Just lost my first fish this morning. =(

[huckjai]

Hey Reefers. I just lost my first fish this morning while it was in QT. It was a diamond goby. I'm new to reefing, so maybe I did something wrong.

I currently have two clowns in QT. They are doing well, and over 2 weeks into QT using TTM. I have 4x 5 gallon tanks for QT.

I picked up a purple firefish and a diamond goby this past Saturday. Both from separate tanks, but their water was coming from the same sump. I let them float in my QT tank for about 40 minutes. Then placed them in a 5 min freshwater dip before transferring them to QT. The firefish was on it side in the FW dip just floating. Looked like it was dead, but when I prodded it, it would swim around fine. The goby was fine in there. Temp and Ph was matched.

The QT tank had a tub of sand for the goby and a PVC tee for them to hide. Running a sponge filter with HOB and microbacter 7. I let them settle in for a few hours. They seemed to be doing ok. The firefish was very shy at first. I tried feeding them some food to see if they would eat. Hikari brine shrimp mixed with General Cure and Focus. They took the food fine. The goby wasn't going into the sand at all.

Yesterday I fed them twice with the same food. The Firefish was eating ok. The goby was just eating a little bit here and there. I noticed that the goby had taken to the sand later in the evening. I was inspecting the fish for any signs of disease and noticed the goby's fins had big pieces missing. No other signs of disease. So I dosed some Kanaplex in case it had fin rot. Both of their poop were brown and not stringy. Both fish were getting along fine.

Woke up this morning. Went to check on the fish. Goby was just chilling on the tank floor. Firefish was swimming. Went to feed my freshwater fish. My wife came down, and was looking at the clowns then went to look at the goby and firefish. After feeding the FW fish, I was about to feed the goby and firefish. And the goby was just upside down on the tank floor breathing hard. My wife said she just saw him laying on his stomach fine just 3 minutes ago. I gave it a gentle prod and it did not move. It felt stiff. =( I had a feeling it was going to pass, so I quickly prepped another tank to transfer my firefish into. Went back to check on the goby. Still upside down breathing hard. Then all of a sudden it was like it was in a seizure, shaking uncontrollably for 2 seconds, then just stopped breathing. =( It was hard to take in what just happened.

I transferred the firefish to another tank. And double checked the water parameters in the original tank. Seachem Ammonia Alert tag showed 0 ppm. Nitrites and Nitrates were 0. Salinity 1.025 and temp at 78.5.

Any ideas what happened? Did I OD my goby on kanaplex?

Thanks in advance

 

[El_Guapo13]

Sorry for your loss bro. Sounds painful. I personally have no experience with gobies, so I am not sure if they are super sensitive or anything like that. Better to call in people who know for stuff like this #reefsquad help a brother out!!!

 

[rkpetersen]

Sorry to hear about this.
Gobies are not super sensitive species; actually they are fairly resistant to most of the usual pathogens.
A couple of items in your post caught my attention.
First is the freshwater dip; this can be really stressful on some fish.
Although some recommend it, I myself wouldn't do one on fish just coming into my systems.
I prefer to get them in QT, let them get comfortable and observe for awhile first.
Freshwater dip can be done later if I have any suspicions regarding parasites.
The other is the fin defects you mention.
If they were new since the fish got in your tank, it may indicate aggression from another fish.
This would be another source of stress and it could be that everything was just too much for this particular fish.
Kanaplex added to the water was unlikely to have been the cause of your goby's demise.

 

[huckjai]

The other is the fin defects you mention.
If they were new since the fish got in your tank, it may indicate aggression from another fish.
This would be another source of stress and it could be that everything was just too much for this particular fish.
Kanaplex added to the water was unlikely to have been the cause of your goby's demise.

Thanks for the info RK. I'm quite certain the fin defects were from before he was in the QT with the firefish. I've observed them for quite some time and no aggression at all. They were also huddled next to each other yesterday for a long period of time. I will take your advice and skip the FW dip being done right away. Thank you!

 

[huckjai]

So I was just searching online for goby related deaths, and looked like someone's goby smashed its head on a lid trying to jump, and possibly died from trauma. I wonder if that was it for mine. He was jumping a bit yesterday. That and coupled with stress. I really want a goby, but scared to get one if they keep bashing their heads jumping when stressed.

 

[CasaReefer]

Sorry... Tough Break