New Ruby Red Dragonet, in QT now. Anything I should watch out for?

[Glasswalker]

So put the pods in the tank yesterday, put half the bottle in, with lights/pumps off so the benthic pods could settle. Gave it an hour then turned everything back on.

He does seem to be "pecking" at the gravel and decorations more, but I can't really tell if there are pods in there, they aren't as big as the ones in my display which I can see crawling on the glass pretty clearly.

Anyway, today I noticed he was doing 2 things odd (intermittent between occasionally swimming around hunting I assume, or just "resting").

• Swimming to one corner, and staring at the glass, occasionally swimming back and forth along the glass, almost like he's "showing off" (assume this is him seeing his reflection, and trying to one-up himself lol). But he's not flashing his dorsal when doing this.
• Swimming up to the corner of the tank near the surface, and "hanging out". No idea if there are pods up there he's hunting, or what's going on. He does it for a few min straight, then settles down and does something else, then goes back to it later on, etc.

I tried to catch him "shadow boxing" his reflection, but didn't get a video of it.
But I did catch a video of him doing the swim to the surface thing.

Video below, anything I should be worried about? Or just normal "odd" behavior lol (my decorated goby does similar stuff sometimes, and never worried about it much, he seems happy and normal for quite a while, so assuming this might just be similar behavior, but thought I should check).

Thanks!

Video:

 

[Rick cowen]

It's all good, he looks happy.

 

[Glasswalker]

Having a bit of a bacterial bloom in the tank, I suspect it's due to the water quality because of the feeding pattern for this particular fish. Still waiting for brine shrimp to arrive so I can start target feeding those.

He is looking a bit more skinny, belly a bit sunken again, He's definitely not getting enough food Can't harvest enough pods from the sump it seems, and the bottled pods were either DOA, or have run out. He's not visibly eating the frozen anymore, and keeps swimming up to the surface, or just hanging out sitting still on the bottom most of the time.

Is it possible a bacterial bloom is causing reduction of oxygen in the tank?

Will do a water change tonight for a couple Gal, which should be 20-30 %

Hopefully the brine shrimp arrive tomorrow so I can get those feeding asap.

Thoughts on what I can do about the bacterial bloom in a little tank like this 7g? No skimmer, no UV, Water fairly cloudy. Not really bad (I can see through it fine) but it's noticeably cloudy compared to the display. He occasionally scoots around the floor like normal, but I haven't seen him eating, he's spending at least 80% of the time I can watch the tank swimming up to the surface, or sitting still on the bottom.

Return pump is aimed at the surface for plenty of surface agitation, and I do have an aerator running 24/7 in the filtration chamber, so should be lots of gas exchange for a tank this size.

 

[melypr1985]

Is it possible a bacterial bloom is causing reduction of oxygen in the tank?

Yes. Bacterial blooms will eat up the O2 in the water quickly. Adding extra O2 to the tank via powerhead (which you are already doing it seems with the return pump) and/or an air stone. A water change will help quite a bit as well.

 

[Glasswalker]

So no matter how much I tried, I wasn't able to keep him alive.

I thought I had this, he seemed to be doing well through both Prazipro treatments, but within a few days after that he stopped eating altogether. I was putting baby brine shrimp in the feeder, and he would swim over and look, might pick at one, but simply didn't eat. I kept feeding assorted frozen food, even tried alternating frozen enriched brine, frozen baby brine, frozen blood worms, etc. Even tried a mixture...

Ultimately he started losing weight, and today he passed away.

So lesson learned here: Dragonets simply can't be quarantined safely (for the fish). They are the one fish you have to be willing to make an exception and move straight into a large display, with an ample pod population. Doesn't matter if they are eating prepared food, there is simply no way to be sure you're getting them enough nutrients.

I made the mistake of convincing myself that because he was eating prepared food, and I was going to be diligent about feeding him, that he would do ok through QT and then do fine in my display. But he never made it to the display.



For me I likely won't be getting another dragonet anytime soon. They are beautiful fish, and I really wanted to be able to keep one. (and I think my display system could sustain one just fine) but unless it comes from a well trusted source so that I don't have to QT it, I won't be picking up another one, because I don't want to risk attempting another QT cycle on one (and ultimately starving it).

I tried everything, was feeding like 3-4 times per day, and feeding live baby brine through the feeder... But ultimately it wasn't enough.

 

[Big G]

So no matter how much I tried, I wasn't able to keep him alive.

I thought I had this, he seemed to be doing well through both Prazipro treatments, but within a few days after that he stopped eating altogether. I was putting baby brine shrimp in the feeder, and he would swim over and look, might pick at one, but simply didn't eat. I kept feeding assorted frozen food, even tried alternating frozen enriched brine, frozen baby brine, frozen blood worms, etc. Even tried a mixture...

Ultimately he started losing weight, and today he passed away.

So lesson learned here: Dragonets simply can't be quarantined safely (for the fish). They are the one fish you have to be willing to make an exception and move straight into a large display, with an ample pod population. Doesn't matter if they are eating prepared food, there is simply no way to be sure you're getting them enough nutrients.

I made the mistake of convincing myself that because he was eating prepared food, and I was going to be diligent about feeding him, that he would do ok through QT and then do fine in my display. But he never made it to the display.



For me I likely won't be getting another dragonet anytime soon. They are beautiful fish, and I really wanted to be able to keep one. (and I think my display system could sustain one just fine) but unless it comes from a well trusted source so that I don't have to QT it, I won't be picking up another one, because I don't want to risk attempting another QT cycle on one (and ultimately starving it).

I tried everything, was feeding like 3-4 times per day, and feeding live baby brine through the feeder... But ultimately it wasn't enough.

Sad, man. Really sad. Had the same thing happen with a Scooter Blenny a couple weeks ago.