Any thoughts about a deceased diamond goby?

[KevyKevTPA]

Several days ago, my wife surprised me with a diamond goby, which is on my wishlist. Acclimation went great, and once free from the plastic bag, he was swimming around the tank like he owned the place, unlike some of our others that were a bit shy at first. He was eating a LOT, and doing a great job making the sand I thought was clean even cleaner.

But, we woke up the next morning to find him dead laying on the sand.

Our parms were good, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, pH, temp, MG, alk, everything. We got a bit of an ammonia spike after he died, but I'm talking about 0.25, which has fallen back down to 0-0.1 (sometimes these color tests are hard to read), and nobody else (we have 7 other fish) seemed bothered by a thing. It's a 55g FOWLR tank right now, but the intent is for a mixed reef, in fact our first zoas are going in next week.

I have a couple of theories, but thought I'd put this out there for the real experts to sound off. These are:

1- He was eating SO much, he just ate himself to death. It almost seemed like he hadn't eaten in weeks, and I suppose depending on where/when he came out of the ocean, how he was contained in between, and how long it took before he went into our tank, that's entirely possible.
2- For whatever reason, he was going to die no matter what.
3- He ate something from the sand that poisoned him.

That's all I got... Thoughts?

Kev

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

I have a mated pair myself. When you say "eating so much" what do you mean by that? Was someone feeding him as much as he wanted non-stop? Or was he just sifting sand?

Outside of your water parameters being way off, which your other fish would have died too, he could have had something lodge in his gills. That happens to diamond gobies in a tank with larger sand as it is too much for them to sift.

Is there another fish that could of bullied him to death?

 

[KevyKevTPA]

Is there another fish that could of bullied him to death?

Highly unlikely, all our fish seem quite peaceful. 2x ocellaris clowns, 4x pajama cardinals, and 1x sixline, and nobody was hassling him before lights out. As for the sand, it's carib sea live sand, no idea if that's an issue or not. But he was eating/sifting for literally 6-8 hours before we went to bed. Obviously, we have no idea what the time of death was.

We did do a normal feeding at feeding time, but he was not interested at all. Just sifting sand. But way, way, way more than the diamonds we had before we broke down our previous tank a number of years ago.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Sounds like it was just one of those things and he bit the dust. I wouldn't start chasing things as far as parameters, etc because of it. Sorry to hear you lost the little guy, but it happens to all of us.

 

[melonheadorion]

ive heard in a youtube video before that someone has said that "its not that you were successful at keeping it alive, its just that it starved to death for 6 months" with regards to these type of fish.
i make sure i spot feed this fish specifically at least once a day with algae crumbles. he obviously eats everything else that gets put in the tank, but this way, i can ensure that he gets enough to eat, rather than just relying on leftovers in the sand.

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hi Kev and Wife, Sorry for your loss

THEORY: salinity change too great - what is the salinity in YOUR tank and what is the salinity at STORE tank?

You don't mention, and more than .02 a day change usually kills fish. Depending what LFS near me I use, I make use of a 5gallon Petco tank kit setup to do QT so I can change salinity over at least a few days/week, depending how low their salinity is kept... low salinity is a way to keep parasites at bay, but these days I don't run FOWLR but even if I did... as you can tell from this post I've got LFSs around here ranging from 1.018 to 1.028... so I've got to adjust the fish to my salinity. My display tank is right about 1.025-1.026 for my corals and my fish are okay at that level, too.

I've two diamond gobies - not my intent. I bought original diamond goby, but after QT (because bought at 1.020 store salinity which is WAY more than drip acclimation can adjust) for a week, then went into main tank and instantly disappeared... after 3 weeks decided dead... After a bit, found another, brought home, QTd and introduced... and then 1st showed up a week later peeking thru zoa arch from back of my 180g...

Original diamond goby didn't disturb sand enough to even know alive for month or so... yet second diamond goby was building 5-6" tall sand dunes on day ONE in main tank... CRAZY sifting action... Based on these initial differences I'd rule out sand sifting assumptions as individuals can be VERY VERY different and still be fine. They can sift to ease stress, much like we might bite nails or something

By the way, do not recommend two... it was a goof on my part and there has been some significant fighting, and while my two have turned the corner, don't know why improved and the larger one could have killed smaller one... for all I know I could wake up tomorrow they could go back to being mortal enemies, going back in for the deadly body shake holding other one by stomach... Don't have scientific reference, but in wild each maintains 36 square feet sand, so my 180g isn't enough for ONE much less two... two was never my intent... do not recommend having two diamond gobies (but I am going to ride this a while since its calmed down)

BUT first, both had to adapt to salinity between store and my tank...

I'd also rule out over eating... sifting sand and over eating are not the same. I might bite my cuticles down to bloody nubs during scary movie, but I'm not filling up

Finally, both my diamond gobies took quite a while to begin eating any food (couple weeks at least... was worried they'd starve... don't know what the original one did because it was even longer until observed any eating). Broke the ice with live black worms that are the only food my CBB eats and eventually they began eating ones that hit them on the face in the sand (though they passed them out their gills for good while...) Now they also do thawed food (and still black worms).

[EDIT: BOTH were observed eating at LFSs before buying & coming home... they *stopped* eating once here (sadly) but did eventually resume]