Banggai Twitching Death (???)

[Morbo]

Last night my son saw one of our two Banggai Cardinals in the back corner of the tank twitching/spasming. It was tilted sideways and almost lying in the sand. A few minutes later it was almost completely in the sand. It was obvious is was on its last legs so I took it out of the tank.

The other Banggai seems to be fine.

Curious to what could have been the cause? Any ideas?

Could it have been Ich? We had/have an outbreak and have lost a number of fish in the last week. Thought it might have subsided because the surviving fish all seem to be acting normally. [It's been a rough week.]

Tank is 125G 5ft with 40B sump. Parameters/testing all look good. Temp is consistently 77-78 degrees.

 

[ichthyogeek]

What have the BC's been eating? I noticed this with my BC's when they were eating unenriched baby brine shrimp. However, the next day it was fine, and a change in diet (enriching the bbs) helped greatly with reducing the spasming.

It may have been ich, but usually with external parasites, it's less of a twitching, and more of a flashing along decorations in order to rub the parasites off.

 

[Morbo]

I swap between frozen homemade fish "goo" cubes and fresh "goo".

This frozen "goo" includes:

- fresh scallops
- quahog clam
- crab meat
- shrimp
- freeze-dried cyclops
- APBreed TDO Chroma Boost (small pellets)
- Hikari Seaweed Extreme (sinking pellets)
- freeze-dried blood worms
- New Life Spectrum Thera+A pellets
- Sally's Frozen Brine Shrimp (break off a piece about the size of a cube)
- PE Calanus (Copepod zooplankton)
- Frozen Mysis Shrimp
- Frozen Fish eggs
- Frozen Bloodworms
- Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies - Purple Seaweed
- Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies - Green Seaweed (also have Petco green, forget what brand)
- Petco Red Seaweed (forget what brand, same as the Petco green)

We used a blender to mix it all up, cut with RODI to make a paste. Then we put it in silicone candy trays and froze it into cubes (about the same size as you'd get in frozen foods from the store).

The homemade fresh "goo" is the same minus the fresh seafood from the market. Basically the fresh part is that I make it weekly and squirt it in with a 5ml syringe.

The frozen cubes are tossed into a magnetic thawer and slowly melts/disperses into the tank over an hour or so.

Normally I feed a frozen cube in the morning and night. Mid-afternoon I squirt in some of the "fresh" stuff.

I did put some Vita Chem in the larger frozen goo batch, and I think my last fresh mix. I've read reviews that say it's the best thing ever, and others that say DON'T USE IT.

Guess I might be in the DON'T USE IT group. (?)

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmm, in that case I don't think it's a nutritional issue, especially if the banggais are getting a great diet like that. Kudos to you on making it!

 

[Morbo]

Hmm, in that case I don't think it's a nutritional issue, especially if the banggais are getting a great diet like that. Kudos to you on making it!

Thanks. We learned about "goo" years ago at a Boston Reefer's meeting. Whenever I've had a tank I used what we got from meetings (everyone contributes something and then shares the results) or I made my own "fresh" batches as needed.

Always knew, and it made sense, that the wider variety/better diet, the better off our inhabitants would be.

Other than the Ich I have no clue what's gone wrong the last week. Everything was going really well and then BAM!