make it :( as it is a known thing as when it gets into this stage, they are kinda done.

Anything you can recommend? It looks like I will have to get a small separate tank setup to safely administer any medications without impacting others in the tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you, I have a cardinal, 2 clowns, a blue tang a diamond goby with pistol shrimp, snails and hermit crabs. 55 gallon tank. Water levels look good from the strip test, I need to get ammonia tester but none of the other fish are showing any signs of sickness. The Blenny has been in the tank for 6 months and got along with everyone. No bullying.

From reading your article and some other articles here, it seems like this guy might not make it :( as it is a known thing as when it gets into this stage, they are kinda done.

Anything you can recommend? It looks like I will have to get a small separate tank setup to safely administer any medications without impacting others in the tank.

Putting the blenny in a situation where you can really pile the food on might help, but really, if liver damage has already happened, that won’t help.