What in the world killed my blenny?!

[lba4590]

This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Can anyone explain this?!

Bicolor blenny has been in QT for a little over 30 days. Was going to go into the DT tomorrow. I did a 4 min freshwater dip to ensure he was fluke free. He was, so dumped him back into the QT tank and turned the lights off the the night. Was fine when I released him.

An hour later, he was dead - not his typical stress colors, died sitting up, not on his side, with a completely stark white belly area. This is so weird, what happened?!

Yes, in the picture he is dead.. just like that - sitting up, full color, white belly. The stuff under him is food that was swept under him in the current. Never seen anything like it.

 

[lba4590]

Better photo..

 

[najer]

Sorry you lost your fish, I have never seen anything like that. @ReefSquad

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I've not seen anything like that before. It likely had something to do with the dip. Blennies tolerate FW dips well, so was there any difficulty in catching it up prior to the dip? From the two photos, it seems the discoloration was on both sides of the fish, roughly over the body cavity. To me that makes it less likely to have been a injury from being caught up, but I got nothing else....sorry.

Jay

 

[LeftyReefer]

Any chance he got stuck in a powerhead or something?

 

[rwreef]

Was he swimming by himself after dip?

 

[lba4590]

I've not seen anything like that before. It likely had something to do with the dip. Blennies tolerate FW dips well, so was there any difficulty in catching it up prior to the dip? From the two photos, it seems the discoloration was on both sides of the fish, roughly over the body cavity. To me that makes it less likely to have been a injury from being caught up, but I got nothing else....sorry.

Jay

Struggled for a bit to catch him but he seemed to tolerate the dip well. Wonder if I wore him out trying to catch him so much that he struggled to breathe in the dip?? When I put him back in the tank he swam to a hole like nothing had happened, breathing hard but nothing crazy. I wasn’t concerned at all since I’d seen fish act way more dramatic after a dip. I’m wondering if he had some of heart attack/stroke - can that even happen to fish? Looks like blood loss or something to his organs.

 

[lba4590]

Any chance he got stuck in a powerhead or something?

No power head in the tank or anything to injure himself on.

 

[lba4590]

Was he swimming by himself after dip?

He was, swam down to the bottom of the tank to his regular piece of PVC. Check on him again and he colors had returned and he looked fine other than breathing a little fast. Checked again an hr later and he was dead. So super weird.

 

[Casket_Case]

No idea man, bump

 

[Miller535]

Had to be something with the dip. I personally would never fresh water dip a dip a fish unless it looked so ill that it needed relief. I would rather prophylactically treat the first week in QT with Prazi Pro. Some fish tolerate fresh water dip, some don't. I think Prazi is safer. I know this doesn't help you with this fish, but maybe will with the next. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Struggled for a bit to catch him but he seemed to tolerate the dip well. Wonder if I wore him out trying to catch him so much that he struggled to breathe in the dip?? When I put him back in the tank he swam to a hole like nothing had happened, breathing hard but nothing crazy. I wasn’t concerned at all since I’d seen fish act way more dramatic after a dip. I’m wondering if he had some of heart attack/stroke - can that even happen to fish? Looks like blood loss or something to his organs.

Yes, fish can bleed out due to internal injury. I just did a necropsy on a fish last week- it’s gills were stark white. When I opened the body cavity, I found congealed blood all pooled around it’s spleen...but it didn’t have any external color change to its skin like yours.
Jay

 

[lba4590]

Had to be something with the dip. I personally would never fresh water dip a dip a fish unless it looked so ill that it needed relief. I would rather prophylactically treat the first week in QT with Prazi Pro. Some fish tolerate fresh water dip, some don't. I think Prazi is safer. I know this doesn't help you with this fish, but maybe will with the next. Sorry for your loss.

I treated this one with prazipro twice, did a dip a few weeks ago and confirmed a ton of flukes, but he bounced right back after that one and handled the prazi just fine. Just did one more dip to make sure he was good to go in the DT and he seemed so healthy! I’m definitely more wary of FW dips now.. there’s really nothing else that could have caused this. I made sure dip temp was matched and was heavily aerated.

 

[4FordFamily]

I've always struggled with QT'ing blennies. This is an oddity though. If the whiteness was sudden, that would suggest trauma. Sometimes when fish have "seizures" they can lose colors in areas which can be patchy. I've generally seen this in tangs, butterflies, and angels though I am sure it applies to other fish.

That's a tough one. Sorry for the loss!

 

[Miller535]

I've always struggled with QT'ing blennies. This is an oddity though. If the whiteness was sudden, that would suggest trauma. Sometimes when fish have "seizures" they can lose colors in areas which can be patchy. I've generally seen this in tangs, butterflies, and angels though I am sure it applies to other fish.

That's a tough one. Sorry for the loss!

I have only ever QT one blenny (a lawnmower), and he did survive the Prazi and copper, but he did not look good at all in the QT for the month he was in there and got thin. They do seem to be a tough fish to QT.

 

[adittam]

I just had my tailspot blenny die just as suddenly, with the same EXACT appearance. Unfortunately, I've already disposed of the body, so no pictures, but it could seriously have been a carbon copy of the appearance of your bicolor.

No recent treatment of any sort for mine, including freshwater dips. No illness observed in any other fish in the tank, and all of my fish come from a LFS with a robust QT protocol or directly from Biota. He's been in the display tank for months now, eating well, behaving normally, and looking healthy. Earlier today, he was swimming AND looking normally. My only cause for concern was that my (much larger) bicolor blenny has chased him whenever they wander into each other's territories for the entire time they've both been in the same tank (several months). 95% of the time, though, they have different caves they like, so they just ignored each other.
@lba4590 @Jay Hemdal @4FordFamily