Something is very badly wrong

[Jinxs]

Today I wake up and get some coffee. I went to do my daily inspection of the aquarium and noticed our new dragonet upside down and not moving. I get in there and he is dead. Just last night he was eating copepods off our live rock and glass. This morning he's dead. No marks on him. No redness on his gills. No sunken in stomach. Nothing to tell me what happened. I went to feed our other fish and notice our Chalk Goby looks horrible. It's pretty obvious he hasn't been eating. He used to be a fatty. Always skimming food out of the live sand, coming up to the top of the tank at feeding time. I put garlic guard in the food and it looked like he was trying to eat but couldn't. Tank params are as follows:
55 gallon FOWLR
Went fallow for 83 days. Just transferred our fish back in after a velvet outbreak but none of the fish currently in the tank were exposed to velvet. We have 2 tanks and decided to condense after losing half our stock. Salinity .021 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5 (but it's always like that, even our other tank). Could this be an internal parasite I can't see? Our other fish are eating perfectly fine. No other marks on the bodies of any of our fish besides Ghost's (chalk goby) stomach issues. Please help me. We can't go through this again!

 

[Jinxs]

@Humblefish Any ideas? You are definitely an advanced aquarist and pretty good at these kinds of things.

 

[Humblefish]

Have you seen any white stringy poop coming out of any of your fish? That is one symptom of internal parasites.

You said that none of the fish you transferred back were exposed to velvet. Does this mean you lost all of your fish to velvet and the mandarin, goby, etc. are all new fish? If so, how were they QTd?

 

[Jinxs]

Have you seen any white stringy poop coming out of any of your fish? That is one symptom of internal parasites.

You said that none of the fish you transferred back were exposed to velvet. Does this mean you lost all of your fish to velvet and the mandarin, goby, etc. are all new fish? If so, how were they QTd?

So, only the dragonet was new. The others we have had for at least 18 months. They were in a seperate tank that was not affected by the velvet. We had the dragonet in QT for 3 weeks. All of the fish poop looks like a light brown. Not really stringy, kind of like long goat poop. But I haven't seen the chalk goby poop in about a week. They were transferred from our 29 gallon to our 55 gallon after an 83 day fallow period in the 55. We lost our entire stock from the velvet outbreak in the 55. They've been in the 55 since August 12th. No issues besides this since.

 

[Jinxs]

Should I QT the goby and get antibiotics for internal parasites to treat him with? I'm at a loss here.

 

[Humblefish]

Should I QT the goby and get antibiotics for internal parasites to treat him with? I'm at a loss here.

You can treat for internal parasites right in the DT. Start soaking your fish food with metronidazole, using Seachem Focus to bind the medication to food. You may need to target feed the goby (using a turkey baster) to ensure he is eating the medicated food.

 

[Jinxs]

You can treat for internal parasites right in the DT. Start soaking your fish food with metronidazole, using Seachem Focus to bind the medication to food. You may need to target feed the goby (using a turkey baster) to ensure he is eating the medicated food.

And that won't adversely affect the other fish? I came home from work and all is the same. Soaked the food in garlic guard all day hoping to entice him. Same problem. Thank you for the help. Would putting the garlic in with the meds, food, and binder help? I'll get to the LFS to pick this up.

 

[Humblefish]

And that won't adversely affect the other fish? I came home from work and all is the same. Soaked the food in garlic guard all day hoping to entice him. Same problem. Thank you for the help. Would putting the garlic in with the meds, food, and binder help? I'll get to the LFS to pick this up.

Odds are if one fish has internal parasites, they all have it. It's transmitted when another fish eats the white stringy poo of an infected specimen. But even if a fish doesn't have worms, there's no harm from eating the metro laced food.

You can add garlic if you like, but Focus already makes the medicated food more palatable to fish.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Out of curiosity, how long has this tank been set up? Both of those fish (the goby and dragonette) require mature sandbeds and pod populations, and a fairly good volume of live rock/sand, to survive. Neither of those fish is especially good at eating prepared foods. It's possible that there's just not enough live food available to support them...

 

[MSB123]

Hey- As a survivor of a mandarinfish dragonette ordeal. (I was shipped 20, not 2) I was very lucky to have a mature sandbed. I kept them all in a 60 gallon mixed reef. It had been up and going for 5 years without anything to eat the pods.

Odds are if one fish has internal parasites, they all have it. It's transmitted when another fish eats the white stringy poo of an infected specimen. But even if a fish doesn't have worms, there's no harm from eating the metro laced food.

I totally agree with the Metro food. I have used it myself to great success. I have also dealt with gobies, when they dont eat, I suggest giving them something like Spectrum Marine Fish Formula. I soak it in garlic and then drop it in next to him. It works well. I would suggest soaking it, waiting for it to dry, then feeding him. Mine wont eat it if the garlic is still wet. (Crazy, I know. He's living in WATER! )
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002E7ITK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Jinxs]

Out of curiosity, how long has this tank been set up? Both of those fish (the goby and dragonette) require mature sandbeds and pod populations, and a fairly good volume of live rock/sand, to survive. Neither of those fish is especially good at eating prepared foods. It's possible that there's just not enough live food available to support them...

This tank has been set up for 3 years and we have been dosing it with tisbe pods on a regular basis. We've had the chalk goby for 18 months at least. He just died this morning. Ended up only being able to get prazipro. Apparently it was not enough or it was too little, too late. These past few months we have had more issues than we have had in the 4 years we've been involved in this hobby.

 

[Jinxs]

Out of curiosity, how long has this tank been set up? Both of those fish (the goby and dragonette) require mature sandbeds and pod populations, and a fairly good volume of live rock/sand, to survive. Neither of those fish is especially good at eating prepared foods. It's possible that there's just not enough live food available to support them...

Also, I tried to get good pictures of it but the pods are everywhere in our tank. Our glass is covered with them. They make it look dirty when it's actually all those little pods.

 

[MSB123]

Also, I tried to get good pictures of it but the pods are everywhere in our tank. Our glass is covered with them. They make it look dirty when it's actually all those little pods.

Could the pods be tanking up some of the nutrients/food? Just wondering. Lets call in the experts!
#reefsquad
#Humblefish

 

[Jinxs]

Is there a such thing as too many pods? Because I found a new growth in the tank this morning as well, on the opposite end of the tank our goby died at. I posted in another forum asking about it. Here is a picture though. This was not there last night. We've been closely monitoring the tank with all this going on.

 

[Jinxs]

Here is another picture, more of a close up.

 

[MSB123]

How big is your tank? What powerheads are you using for flow?

 

[Jinxs]

And Ghost ate all forms of prepared foods. Up until he started to get sick, he was our most active fish. He skimmed the sandbed for food and was the first to the top of the tank for food time.

 

[Jinxs]

How big is your tank? What powerheads are you using for flow?

55 gallon with about 50 lbs of live rock that has been in the tank since the initial cycle 3 years ago. The heads are Sicce Voyager Nanos that pump about 536gph. We have 2 of those in the tank going at different directions.

 

[MSB123]

55 gallon with about 50 lbs of live rock that has been in the tank since the initial cycle 3 years ago. The heads are Sicce Voyager Nanos that pump about 536gph. We have 2 of those in the tank going at different directions.

Hmm. That growth might be a bacterial growth from the decaying goby. Did you find him dead? Or did he just go missing?

 

[Jinxs]

Hmm. That growth might be a bacterial growth from the decaying goby. Did you find him dead? Or did he just go missing?

Found him dead. He was up and swimming last night and early this morning when I left for a meeting at work at 8. Got home after 11:30 today and he was dead. In my other forum in the algae section they're saying the stuff on my powerheaders happen to be sponges.