My First Fish Died - Advice?

[Jamie9]

Hi everyone, I've been working hard on my tank for the last few months (see my tank thread if you'd like to see any details) and I was very excited to get my first fish on Saturday. I went with a red banded hi fin goby and a candy stripe pistol shrimp to start, thinking that it would be nice to let them get established before I add a pair of clown fish a bit later. For refence, this is a newly established and cycled 40 gallon tank with a two inch sand bed, mostly dry rock but with 5 pounds of live rock from TBS. Parameters as follows:

Salinity: 34.6 ppt
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 16 ppm
Phosphate: 0.02 ppm
Alk: 5.9 dkh
Temp: ~78 F (can swing 77.5 to 78.5)

The goby was pre-quarantined at the LFS, so I put him right into the display after about 45 minutes of temperature acclimation (after which I removed him via net from the LFS water and immediately placed him in the tank). The goby seemed to do well for several days. I was feeding him frozen (and defrosted) copepods twice a day (which was what the LFS was feeding) and I was injecting them right near his little burrow. As soon as the food came he'd pop out, swim around for a while gobbling up the food, and then slide back into his burrow. After the first day he seemed comfortable half out of his burrow most of the time.

Then yesterday (so the 4th day since adding to the tank). He was dead on the sand bed. No markings, no sign of disease, nothing eating him. There was one tiny critter on him that looked to me like an amphipod. Also, at the same time as I got the Goby, I picked up two trochus snails and two hermit crabs, as well as the shrimp. The shrimp disappeared into the sand on minute one, I assume he's ok but no idea really. All the others are happily cleaning the rocks and tank walls still.

So, I guess where I'm going with all this is...not knowing why he died, should I be purchasing another fish? All I can think to do is a good sized water change and try again. But I hate the idea of losing another fish right away if I'm missing something.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Sorry that happened, but can we see a full tank picture? There's not much info to go on so a picture sometimes helps. How is the water oxygenated?

 

[Jamie9]

 

[Jamie9]

Here you go, good call. So right now, I've got the return pump which comes out via four nozzles. Two are directed at the surface to agitate it. Two nozzles are pointed downwards to make some current. I've also got one MP10 on the side of the tank flowing along the back behind the rocks. I'm waiting on a replacement wet head for a second MP10, which would go on the other side of the tank, closer to the front. It's an AIO, so it's overflowing into the back chamber (on two sides). Right now the only filtration I have in is some filter floss.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Hopefully others will have a good idea but I personally don't see any clear reason with your tank or parameters it could have died.. Good luck

 

[Jamie9]

Thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to have a look.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

#fishmedics

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi everyone, I've been working hard on my tank for the last few months (see my tank thread if you'd like to see any details) and I was very excited to get my first fish on Saturday. I went with a red banded hi fin goby and a candy stripe pistol shrimp to start, thinking that it would be nice to let them get established before I add a pair of clown fish a bit later. For refence, this is a newly established and cycled 40 gallon tank with a two inch sand bed, mostly dry rock but with 5 pounds of live rock from TBS. Parameters as follows:

Salinity: 34.6 ppt
pH: 8.0
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 16 ppm
Phosphate: 0.02 ppm
Alk: 5.9 dkh
Temp: ~78 F (can swing 77.5 to 78.5)

The goby was pre-quarantined at the LFS, so I put him right into the display after about 45 minutes of temperature acclimation (after which I removed him via net from the LFS water and immediately placed him in the tank). The goby seemed to do well for several days. I was feeding him frozen (and defrosted) copepods twice a day (which was what the LFS was feeding) and I was injecting them right near his little burrow. As soon as the food came he'd pop out, swim around for a while gobbling up the food, and then slide back into his burrow. After the first day he seemed comfortable half out of his burrow most of the time.

Then yesterday (so the 4th day since adding to the tank). He was dead on the sand bed. No markings, no sign of disease, nothing eating him. There was one tiny critter on him that looked to me like an amphipod. Also, at the same time as I got the Goby, I picked up two trochus snails and two hermit crabs, as well as the shrimp. The shrimp disappeared into the sand on minute one, I assume he's ok but no idea really. All the others are happily cleaning the rocks and tank walls still.

So, I guess where I'm going with all this is...not knowing why he died, should I be purchasing another fish? All I can think to do is a good sized water change and try again. But I hate the idea of losing another fish right away if I'm missing something.

It's tough to say with no real symptoms from the fish itself. Water tests are all fine. You can rule out acclimation problems because the fish settled in and was eating well. You can rule out tankmate aggression as the dead fish was "clean". The thing you saw on it was just some random scavenger.

The only thing that comes to mind is latent mortality from cyanide collection. Most of these little cryptic gobies are caught with drugs...divers are paid around ten cents each for these and there is no way they can spend time trying to dig them out and net them, so they use drugs. The most common drug is cyanide. That causes laten mortality in the fish, up to 60% in the first 45 days for some species. It is a bit lower for these gobies, but I suspect 25% is typical.