Reddish hue, dead fish

[C4ctus99]

I had a goby pass away a couple days ago, and now the tail spot blenny in the same tank is acting the same way.

symptoms:
Little reaction to my presence
Tends to stay in one place/inactive
High respiration (160ish on goby)
Camo mode more often with blenny

Just noticed this today and connected some dots: reddish hue to the goby’s body and some red on his face that was not there prior. The tailspot blenny has a more reddish coloring tonight. Wondering if that is connected

I suspected the goby of having flukes when I first got him, but never treated and wasn’t sold on the symptoms.

Small tank, 10G. Temporary accommodations until I get a new 75g. Tampa bay live rock, some ulva macro, tank mates are a sea star, large hermit crab, and 3 barnacle blennies and a snail.

Is it possible this is urenema? I used NSW for this tank and threw in some beach sand to hopefully give the goby a little more to chew on and add to the tank.

Just to reiterate, the goby died Tuesday and I have a Tail Spot Blenny showing the same symptoms. Thanks!

 

[C4ctus99]

And just realized some pictures would help… here’s the goby before it died. I will have to get pictures of the blenny in the morning. The video won’t work for those on mobile, apologies in advance

Notice the red mark at the front of his natural blue line.

 

[C4ctus99]

I gave the blenny a FWdip earlier tonight to see if maybe it was flukes and I don’t know if I screwed it up or something cause he is now moribund. Don’t expect him to last the night.

He still fights when I put my finger on him, but he just floats around and is having trouble staying upright. Breathing normal but his face and gills are slightly reddish purplish and almost seem swollen

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not seeing any notable signs of parasites or other disease but definitely see the high respirations. I also noticed quite a bit of detritus in the sand bed and some particulate hanging off of rock
What is your ammonia and nitrate level?
Also what is salinity and tank temperature?

Suggested is to do a good water change after testing and add an air stone for increased oxygen. To assure no flukes or other issue, you can safely treat tank with Ruby Rally Pro which covers an array of issues

 

[C4ctus99]

Not seeing any notable signs of parasites or other disease but definitely see the high respirations. I also noticed quite a bit of detritus in the sand bed and some particulate hanging off of rock
What is your ammonia and nitrate level?
Also what is salinity and tank temperature?

Suggested is to do a good water change after testing and add an air stone for increased oxygen. To assure no flukes or other issue, you can safely treat tank with Ruby Rally Pro which covers an array of issues

Salinity 1.023
Temp 78F
Ammonia .25
Nitrates 80ish

Tests with API, so take that as you will. All I have on hand tonight. Nitrates are definitely crazy high. Going to test the other tank too.

Also, the blenny passed away a little while ago. His gills looked really bad

 

[vetteguy53081]

Salinity 1.023
Temp 78F
Ammonia .25
Nitrates 80ish

Tests with API, so take that as you will. All I have on hand tonight. Nitrates are definitely crazy high. Going to test the other tank too.

Also, the blenny passed away a little while ago. His gills looked really bad

Breathing was highly elevated- sorry to hear
Ammonia…. .25 or .025?
Nitrates likely higher than test shows
Salinity increase 1.024-1.025

water change

 

[C4ctus99]

Breathing was highly elevated- sorry to hear
Ammonia…. .25 or .025?
Nitrates likely higher than test shows
Salinity increase 1.024-1.025

water change

Salinity was lower as I brought in new fish Tuesday from lfs @1.019, figured dropping this tank down a point or two would be the best middle ground and let it come back up the rest of the way through evaporation.

ammonia is showing the standard API “not 0” amount, unfortunately that’s the only test kit I have, but I’ve generally come to the conclusion that it always reads a little bit.

Moved the remaining fish to the other tank for now, slightly lower nitrates but 20g tank. I’ll have to change the water in the morning.

thanks man

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I had a goby pass away a couple days ago, and now the tail spot blenny in the same tank is acting the same way.

symptoms:
Little reaction to my presence
Tends to stay in one place/inactive
High respiration (160ish on goby)
Camo mode more often with blenny

Just noticed this today and connected some dots: reddish hue to the goby’s body and some red on his face that was not there prior. The tailspot blenny has a more reddish coloring tonight. Wondering if that is connected

I suspected the goby of having flukes when I first got him, but never treated and wasn’t sold on the symptoms.

Small tank, 10G. Temporary accommodations until I get a new 75g. Tampa bay live rock, some ulva macro, tank mates are a sea star, large hermit crab, and 3 barnacle blennies and a snail.

Is it possible this is urenema? I used NSW for this tank and threw in some beach sand to hopefully give the goby a little more to chew on and add to the tank.

Just to reiterate, the goby died Tuesday and I have a Tail Spot Blenny showing the same symptoms. Thanks!

That isn't how Uronema affects fish. I would say the two primary causes of rapid breathing like this are water quality issues or Amyloodinium (velvet). As I read through this and watched the videos, I was concluding velvet....until I saw you also have 3 barnacle blennies in the tank. Are they not showing ANY symptoms? If not, then velvet is less likely, as that affects pretty much all fish in short order.

Were you seeing any issues with 5 similar fish in a ten gallon tank? No fighting?
Can you get a secondary confirmation of your ammonia level, with a different type of test kit?

Jay

 

[C4ctus99]

That isn't how Uronema affects fish. I would say the two primary causes of rapid breathing like this are water quality issues or Amyloodinium (velvet). As I read through this and watched the videos, I was concluding velvet....until I saw you also have 3 barnacle blennies in the tank. Are they not showing ANY symptoms? If not, then velvet is less likely, as that affects pretty much all fish in short order.

Were you seeing any issues with 5 similar fish in a ten gallon tank? No fighting?
Can you get a secondary confirmation of your ammonia level, with a different type of test kit?

Jay

Goby had symptoms for at least a week before succumbing, blenny was in the tank with him the whole time. The barnacle blennies were added Tuesday. A little bit of fighting when one decided to take on the tailspot blennies hole, but he learned fast.

I took some pictures of right before/after the tailspot blenny died. His gills and face were in bad shape.

Did I do something wrong on the FW dip? Steps I took:
-Filled container with tap water (roughly 1/3-1/2 gallon
-got to tank temp
-added blenny and bubbler
-pulled blenny after 5 minutes and returned to DT

I did not check for pH differences… his gills looked bad though, will post picture following this.

None of the velvet coating on either fish was visible

 

[C4ctus99]

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The FW dip was done properly, as long as you didn’t injure it catching it up, the dip itself wouldn’t have been the issue. There is another problem with dips: if fish have a high parasite load and you dip them, those parasites all fall off. The parasite attachment point on the fish’s gills and skin are now little holes. Enough of those, and the fish just bleeds out. No way to avoid it, the disease is just too far advanced. You can tell if this happened because the fish dying after the dip will have white or light pink gills from the resulting anemia.
I’m not saying for sure that’s what happened, but it bears consideration.
Also, gill flukes are too small to be seen in the dip water without a microscope.
Jay

 

[C4ctus99]

Dang, that sounds exactly like what happened honestly. So most likely velvet. The tailspot blenny had pinkish colored gills even before he died, like he was hemorrhaging.

Of course I’m out of town till Sunday afternoon Hopefully the rest of the fish make it till then

 

[C4ctus99]

Quick question @Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081, if this is indeed velvet, I may have a problem. The three remaining fish are barnacle blennies and are now fairly attached to their rock… do you have any tips or tricks for getting them out for treatment? Or just stick the whole rock in copper (if rather not) which then runs the same issue of removing them from it to not contaminate a DT with copper

Thoughts or advice? I prefer TTM over copper, but the velvet will stick onto the rock right? Any sort of quick dip harmless to fish that would kill the trophonts (?) in between transfers?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Quick question @Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081, if this is indeed velvet, I may have a problem. The three remaining fish are barnacle blennies and are now fairly attached to their rock… do you have any tips or tricks for getting them out for treatment? Or just stick the whole rock in copper (if rather not) which then runs the same issue of removing them from it to not contaminate a DT with copper

Thoughts or advice? I prefer TTM over copper, but the velvet will stick onto the rock right? Any sort of quick dip harmless to fish that would kill the trophonts (?) in between transfers?

Will be real helpful if you can provide pics or videos of at lest 30 seconds under white lighting
Some behaviors with velvet are:
-Fish gasping at surface
-Skin looks like it has powdered sugar
- loss of appetite
- heavy breathing
- hanging in front of power head
- clamped find

 

[52728299]

Discolored gills happened before the dip? I wouldn't rule out the possibility of elevated ammonia issues imo. I'd get that water quality up if you haven't. If you have then my apologies.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Quick question @Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081, if this is indeed velvet, I may have a problem. The three remaining fish are barnacle blennies and are now fairly attached to their rock… do you have any tips or tricks for getting them out for treatment? Or just stick the whole rock in copper (if rather not) which then runs the same issue of removing them from it to not contaminate a DT with copper

Thoughts or advice? I prefer TTM over copper, but the velvet will stick onto the rock right? Any sort of quick dip harmless to fish that would kill the trophonts (?) in between transfers?

Velvet May as it’s a flagellate. If the fish are that difficult to catch, you can place the barnacle into a small pail such as ice cream bucket submerged and capture blennies
Other option would be treating the tank itself with reef safe ruby rally pro but ruby rally will take a couple of days to take effect

 

[C4ctus99]

Discolored gills happened before the dip? I wouldn't rule out the possibility of elevated ammonia issues imo. I'd get that water quality up if you haven't. If you have then my apologies.

Water quality is a lot better now. The discoloration was not present on the tailspot blenny prior to the dip. Afterword, kinda looked really bruised, like he got caught between a hammer and anvil.

Goby just had a red mark by the gill, should be a pic in a prior post

 

[C4ctus99]

Will be real helpful if you can provide pics or videos of at lest 30 seconds under white lighting
Some behaviors with velvet are:
-Fish gasping at surface
-Skin looks like it has powdered sugar
- loss of appetite
- heavy breathing
- hanging in front of power head
- clamped find

Only two fish that were not doing well died. Of the symptoms you listed, only the following were present:

-loss of appetite
-Heavy breathing

In addition to those, what I noted was:
-slight discoloration (goby)
-camouflage (blenny)
-possible gill damage/discoloration
-lethargy/staying in one spot

I guess what is the possibility of flukes too?

 

[C4ctus99]

Velvet May as it’s a flagellate. If the fish are that difficult to catch, you can place the barnacle into a small pail such as ice cream bucket submerged and capture blennies
Other option would be treating the tank itself with reef safe ruby rally pro but ruby rally will take a couple of days to take effect

They are in holes in the rock just large enough for them with only their heads sticking out, might could suck them out with a siphon…

Does ruby affect flagellates? I haven’t seen it mentioned before as a cure for ick or velvet

 

[C4ctus99]

Discolored gills happened before the dip? I wouldn't rule out the possibility of elevated ammonia issues imo. I'd get that water quality up if you haven't. If you have then my apologies.

Ammonia could have been an issue, but I have 10-15 lbs of live (gulf) rock and some live sand. Also only a 10g tank so it could have spiked for long enough I guess… but the goby was showing symptoms for a couple days when it was just he and the tailspot in the tank.

Nitrates we’re through the roof though, water changes have been done