Lawnmower Blenny Issues

[KingTideCorals]

I would get him in a QT if you do not have one... here is a video I recently made on my channel that breaks down my QT set up. Hope things work out!

 

[ctopherl]

I would get him in a QT if you do not have one... here is a video I recently made on my channel that breaks down my QT set up. Hope things work out!

I do not unfortunately, don’t have a good space for it right now. I wish I could determine if it was a physical issue or disease-if physical I could at least get an acclimation box and put it in my DT and keep him safe.

 

[KingTideCorals]

I do not unfortunately, don’t have a good space for it right now. I wish I could determine if it was a physical issue or disease-if physical I could at least get an acclimation box and put it in my DT and keep him safe.

Just risk if any disease is carried by him/her that it passes to others in the DT..

Wish you luck!

 

[ctopherl]

Sorry, I just got home from work, so chiming in late here. In the video, I didn’t see rapid breathing. The fish has a pinched belly, but I’ve seen worse. My first thought that the fish was moribund from disease or lack of food. The more I watched the video though, I’m more inclined to agree with the OP that it is some neurological/damage issue. It tries to swim, but just sort of drags along. That said, no cure for that....

Jay

Now one of my banggai cardinals is acting a bit strange. For the most part he is hovering/swimming fine, but every so often he will kind of roll over in the sand like below. Is this the start of the same issue?


Edit: here he is swimming fine for proof

 

[vetteguy53081]

Salinity should be closer to 1.025 and temp 77-79
Are you using RO Water or tap water from the faucet?

 

[DJ H]

He needs a lawnmower

 

[ctopherl]

Now one of my banggai cardinals is acting a bit strange. For the most part he is hovering/swimming fine, but every so often he will kind of roll over in the sand like below. Is this the start of the same issue?

Salinity should be closer to 1.025 and temp 77-79
Are you using RO Water or tap water from the faucet?

RODI with the 4 stage system bought from BRS

 

[ctopherl]

Can someone vet my plan for a makeshift QT?

Mixing some saltwater in a half-filled 5g bucket. I will leave a little submersible pump I have in there to agitate the surface and incorporate oxygen. I will put a little chunk of LR in there from my tank for bio filtration. I don’t have a heater but my house heats to 78 in the living area at night so hopefully that is good enough.

Thoughts? This is the best I can think of. It seems like it’s spreading, whatever it is, so I’m going to put the blenny and now cardinal in there.

Edit: to prevent shock to the fish, I will do a water change with the new water in my DT, and then save the “old water” in a bucket and put the injured fish in there.

 

[Cell]

That QT is fine as long as the temp stays up. Looks like same issue with the cardinal.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Now one of my banggai cardinals is acting a bit strange. For the most part he is hovering/swimming fine, but every so often he will kind of roll over in the sand like below. Is this the start of the same issue?


Edit: here he is swimming fine for proof

Is the cardinal still eating? Most contagious fish disease issues have some external symptoms. There are some rarer viral and bacterial issues, but those often don’t spread between unrelated species. At this point, a broad spectrum antibiotic would be a “best guess” as a medication to use.
Jay

 

[ctopherl]

Is the cardinal still eating? Most contagious fish disease issues have some external symptoms. There are some rarer viral and bacterial issues, but those often don’t spread between unrelated species. At this point, a broad spectrum antibiotic would be a “best guess” as a medication to use.
Jay

Woke up and cardinal is dead. Blenny is hanging in there but barely. I did dip them both in melafix by API individually-is that what you’re picturing? Or something else? Should I dose that to the whole tank? It didn’t seem to have a noticeable effect. My LFS told me to only leave them in the melafix for 5-10 minutes-does that sound right?

I’m guessing it isn’t safe to put my live rock back in my DT?

 

[Futuretotm]

So your video brought back memories. I had exactly the same Blenny die in the exact same fashion. No swings, everyone else was happy and still thriving, only thing remotely the same is Vibrant use (I dosed it a day before). Coincident probably.

 

[LeftyReefer]

I'd stop adding so many fish so fast. You seem to have added (and killed) a fair amount of fish in 1-2 months, enough that I would be questioning what I'm doing.... I'd recommend slowing down, you seem to have a lot going on in your very new tank....
55 gal DT, 10 gal sump. (with only 6 lbs of rock??? was that a typo?)
7 fish? (3/4 deaths already)
10 + corals?
CUC+inverts+shrimp?
new refugium?
dosing for alk/ca now?
dosing vibrant now?

That seems like a lot going on for the first 60 days.... I know you say you are being diligent, but I think you just need to slow down a bit and take things a bit slower. I'm new too, so I get it. Its exciting and I can't wait to add more fish and corals to my tank too, but I also realize I don't know enough yet to properly care for all of it quite yet, so I need to go slow.

I think a proper QT setup would do you a lot of good considering the amount of fish deaths and health issues you've had thus far. btw, my tank has also been up for 2 months. I've only had 5 fish and have not had a single one die. I only added a coral because I got it as a freebie.... Only once that freebie frag started showing new growth, was I confident enough to go out an actually spend money on a coral. I now have 2 pcs of coral I paid for. If I can keep them for a few months and not kill them and actually have them grow, then I may decide to add more.

I think you'll have better luck if you just slow down a little bit.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Woke up and cardinal is dead. Blenny is hanging in there but barely. I did dip them both in melafix by API individually-is that what you’re picturing? Or something else? Should I dose that to the whole tank? It didn’t seem to have a noticeable effect. My LFS told me to only leave them in the melafix for 5-10 minutes-does that sound right?

I’m guessing it isn’t safe to put my live rock back in my DT?

Melafix isn’t really effective against acute infections, and no dip process is 100% effective either. You definitely don’t want to move the rock around since there is now some evidence that this is contagious (whatever it is!)
Jay

 

[ctopherl]

I'd stop adding so many fish so fast. You seem to have added (and killed) a fair amount of fish in 1-2 months, enough that I would be questioning what I'm doing.... I'd recommend slowing down, you seem to have a lot going on in your very new tank....
55 gal DT, 10 gal sump. (with only 6 lbs of rock??? was that a typo?)
7 fish? (3/4 deaths already)
10 + corals?
CUC+inverts+shrimp?
new refugium?
dosing for alk/ca now?
dosing vibrant now?

That seems like a lot going on for the first 60 days.... I know you say you are being diligent, but I think you just need to slow down a bit and take things a bit slower. I'm new too, so I get it. Its exciting and I can't wait to add more fish and corals to my tank too, but I also realize I don't know enough yet to properly care for all of it quite yet, so I need to go slow.

I think a proper QT setup would do you a lot of good considering the amount of fish deaths and health issues you've had thus far. btw, my tank has also been up for 2 months. I've only had 5 fish and have not had a single one die. I only added a coral because I got it as a freebie.... Only once that freebie frag started showing new growth, was I confident enough to go out an actually spend money on a coral. I now have 2 pcs of coral I paid for. If I can keep them for a few months and not kill them and actually have them grow, then I may decide to add more.

I think you'll have better luck if you just slow down a little bit.

Definitely typo, 60lbs. There is plenty of rock.

No shrimp. Waited on CUC until I saw visible algae and then started small with one crab, one snail and the blenny in a 55g. The refugium consists of a wad of chaeto and a light in a dedicated sump chamber.

I don't dose any alk/ca. I did a while back because I noticed my alk was super low and ca was sky high so I freaked out, but then found out I have no reason to dose anything right now so I haven't in a while. Definitely a newbie mistake.

Yes dosing vibrant, I am clearly in the ugly stages so just trying to keep that down. I am using less than recommended dose.

QT supplies incoming so will have those soon. For what it's worth, since I didn't have a QT I have only bought fish from LFS who dips all fish in copper and QTs them for 2 weeks

Corals are frankly thriving compared to the fish. I added those 1-2 at a time, starting with softies and working up to LPS.

Almost all my fish problems happened in the last ~5 days, all at once, so now I agree with you but as far as I could tell 5 days ago everything was fine. I have been able to consistently keep my params where I want them, with the exception of my alk/ca hiccup early on.

So my question to you is, if your params are stable after adding your last fish, and all your fish are behaving normally, look healthy, eating properly, getting along, etc, and you still think it's still too early to add another fish, then what exactly are you waiting for before you add another? Just saying "more time" feels arbitrary (why not "even more time"?), so I am genuinely asking, anecdotally, what indicates to you that your system is ready for another fish?

 

[Cell]

Full story helps. Other fish died in the last 5 days before the blenny and cardinal? Dont leave stuff like that out if you want legit help.

 

[ctopherl]

Full story helps. Other fish died in the last 5 days before the blenny and cardinal? Dont leave stuff like that out if you want legit help.

This was shared at 4:26PM PST yesterday. I feel like I've been pretty thorough about providing info but if there's something else you think would help please let me know. I will add these things to original post in the future.

 

[NJDragonet]

This was shared at 4:26PM PST yesterday. I feel like I've been pretty thorough about providing info but if there's something else you think would help please let me know. I will add these things to original post in the future.

What other fish where in the tank

 

[NJDragonet]

Bump

 

[Cell]

So clown disappeared last week, now blenny looks paralyzed before dying, then cardinal does same thing. You have a royal Gramma and flame hawkfish that look fine. Any other fish? I cant imagine something takes down the blenny and cardinal this quickly but spares the rest.